How can the Mets mitigate the loss of Frankie Montas?

The Mets already questionable rotation took an injury hit on Monday. Plus, Pete Alonso spoke for the first time since re-signing with the Mets

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What’s up with the Mets? 🌴

• Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters in Port St. Lucie on Monday RHP Frankie Montas has a high-grade lat strain, and will refrain from throwing for 6-8 weeks. He returned to New York on Monday for a PRP injection

• The Mets are not expected to make an external acquisition to replace Montas at right now, which would rule out a trade for Yankees RHP Marcus Stroman (SNY)

• Mendoza said José Buttó is not an option for the starting rotation

• The Mets held their first full squad workout on Monday, with Pete Alonso taking the field for the first time since signing his new contract

• Joey Meneses is the only player missing from camp due to visa issues - he is expected in camp on Tuesday on a tourist visa but won’t be able to play in games until he gets a work visa

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Spring workouts highlights - Monday 🏋️‍♀️

• Clay Holmes threw live batting practice to Mark Vientos, Francisco Alvarez, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and Pete Alonso (Mets YouTube channel)

• Mets players performed base running drills while catching footballs (SNY)

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What Pete Alonso said on Monday… 🎙️

SNY

Pete Alonso spoke to the media for the first time since signing his two-year, $54 million contract with the Mets and said the following:

• He acknowledged he didn’t have his best seasons in 2023 and 2024, which lowered his expectations for a long-term deal in free agency

• Alonso doesn’t regret passing on the seven-year, $158 million extension offer the Mets made him in 2023

• He would still love to sign a long-term contract with the Mets

• He appreciated the personal touch from both Steve Cohen and David Stearns when they met with him in Tampa to try and get the deal done

• He has been thinking about the opportunity to break the Mets all-time home run record held by Darryl Strawberry (252) - he needs 27 home runs to break the record

• He is really excited to play alongside Juan Soto this year

• Alonso is intent on improving his defense this season, specifically his throwing

"This is a really special place and what makes this a special place is the people here. We’ve got a great clubhouse, obviously great talent. I’ve been here my entire career, so many relationships that I have fostered and created over the years and what we have gone through as an organization, and to be able to do some special things that we’ve done, not just last year but in years past. I just have a really special connection to this place, this city and it’s really exciting to be back."

~ Pete Alonso

NY Post

What are the options with Frankie Montas out? ✍️

USA Today Sports

The Mets relayed some unfortunate news for their starting rotation on Monday, as Frankie Montas - who signed a two-year, $34 million contract with an opt-out after 2025 with the Mets this winter - has a high-grade lat strain which will keep him from throwing for 6-8 weeks.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza acknowledged Montas will need a full spring training before pitching in the major leagues. So, if you do the math, Montas is looking at a mid-May return at best, but could be out until early June.

The sky isn’t falling and the Mets shouldn’t hit the panic button. Yet, anyway.

For now, the Mets are saying they're relying on their internal depth to mitigate the short-term need for another starting pitcher. After all, it’s for reasons like this that David Stearns endeavored to have 8-10 major league starting pitchers available to the club in 2025.

Pitchers get hurt. It’s just a matter of when.

Don’t get me wrong - I think the Mets should look externally for a solution to this problem. They were already interested in trading for Dylan Cease not too long ago - it was clear they felt they needed another starting pitcher anyway.

But they have time to figure this out. Its still February 18.

First off, it’s worth reminding everyone the Mets are paying 110 percent on the dollar now since they’re in the top luxury tax bracket, meaning any new money they take on will be more than double the cost. So, if they were to trade for Cease (and let’s not forget about the cost in prospects that would have to go back to San Diego), they would have to pay $13.5 million for his salary plus another $14.85 million in tax.

Now, one might argue that Cease is worth $28.35 million for the season, even if he were to walk via free agency at the end of the season. He was worth 4.8 fWAR last season, so $28.35 million might be a discount for his services - he is projected for 3.6 fWAR in 2025.

Even so, that would put the Mets non-taxed payroll at around $315 million for the season, and Steve Cohen reminded everyone how expensive the roster was before they signed Pete Alonso.

And for now anyway, the Padres are sending signals that they’d like to keep both Cease and Michael King and go for it in 2025. They do have other needs and they were supposedly looking to create some payroll space by dealing a pitcher so they can work to fill those needs, but I don’t exactly know how they would do that at this point on the baseball calendar. So, they may not be bluffing when they say they want to keep these arms for the time being.

There’s a possible trade Luis Castillo, who has long been considered as extraneous in the Mariners rotation. He’s still very good even if he wasn’t what he was before and would go a long way towards thickening the middle-to-top of the Mets rotation. But he has a $24.15 million salary for 2025 - while that might be considered a bargain, that would equate to a $50.71 million outlay with the 110 percent tax applied for the Mets. Castillo, 32, is controllable for three more seasons at $24.15 million per year with a vesting option for 2028 at $25 million.

They could also consider a trade for Marcus Stroman, who is the odd man out in the Yankee rotation and doesn’t want to pitch in the bullpen. He could probably be had for less prospect currency than Cease. But, he’s making $18.5 million in 2025, which would equate to $38.85 million with tax if the Mets were to take on all of that money. He had a 5.98 ERA in the second half last year and he really struggled against left-handed hitters overall to the tune of an .846 OPS against him. He will turn 34 on May 1.

Given that and Stroman’s trajectory, that probably wouldn’t be a wise investment. And according to SNY, a reunion isn’t an option for the Mets, presumably for more reasons than just the money and trajectory, too.

They could also entertain a reunion with Jose Quintana, who is still a free agent and still a solid, albeit contact-heavy left-handed pitcher as he enters his age-36 season who they know. He would unquestionably be the least expensive option in both dollars and prospect currency, especially since the cost in prospect currency would be nothing. If he would take a one-year contract in the $5-10 million range, that cost should be palatable to help mitigate the loss of Montas, and they can figure out how all of their starting pitching pieces fit when or if that ever becomes a problem down the road.

Of course, this would be far more concerning if the Mets were losing Kodai Senga or Sean Manaea for an extended period of time. That’s not to say the Mets can afford to lose Montas here - it’s hard for an already questionable rotation to take on even the slightest amount of water.

With that said, the Mets should probably at least explore the possibility of bringing in Quintana. It’s the path of least resistance and could really be a solid add for the rotation, not just to mitigate the loss of Montas, but to simply make the rotation better and at a discount as well.

The only other option for them to realistically consider - from my seat anyway - would be a trade for Cease, but that is far more complicated and perceived to be unlikely given the Mets’ propensity to protect their prospects and other organizations - such as the Red Sox - capable and more willing to deal top-shelf prospects for pitching.

If they don’t and they are truly intent on moving forward with their internal options, they’d be picking from a stack that includes Manaea, Senga, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill, Max Kranick and Griffin Canning, with Paul Blackburn iffy for Opening Day as he continues to recover from spinal leak surgery.

If someone else gets hurt, especially towards the top of this rotation, even minimally, they’ll be really, really thin. And I’d bet on someone else getting hurt because, again, pitchers get hurt.

Now, as I wrote on Saturday, the Mets won’t need a sixth starter until mid-April, and if they are really aggressive, they won’t need a fifth starter until the second week of the season. But I don’t think the Mets will use a four-man rotation early on in the year, which means two of Megill, Canning, Kranick or Blackburn would be the fifth and sixth starter in the current permutation.

Unless they were to make a move, of course.

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Around the League 🚩

• SS Geraldo Perdomo agreed to a four-year, $45 million contract extension with the Diamondacks (ESPN)

• The Rangers signed RHP Luke Jackson to a one-year, $1.5 million contract (official)

• The A’s signed INF Luis Urias to a one-year contract (official)

• The Padres signed 1B Yuli Gurriel to a minor league contract (Romero)

• Red Sox 3B Rafael Devers said he wants to play third base and won’t switch positions (ESPN)

• Luis Robert Jr. wants to stay with the White Sox and is not looking to be traded (ESPN)