Juan Soto will play left field in 2026, Francisco Lindor may need hand surgery

Also, the Mets added a lefty to the bullpen

What’s up with the Mets? 🍎

• The Mets acquired lefty reliever Bryan Hudson from the White Sox in exchange for cash considerations; in a corresponding move, RHP Reed Garrett was added to the 60-day IL (Official)

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Rumor Mill 💨

• The market for Zac Gallen appears to be heating up, with the Padres, Orioles, Cubs, and Diamondbacks listed as the most interested suitors (USA Today)

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What I’m Reading 📺

• Three burning Mets questions as Spring Training opens (The Athletic)

• All eyes on Francisco Álvarez as Mets’ catching depth starts with former top prospect (MLB.com)

• How the last WBC helped Team USA assemble its best pitching staff ever (ESPN)

• After Kershaw, Verlander, and Scherzer, will there be another Hall of Fame starting pitcher? (The Athletic)

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🌴 SPRING TRAINING IS HERE! 🌴

Mets pitchers and catchers report for their first official workout of spring training today. The full squad’s first workout is on Monday, February 16th.

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Just Mets Podcast 🎙️

ICYMI: the Just Mets Podcast is back!

Catch up with Andrew and Rich after their brief break as they recap the last few weeks in Mets news and look ahead to Spring Training.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE JUST METS PODCAST: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

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Some quick reactions to David Stearns’s presser ✍️

On Juan Soto in left field

This move makes total sense to me, and I think it’ll pay defensive dividends in the long run, even if they’re not massive. Though by Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) this is a negative move, Soto’s career -8 Outs Above Average (OAA) and -12 Fielding Run Value (FRV) are both vastly better than his marks in right field (-24 and -29, respectively.) OAA is built on Statcast’s Catch Probability model, which measures outfield defense relative to expected play difficulty.

The model factors in distance, direction, hang time, and positioning; being based in trackable real-world data makes OAA a bit more reliable than traditional defensive stats. Citi’s left field is less expansive than the right-field power alley, making it a less range-intensive assignment and more conducive to stabilizing Soto’s defensive metrics. Additionally, he’s graded out positively in all three aforementioned metrics twice in his career at the position, in 2019 with the Nationals and as recently as 2024 with the Yankees — that’s only happened for him once in right field. And if nothing else, early in-game exposure via the WBC should only add to the positional comfort he’s already expressed to Carlos Mendoza.

On Francisco Lindor’s potential surgery

Not ideal, but the proposed timeline doesn’t scare me all that much — even if he ended up missing a week or two to start the year, I don’t think the team would be in too much trouble. This is precisely the type of situation where the surplus of infielder signings this winter starts to make a bit more sense…and given the revelation that this is an issue that’s nagged Lindor for the past few seasons, it makes me wonder if the team saw this as possibility from the moment the offseason began. They could have Bo Bichette slot in temporarily, with both Brett Baty and Mark Vientos ready to back up the infield corners, or even give recent signees Vidal Brújan and Christian Arroyo some limited looks in that spot; Ronny Mauricio is also an ever-present option. No matter which direction you look, the Mets have multiple stopgap options to cover their bases (literally and figuratively) should Lindor’s recovery run into any speed bumps.

But again, this sounds worse than it is. If Lindor needs surgery and it happens today or tomorrow, he should be back on the field in a couple of weeks, appear in some Grapefruit League action, and be ready for Opening Day. And even if his season is pushed back a few days or even a week, it’s not the end of the world.

On Carson Benge, Ryan Clifford

Though Stearns has reminded us at every possible chance that he’s been “consistent” about Carson Benge having every chance to make the team out of camp, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing both him and Ryan Clifford starting the season in Syracuse, alongside Jonah Tong. But, as he said yesterday, when a player is at Triple-A, he is a call away from being in the big leagues.

Make no mistake — I fully believe in Benge’s abilities, and the raw tools he put on display in the minors last year speak for themselves. Still, as elite as he was in Single-A and Double-A, he struggled in his initial exposure to Triple-A action. And even though I’m willing to chalk a chunk of that up to the hand injury he suffered in August shortly after his promotion, unless he goes absolutely bananas in Spring Training against MLB talent, there’s really no reason to rush him to the show, especially with all the outfield depth currently on the roster.

Syracuse Mets

As for Clifford, I found Stearns’s words to be particularly encouraging. In 139 games across Double-A and Triple-A, Clifford gave Mets fans plenty to be excited about at the plate. He hit .237 across both levels, but an .826 OPS and .233 combined ISO make that look a bit more palatable, as does his near-15% walk rate. And despite a slight dip once he hit Triple-A, Clifford still put his power potential on display with a 53.1% hard hit rate. Couple that with a developing defensive skillset in the outfield in addition to his primary position at first base, and the Mets may have their own burgeoning Ryan O’Hearn on their hands, with better plate discipline and more pop.

Time will tell with both of these guys, of course, but safe to say my confidence in the near-term future of this ball club remains high.

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Who is Bryan Hudson? ✍️

Alika Jenner-Getty Images

Given the proposed May debut timeline for southpaw A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley enters camp as the only lefty relief arm that’s guaranteed to start the season on the roster.

To help add some balance and buoy this bullpen, the Mets brought in Bryan Hudson in a cash trade with the White Sox.

Domineering height and weight aside (6’8”, 248 lbs), Hudson’s most recent numbers don’t exactly jump off the page. Though his 2024 was excellent, Hudson struggled last season both in the bigs and in the Minors, posting a 6.84 ERA with a 3.98 FIP over 25 Triple-A innings for Milwaukee before he was flipped to the South Side.

Hudson’s MLB percentile rankings from 2024 and 2025, from Baseball Savant

There’s definitely some stuff of negative note here — the explosion in walk rate looks particularly concerning, as is the loss of velocity on an already-soft fastball. However, you may notice that despite lackluster surface results, there’s almost certainly some Devin Williams Syndrome happening here, which is to say that Hudson’s under-the-hood data is, if nothing else, intriguing.

First, it’s important to remember that Hudson’s numbers from last season are based on a 15 inning sample size — anyone can have a rough 15 innings. Just the season prior, over quadruple the workload and working in a functional development system, Hudson was a completely different pitcher. Despite my slightly downplaying it mere paragraphs ago, it’s important to consider what Hudson’s recently proven ceiling has to offer:

• 2024: 62.1 IP, 1.73 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, .133 BAA, .145 BABIP, 26.8 K%-7.4 BB%, 94.2 LOB%, 3.60 FIP

Obviously, some of these outsized numbers were due to regress, especially seeing his 3.60 FIP — that suggests he benefitted from a combination of good Milwaukee defense and good luck. Still, looking at his pitch mix, it looks like location was more Hudson’s issue in 2025 than anything else, and his 84 Location+ score would agree. Last season, he maintained the whiff rate on his sweeper from the previous year, his cutter (in very limited usage) remained effective, and his fastball still generated a near 25% whiff rate despite its lower average velo. And looking at his Savant charts above, Hudson still kept the ball on the ground at an above-average rate, kept hard-hit contact relatively low and missed barrels at roughly the same rate as he did in 2024. That’s a solid foundation for a bounce back year.

So, this is pretty clearly another bet on upside — and it’s one I don’t hate the Mets making.

The Mets don’t need Hudson to replicate a sub-2.00 ERA; all they need is a competent lefty who can deliver early season innings while Minter works his way back to action. If the whiffs remain intact and his ground-ball tendencies hold, I think we’ll see a version of Hudson that’s somewhere between the excellence he delivered in 2024 and the…non-excellence of 2025. The healthy presence of deep data stability in his stat sheet gives me hope that that’s more reasonable projection than pipe dream.

Also, this is exactly the type of bullpen acquisition you’d expect to see in this phase of the offseason: low cost, low commitment, recently proven upside. At minimum, Hudson gives the Mets some necessary left-handed depth. Best case scenario, there’s enough under the hood to believe that 2024 wasn’t a fluke so much as a reminder of what happens when the command is even average.

For a bullpen that currently lacks balance, that feels like a chance worth taking.

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Around the League 🚩

• The Rays signed RHP Nick Martinez to a one-year, $13 million deal with a mutual option for 2027 (MLB.com)

• The Rockies signed RHP Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year, $5.1 million deal (MLB.com)

• The Rockies have agreed to a deal with former Met LHP José Quintana, pending a physical (ESPN)

• The Red Sox signed INF Isiah Kiner-Falefa to a one-year, $6 million deal (MLB.com)

• The Tigers signed RHP Justin Verlander to a one-year, $13 million deal (MLB.com)

• The Braves signed C Jonah Heim to a one-year, $1.25 million deal (MLB.com)