What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
The Mets made a $50 million per year offer to Kyle Tucker in a short-term deal - The Blue Jays have reportedly made a long-term offer to Tucker’s camp (FanSided | ESPN)
The Mets also remain in the mix to acquire RHP Freddy Peralta from the Brewers, with the Padres also emerging as strong contenders (z101Digital)
David Stearns met with the media on Tuesday to field some long-awaited questions about the Mets’ offseason thus far (SNY)
Rumor Mill 💨
The Giants are “aggressively pursuing” a trade for either Brendan Donovan or Nico Hoerner (ESPN)
The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
Join Andrew Claudio for a new Just Mets Therapy Session, as he explores the Mets’ reported offer for Kyle Tucker and unpacks David Stearns’s comments from yesterday.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
“I certainly understand that there have been points this offseason that have been frustrating for our fan base. We’re not blind to that at all. I’m certainly not blind to that. I hear it, I recognize it. I hear it from my friends and family at times. I’m also very convicted that what we are doing is the right thing for our franchise going forward to accomplish our goals of creating a consistent playoff team, a team that year after year is a true World Series contender, and ultimately a team that does what we are all here to do, which is to win a World Series. And that’s why we are doing all of this."
~ Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns
I still want another reliever — sorry! ✍️
The Mets have tons of pitching talent. That’s no secret — it’s the franchise’s most loudly touted asset.
From Nolan McLean to Brandon Sproat to Jonah Tong to Christian Scott to Jonathan Santucci and on down the list, roughly 1/3rd of the Mets’ top 30 prospects are pitchers who have become names in our nerdiest of households. There’s ample reason for the team to brag about their stockpile of talent, and the confidence team brass has expressed in their sapling squad appears to be well-earned.
And yet…I’m still not sold on this bullpen.
I was one of the loudest champions of Devin Williams, and was similarly happy with the Luke Weaver addition, but I’d still like to remind everyone of what they’re working with at the moment. Here’s the current Mets bullpen according to Roster Resource:
Williams (R)
Weaver (R)
A.J. Minter (L)
Brooks Raley (L)
Adbert Alzolay (R)
Huascar Brazobán (R)
Richard Lovelady (L)
Cooper Criswell (R)
As confident as I am in the abilities of Minter (when he gets back, which probably won’t be on Opening Day), and as excited as I am to see Alzolay back in action for the first time since his time in Chicago, this just doesn’t feel complete to me. No disrespect to Lovelady or Criswell, but adding another veteran southpaw to this bunch would quite a bit to bolster my spirits.
How about Justin Wilson or Danny Coulombe?
No, neither lefty is going to blow you away with their projections for next season, but I’m not looking for either of these guys to be anything more than a stabilizing presence out of the bullpen, with the ability to handle high-leverage spots when needed.
Let’s start with Wilson.
Mets fans should be plenty familiar with this gentleman already. Wilson wore the orange and blue from 2019-2020, and was a serviceable arm in his time with the team. In 58.2 innings, he delivered a 2.91 ERA (3.62 FIP) with 67 strikeouts and a 144 ERA+, good for 1.4 bWAR in his two seasons.
Though his half-decade away from Queens has seen its share of peaks and valleys, the data seems to indicate that Wilson tapped into something sustainable in 2025. Over 48.1 innings, his most in a season since his Mets tenure, Wilson posted a 3.35 ERA (2.95 FIP) with a 1.41 WHIP and a 27.5% K rate against a 9.7% walk rate. Are these Reliever of the Year numbers? Assuredly not – but they don’t tell the full story of Wilson’s 2025 season.
Yes, that elevated WHIP is concerning, but when you see that Wilson was stranding 72% of inherited runners and was allowing 55% medium-rate contact on just 7% barrels, those baserunners feel far less concerning. Obviously fewer baserunners is the goal, but you should also want your bullpen to consist of dudes who are adept at stranding the danger they create or inherit.
What I like most about Wilson is his pitch mix. Wilson’s consistently graded out positively in the ‘Stuff’ department, and his numbers confirm as much. Primarily a traditional fastball-slider type of reliever, both of Wilson’s main offerings generated over a 30% whiff rate. His slider is a devastating weapon deployed down in the zone off his heater, and his arsenal in general plays low enough in the zone that nearly 40% of contact made with his stuff is on top of the ball. (That explains his 46% ground ball rate.)
Has Wilson been a bit volatile in the walk department as a result of working pitches so low? Yes, but he’s also been able to steadily improve his K rate, culminating in last year’s 10.6 K/9, his highest mark since 2018. Pair that with the knowledge that his 3.72 BB/9 in 2025 is still one of the lowest marks of his career, and I’d be willing to bet Wilson has indeed tapped into a formula that finally suits his stuff properly.
Now, on to Coulombe.
I’ve written fondly of Coulombe before, so apologies if I sound like a broken record…but I really like this guy.
One of the hottest names of the 2025 trade deadline, Coulombe ended up in Texas after a stellar start to the season. Though his time as a Ranger wasn’t nearly as successful as his first few months in Minnesota, Coulombe still finished the season with a 2.30 ERA (3.30 FIP) and a 1.16 WHIP over 43 innings of work. His 3.30 FIP was the second-lowest of his career, and he stranded a whopping 85% of baserunners, averaging an 83.5% strand rate over the last two seasons despite a 20-inning disparity — that’s a good trend.
The biggest knocks against Coulombe the last few seasons have to be his steadily declining K rate and average fastball velo. Though never a power pitcher by any means, Coulombe has lost a full tick off his fastball over the last two seasons. The results of that velo drop speak for themselves: he allowed a much higher batting average and BABIP in 2025 than in 2024. However, that ‘much higher average’ was still just .203 (up from .149); the .259 allowed BABIP (up from .179) is the more concerning inflation of the two, but still only so much considering the results.
Unlike Wilson, Coulombe’s pitch mix features a bit of split-dependent variety. Though he offers his cutter to both boxes at roughly a 40% clip, he uses his sinker as his secondary almost exclusively against lefties, whereas he deploys his four-seamer and sweeper to righties at about a 20% rate apiece. Looking at his heat maps, Coulombe lives on the first-base side of the zone, working lefties in on the corners and setting up righties to bite on fastballs away or get tripped up on sweepers deposited perfectly in the lower third-base corner. It’s a beautiful repertoire to watch.
‘But Drew, both these guys are closer to 40 than not….’
I don’t care. In a bullpen, age concerns me far less than it does in a rotation. Experience matters much more to me in the relief role, and both of these guys come with plenty of that. I also strongly believe that there needs to be a plethora of veteran leadership in the locker room if there’s going to be an abundance of youth present throughout the year. The young arms have already shown us how quick they are to glom onto long-established pros and glean whatever information they can – there should be an emphasis on making sure that fountain of knowledge runs deep, with demonstrated experience to back it up.
Yes, I know Dylan Ross and Ryan Lambert are waiting in the wings to make their hotly-anticipated debuts; I also know we’re all still awaiting the return of Christian Scott. It could very well be that this front office is fully satisfied with the bullpen and will focus all pitching efforts on bringing in a stabilizing starter.
The focus should be on the big picture, obviously: being this deep into the race, they need to get the Tucker deal done. But even if they trade for a starter on top of a Tucker signing, I’d still be hard-pressed to find a reason not to also bring in another solid low-cost veteran arm to introduce a bit more balance at the back end of games — even if they just end up being trade bait.
Around the League 🚩
The Diamondbacks acquired 3B Nolan Arenado from the Cardinals for prospect RHP Jack Martínez (Official)
The Yankees acquired LHP Ryan Weathers from the Marlins for a haul of prospects (Official)
The Phillies acquired RHP Chase Shugart from the Pirates for INF prospect Francisco Loreto (Official)
The Royals are bringing in and lowering their fences in a bid to boost scoring (ESPN)
Hard to buy in with Stearns' logic after letting Pete and Diaz walk and then turning around and throwing $50mil at Tucker. Seems like a desperation move to me.
Agreed on the need for another reliever. Id be happy with Wilson or Coulombe.