The Mets have another ace on their radar
Should the team swing a trade for Minnesota's top pitcher at the expense of a top pitching prospect?
What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
The Mets are interested in Twins ace RHP Joe Ryan and Minnesota could want RHP Jonah Tong in return (NY Post)
The Mets are not yet willing to give five years to Edwin Díaz (NY Post)
Newest Met RHP Devin Williams called out hypocritical Yankees fans in an Instagram post (MLB.com)
Former Mets manager Buck Showalter weighed in on the relationship between Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor after a report came out they had a disagreement last season (SNY)
Rumor Mill 🔎
The Red Sox have both Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso on their radar (Athletic)
The Dodgers are open to the possibility of trading OF Teoscar Hernández (Athletic)
Los Angeles is one of the teams that has expressed interest in signing closer Robert Suárez (Athletic)
The Cubs have a renewed interest in free agent Alex Bregman (Athletic)
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The Mets have to decide on the amount of risk they want to take to upgrade their rotation ✍🏻
In a recent report for The New York Post, Jon Heyman said the Mets are showing interest in acquiring Minnesota righty Joe Ryan. Heyman says the price in trade could be steep, as the Twins apparently have interest in top pitching prospect Jonah Tong.
So, if the Mets decide to go this route, would Joe Ryan be the positive addition to the rotation they’re seeking?
Ryan will be 30 years old next year, has two more years of team control, and will be a free agent in 2028. In 2025, he went 13-10 with a 3.42 ERA, which was worth 4.5 bWAR. He was an All-Star for the first time and had 194 strikeouts in 171.0 innings pitched. He did struggle a bit down the stretch and went 0-3 in September, but overall, it was a successful season for the righty. Outside of Nolan McLean and Kodai Senga, who had an injury-plagued season, Ryan’s 3.42 ERA would have been the best in the rotation and those innings pitched would have been badly needed in a rotation that too often couldn’t get out of the fourth or fifth inning. Ryan was also very good in 2024 for the Twins, going 7-7 with a 3.60 ERA in 135.0 innings.
The Twins ace relies heavily on a devastating four-seam fastball, which is graded as one of the best in baseball according to Baseball Savant. He threw it 51% of the time last season and got whiffs on it almost 15% of the time according to Brooks Baseball. Those numbers are certainly tantalizing enough to want him to become a member of the New York Mets.
He would unquestionably help the rotation, especially with the emergence of McLean. Clay Holmes still has potential as a starter and is expected to be in their 2026 rotation, and hopefully, both David Peterson and Sean Manaea can successfully rebound. For now, Kodai Senga is here and in the rotation. Christian Scott is also making his return from Tommy John. Brandon Sproat would also be an option as high-ceiling depth, so the team would certainly have enough starting pitching if they trade away Tong as they have a surplus to go out and get quality starting pitching to shore up the rotation.
The Mets cannot afford to patch together a rotation like they did last season - they need quality arms, and Ryan would unquestionably fit that bill. Tong has a high ceiling of his own, but he showed he wasn’t quite ready for the big leagues when the Mets called him up out of sheer desperation late in 2025, and Stearns has said they have enough pitching in the system to deal from their supply and get the parts they need via trade, and the team knows what it would be getting back from the Twins.
The question, of course, is, should the Mets be willing to deal one of their top pitching prospects for Ryan? Recall, Stearns said at the end of the season the price for starting pitching was high last summer, and fans wouldn’t have been pleased with what they would’ve had to part with to get the help they obviously needed.
Of course, I think fans might be more upset with how the season turned out, yeah?
The point is, it might be better to hold out on a deal for their top prospects - which most teams covet - for a bigger deal for, say, Tarik Skubal, but there is still no guarantee that the Tigers are willing to part with the Cy Young winner, so they cannot afford to let a deal go by to bring in pitching should it present itself.
Also, Skubal would cost Tong and perhaps another top pitching prospect in all probability, so it’s not as if that’s an easy pill to swallow either.
In the end, Stearns and the Mets are going to have to decide which risk they want to take if they intend to improve their starting rotation. Should they give up multiple draft picks and give out long contracts to free agent pitchers who are 30-plus? Or, can they digest dealing from their surplus of top pitching prospects to get a younger, ace-caliber arm who has shorter-term control? Is there a balance in going down both paths?
Let’s see where we are at this time next week!
Around the League 🚩
The Red Sox acquired RHP Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for OF Jhostynxon Garcia and minor league right-hander Jesus Travieso (ESPN)
Former Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington is joining the San Francisco Giants’ coaching staff (ESPN)
The Padres signed RHP Ty Adcock to a one-year deal (MLB.com)
The Athletics believe their new $2 billion stadium in Las Vegas will open on time in 2028 (ESPN)
Im assuming we are using the term “ace” very loosely here because Ryan is not an ace
In any trade for quality, we're going to have to give up someone who it hurts to lose. Btw, not only is there no "guarantee" (shake my head) that the Tigers are willing to trade Skubal, there's not a whiff of a hint they are. They're contenders and they have a fan base just like we do.