The pressure is on - David Stearns and the Mets have a lot of work to do

Now that Edwin Díaz is gone. Now what?

What’s up with the Mets? 🍎

• RHP Edwin Díaz agreed to a three-year, $69 million deal to join the Los Angeles Dodgers, ending his seven-year tenure in New York (Story)

• The Mets offered three years for $66 million with “modest deferrals” and room to go up, but Díaz opted for LA (NY Post)

• Per reports, Díaz and his team did not give the Mets an opportunity to make the last offer (MLB.com)

• After losing Díaz, the club is reportedly in talks with RHP Robert Suárez (NY Post)

• The Mets are reportedly willing to entertain offers for LHP David Peterson (The Athletic)

• The organization “may be hesitant” to offer 1B Pete Alonso more than three years in free agency (MLB.com)

• New York reportedly made a three-year, $120 million offer to Kyle Schwarber on Monday night before the DH re-signed with the Phillies on Tuesday (Marino)

• New York did not win the first pick in the MLB Draft Lottery; as a result, they will pick 27th in the 2026 MLB draft, down from 17th after being assessed a 10-position penalty for exceeding the second competitive tax threshold

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Tuesday’s Rumors from the Winter Meetings 🔎

• The Ketel Marte sweepstakes is heating up with interest from the Red Sox, Mariners, Blue Jays, Phillies, and Rays (NY Post)

• The Rangers and Red Sox have had trade discussions about SS Corey Seager (Boston Globe)

• The Orioles are among the teams involved in trade talks for Marlins RHP Edward Cabrera (The Athletic)

• Baltimore reportedly matched Philadelphia’s $150 million offer for DH Kyle Schwarber (Athletic)

Earlier Rumors 🔍

• The Blue Jays are monitoring the market for RHP Robert Suárez (Sportsnet)

• The Royals are looking at CF Harrison Bader to help bolster their outfield (NY Post)

• San Diego is listening on RHP Nick Pivetta and INF Jake Cronenworth (The Athletic)

• The White Sox are showing interest in RHP Pete Fairbanks (MLB.com)

• The Mariners are NOT looking to trade RHP Luis Castillo (Seattle Times)

• The Angels and Tigers are expressing interest in RHP Kenley Jansen (7 News Boston)

• The Red Sox recently held a Zoom meeting with INF Bo Bichette (7 News Boston)

• The Marlins have sent signals that Edward Cabrera is available, but Sandy Alcantara is not (USA Today)

• The Pirates are “hanging around” in Pete Alonso’s market (USA Today)

• The Cubs are showing interest in signing 3B Eugenio Suárez (Beisbol FR)

• The Royals are interested in bringing back Mike Yastrzemski and Adam Frazier (KC Star)

• The Red Sox, Rays, Mariners, Pirates, and Tigers have all expressed interest in a trade for INF Ketel Marte (NY Post | USA Today)

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Winter Meetings Livestream 🚨

Join us tonight at 8pm on YouTube for our livestream covering the final night of the Winter Meetings!

Rich MacLeod & Andrew Claudio will be reacting to the day’s rumors, signings, and trades, plus responding to your comments in the live chat.

Watch Tuesday’s livestream here.

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

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The Winter Meetings conclude today at the Signia by Hilton Bonnet Creek & Waldorf Astoria in Orlando, Florida.

The Rule 5 draft will be held this afternoon at 2 p.m. ET. The Mets currently have 39 players on their 40-man roster, meaning there is next to no wiggle room for them to take a chance on a player. If the Mets do choose a player from the major league portion of the draft, they must pay the player’s former club $100,000 and carry that player on the active roster the entire season. If they don’t, the player must be waived. If the player clears waivers, the new team offers that player back to their former club for $50,000. The player can only be outrighted off the 40-man roster and sent to the minors if their former team declines to take the player back.

For more on this year’s Winter Meetings, check out MLB’s primer here.

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Winter Meetings Reading 📖

• Just Mets Free Agency Guide 💰 (MacLeod)

• Outfield trade targets 💰 (Van Buskirk)

• The Mets top free agent starting pitching target (Baron)

• The wide net the Mets are casting for their rotation (Baron)

• The Mets have another ace on their radar (Surovich)

• The Mets are in on everyone (almost)! (Van Buskirk)

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David Stearns speaks with the media, Day 2 🗣️

David Stearns made himself available to the media several times on Tuesday. Here’s what he had to say:

Daily Media Availability

Because it’s not official yet, Stearns couldn’t offer any specific comments on the Díaz deal. On Devin Williams, Stearns said if the season started today, the Mets would run with Williams as their closer, and they feel ‘comfortable’ with that.

He expressed confidence in Williams’s stuff, while remaining non-committal that the team would add any other big-name arms to their bullpen.

Stearns also didn’t provide any specific commentary on how conversations were progressing, nor on how any particular signings may have influenced other moves. On balancing keeping fan favorite players with building the best roster possible, Stearns said: “That’s something we talk about a lot…I can’t tell you I know exactly how to weigh that. We do our best to weigh the full impact of any player on our team, and make the best decision we can.”

On adding more talent throughout the roster, Stearns emphasized that he has access to the payroll needed to field a competitive team, but that it isn’t infinite, “nor should it be.” In that vein, when asked about upgrading in the outfield, he said the Mets were going to explore all available options, including internal ones. He spoke highly of the incoming coaching staff, saying players he’d spoken to were excited to come to work with the new coaches, and finally, he reaffirmed that the team sees Clay Holmes as a starter, later clarifying that no discussions had taken place about moving him back to the bullpen.

SNY Interview

Stearns later sat down with Steve Gelbs, Jim Duquette, and Andy Martino to field more questions and attempt to quell fans’ concerns.

He empathized with fans’ frustrations both with the poor performance last season and with the departure of their favorite players, but was unapologetic about making tough decisions that will allow the team to compete now and in the future. He told Martino that they see the offseason as “the whole of the offseason,” and that while he can’t say much, this has been a very busy Winter Meetings from a “conversation perspective,” and that he’s confident deals will get closed in the coming weeks.

He emphasized that while everyone wants to sign the flashy names, what matters most is signing players that will help them win games, and that a lot of those wins come from under-the-radar moves that are just as important. When asked about adding to the bullpen, Stearns said that’s something they can be expected to do, though he couldn’t say exactly how.

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So… where do the Mets go from here? ✍️

Getty Images

There’s no sugar-coating the loss of Edwin Díaz to the Dodgers. (Forgive the unintentional pun.)

The bullpen hole being left by the Mets’ long-time closer is massive, and it leaves yet more work for David Stearns to do in the ever-evolving pursuit of a championship roster.

The Mets’ stable of relief arms, as it stands now, looks fairly bleak. Brooks Raley looked fantastic last season in a limited sample, A.J. Minter is expected to be back in action and hopefully at full strength, and I strongly believe Devin Williams will surprise a lot of people next year…but that’s not enough to carry the team through a possible postseason.

The Mets now need at least one more high-impact arm in the ‘pen — in addition to everything else — to head into Spring Training feeling even close to comfortable, and the front office needs to make that happen relatively quickly. We’ve already seen how quickly the market can heat up and deals can be made, and the Mets simply cannot be left in the next deal’s dust.

So…how is David Stearns going to rebuild this bullpen?

Though none of them are on the level of Díaz, there are still some legitimate bullpen upgrade options for the Mets remaining in free agency. In the remaining player pool, two arms seem to be separating themselves from the rest: let’s talk a little about Robert Suárez and Pete Fairbanks.

Robert Suárez

Orlando Ramirez-Getty Images

With Díaz off the board, Suárez is widely considered the best remaining reliever in the 2025 free agent class. The Padres closer delivered a strong 2025 season for the San Diego Padres, appearing in 70 games, tallying 69.2 innings with a 2.97 ERA and a 0.90 WHIP. Suárez posted 40 saves, good for the second-most in MLB last year.

In terms of pitch-selection profile, Suárez fits the Mets like a glove: he’s a fastball-heavy power reliever who works a three-pitch mix that also features a changeup and a devastating sinker. His heater is one of baseball’s best, consistently clocking in around 98 mph, and it acts as a significant swing-and-miss weapon alongside the sinker, which is as good a ground-ball weapon as any (45% GB rate). Although his whiff rate may not be eye-popping, his 28% K rate and 5.9% walk rate are both plenty sufficient evidence that this guy’s stuff consistently gets the job done.

The main thing that gives me slight pause about Suárez is the downward trend some of his key metrics are taking. His projections for next year are quite modest compared to his performance from last season, and it didn’t take long to figure out why: some of his batted ball data doesn’t look awesome. Primarily, his pitches are finding barrels at the highest rate of his career, he’s giving up increased hard contact, and his ground-ball and left on base rates are down.

All of those trends happening at once could potentially indicate that a pitcher is losing some action or movement on their pitches, or that opponents are seeing their stuff better over time. However, there’s plenty of data to suggest that some concerns are overblown: his ‘Stuff’ scores look as good as they ever have, he’s giving up less-productive and weaker contact overall, and his WHIP and FIP are both down from last season. For whatever there is to dislike in the data, there’s ample material to love.

Though he may not be Edwin Díaz, there’s plenty to like about the idea of a Robert Suárez signing, even heading into his age-35 season. Considering the notoriously volatile nature of relievers, Suárez has mostly been a model of stability since entering the league in 2022, posting an ERA above 3.00 just once since entering MLB and never delivering a WHIP above 1.10 nor a FIP above 3.50. If the Mets can get a deal done here, they should do it expeditiously.

Pete Fairbanks

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Despite all the nice things I just said about Robert Suárez, I think I might like Fairbanks a little bit more.

In his seventh season with the Rays, Fairbanks posted some of his strongest numbers to date. He appeared in 60.1 innings over 61 games (both career highs), posting a 2.83 ERA (3.63 FIP) and 1.04 WHIP. His 27 saves were also a career high. Good start!

The deeper I dig, the more I like what I see: last season, Fairbanks saw upticks in his strikeout rate, strand rate, and ground ball rate, while bringing his barrel and walk rates down and inducing generally less-effective contact. He also saw major improvements in his chase and whiff rates from 2024 to 2025, and he elicited less contact on chased pitches than he has in five years. These are all highly encouraging trends.

Fairbanks features a higher-end fastball as the primary tool in his kit, typically clocking in around 97 mph. His over-the-top arm angle helps it play up in the zone a bit more, which generally leads to weaker contact, especially on balls hit in the air. That’s naturally helped to limit the amount of power hitters can generate, as opponents managed just a .109 ISO against Fairbanks’s fastball last year.

The pitch’s naturally elevated nature also makes it a perfect pairing for the straight slider that Fairbanks deploys. Unlike the typical sweeping slider motion we’ve all come to love, Fairbank’s moves more like a splitter: the ball approaches the plate with minimal horizontal movement before dropping off through the zone, mimicking the fastball’s shape and movement while arriving 10 mph slower. It’s a lethal combination.

Most questions about Fairbanks won’t center around the quality of his stuff, though; the biggest red flag in his file is his medical history. He’s had two Tommy John surgeries, but they were completed years ago, and the latter procedure actually led him to make mechanical changes that quickly enhanced his results. It’s his recent injuries that will likely draw the most concern: Fairbanks has had his fair share of stints on the injury report the past few seasons, including some hip and lat issues. In the wake of those injuries, Fairbanks has seen a quick fall off in his average fastball velo, down from the 99 mph average he maintained from 2022-2023 after making those aforementioned mechanics adjustments…not a great trend. However, that recent velo dip hasn’t been accompanied by a blanket fall-off in performance (see his +7 Fastball Run Value last season). If anything, the data suggests that 2025 found Fairbanks learning how to work more effectively with a lower velocity repertoire.

Injury history and velo drop considered, when I look at the career highs he set last season and the overall results he’s produced on the field since entering the league, Fairbanks feels like a relatively safe bullpen investment (as much as that exists in this era of baseball). Entering his age-32 season, he remains a consistent high-leverage option that the Mets shouldn’t hesitate to jump for.

Now, all the above said, there’s also the possibility that the Mets won’t pursue either of these options and will instead opt to continue operating via short-term deals for names like Brad Keller or Shawn Armstrong (both excellent pitchers I’d warmly welcome to the roster, for what it’s worth). Hell, I’d say there’s as good a chance as not that we’ll see Dylan Ross in the bullpen on Opening Day, and maybe even Christian Scott depending on how the team chooses to handle his ramp-up. There are a few different ways this next phase could go.

Whatever immediate steps lie ahead for this franchise, only David Stearns knows. According to his comments to the press yesterday, he remains “very confident” about the direction of their offseason and reiterated that the team was having “productive conversations.”

Mets fans could use some of that excess confidence right now — hopefully the next signing (or three) brings some of it back.

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Around the League 🚩

• The Phillies reportedly re-signed DH Kyle Schwarber to a five-year, $150 million contract (ESPN)

• The Tigers are reportedly re-signing RHP Kyle Finnegan to a two-year, $19 million deal (Athletic)

• Former Mets LHP Gregory Soto reportedly signed a one-year, $7.75 million contract with the Pirates (ESPN)

• The Angels acquired INF Vaughn Grissom from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league OF Isaiah Jackson

• The White Sox won the MLB Draft Lottery and will make the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft in Philadelphia next July (MLB.com)