Three free agents for the Mets that no one's talking about
Spring Training workout dates have been announced! Plus, three under-the-radar free agents that could help the Mets in 2025.
What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
New York is expected to sign 17-year-old SS Elian Peña today, the No. 2 ranked international free agent this offseason (Baseball America)
Peña is expected to sign in the $5 million range – nearly double the franchise record for an international signing bonus
The club’s first Spring Training workout dates were officially announced on Tuesday (Mets.com)
The Mets are still “not close” in the Pete Alonso negotiations (NY Post)
Rumor Mill 💨
The Dodgers reportedly had a second meeting with free agent RHP Roki Sasaki on Tuesday (The Athletic)
Sasaki recently met with the Blue Jays in Toronto and the Padres in San Diego (The Athletic)
These under-the-radar free agents could help the Mets in 2025… ✍️
With all of the talk about Juan Soto and Pete Alonso this offseason, I felt like it could be a good exercise to take a look at some less gaudy free agents that could help the Mets during this upcoming season.
After a minor league signing of Jose Iglesias last winter went under-the-radar until he changed the course of their 2024 season, let’s take a look at three free agents that could provide an unexpected impact this year…
Hitter: Randal Grichuk
It feels like he’s been in the league for a million years, but would you believe that Randal Grichuk is still only 32 years old?
The right-handed outfielder, who I affectionately dubbed as “Evil David Wright” back in his Cardinals days, had a quietly great season for the Dbacks last year as a part-time player, hitting .291/.348/.528 with 12 home runs, 46 RBI, 40 runs scored, a 140 OPS+, and a 1.5 fWAR in just 279 plate appearances. Another stat of major note? Grichuk had the lowest strikeout percentage of his entire career, going from 20.4 percent in 2023 to 16.5 percent last season.
The Mets are known to be looking for an outfielder/designated hitter, and Grichuk could prove to be exactly what the club needs if indeed they’re not looking to reunite with trade deadline acquisition Jesse Winker in 2025. Grichuk appears to be a player that has adjusted to a part-time role with a flourish, making adjustments to his approach that paid major dividends last year.
Grichuk declined a $6 million mutual option for 2025, making him a free agent.
Reliever: A.J. Minter
If you’ve watched a lot of Mets/Braves games over recent years, chances are you’re pretty familiar with A.J. Minter.
The left-handed reliever had an up-and-down 2024 season, as his aesthetically pleasing 2.62 ERA was paired with a 4.45 FIP, -0.1 fWAR, a decrease in his strikeout percentage (from 11.41% to 9.17%) and a drastic uptick in home runs allowed (from 0.84 HR/9 to 1.57 HR/9). Minter also dealt with injuries throughout the season, and had his year cut short due to hip surgery.
Still, Minter held opposing hitters to a .198/.271/.364 slash line last season and was effective vs. both righties and lefties, holding each of them to OPS’ below .680 in limited outings. With the loss of Brooks Raley, New York once again finds themselves looking for an answer when it comes to finding an effective left-handed reliever.
Minter — who is expected to be fully ready for Opening Day after his surgery in September — could be a low-risk, high-reward arm that could make a legitimate impact this season, especially if you want to believe that his dramatic increase in home runs allowed was more of an aberration than anything else.
Minter, 30, made $6.2 million in Atlanta last season.
Starter: José Quintana
This is a reunion that I never anticipated wanting, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me.
Despite a horrible start to last season, pitching to a 5.29 ERA and 5.26 FIP over his first 13 starts, José Quintana finished last season with incredibly respectable numbers and pitched in some of the most important games of the season for the Mets.
In 31 starts last season, the veteran left-hander had a 3.75 ERA, 4.56 FIP, and 105 ERA+ over 170.1 innings pitched. Quintana also pitched back-to-back scoreless outings totaling 11 innings to start the postseason, before allowing five runs in his final start vs. the Dodgers.
To say that Quintana came up massively clutch for the Mets in 2024 would be a huge understatement, as the reliable veteran’s six scoreless frames in a winner-take-all Game 3 of the Wild Card Series were the only reason that Pete Alonso ever got the opportunity to hit one of the most clutch home runs in club history, propelling them to the next round and eventually the NLCS.
With the Mets rotation once again relying upon reclamation projects and uncertainty in 2025, a stable arm like Quintana could prove to be valuable for this team once again. Whatever adjustments that the veteran and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner made last summer clearly paid off and carried into the remainder of his season, and could make the lefty an attractive addition to this rotation once again.
Quintana, soon to be 36, made $13 million for the Mets last season.
Around the League 🚩
Former Mets RHP Robert Stock agreed to a minor league contract with the Red Sox (MassLive)
I wouldn’t mind a minter or Grichuk. I feel like we saw the best possible Quintana at the end of the season. I agree having a proven commodity would be a good thing. Not sure I want him though