What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
Baseball night in New York discussed a potential Jacob deGrom return to Queens, who could theoretically be made available this winter (SNY)
The Mets have hired longtime Major League catcher A.J. Ellis to their big league coaching staff as the strategy coordinator (Athletic)
Rumor Mill 💨
The Phillies are likely to prioritize adding left-handed relief help (Athletic)
The Marlins might look to add a corner infielder this winter (Miami Herald)
Off-Season Outlook 📈
This winter, the Mets have no players with unconditional expiring contracts, and only one where a player option may or may not be considered. The club has no team options to consider, but will need to decide whether or not to tender contracts to ten different arbitration-eligible players by mid-November.
In addition, the Mets could choose to non-tender players who are pre-arbitration eligible if they no longer have any minor league options available.
The Mets could also attempt to trade any such player they’re considering not tendering a contract to before the mid-November deadline.
ARBITRATION ELIGIBLE PLAYERS
Francisco Álvarez
Brett Baty
Reed Garrett
Tylor Megill
Christopher Morel
Dedniel Núñez
Cionel Perez
Mark Vientos
Austin Warren
ROSTERED PLAYERS KNOWN TO HAVE NO MINOR LEAGUE OPTIONS LEFT
Mark Vientos
Christopher Morel
Daniel Duarte
Tobias Myers
Austin Warren
Robert Stock
Ronny Mauricio
MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS ELIGIBLE FOR RULE 5 DRAFT EXPOSURE
Catchers: Chris Suero, Kevin Parada, Ronald Hernandez
Infielders: Ryan Clifford, Randy Guzman, Estarling Mercado, Jefferson Rojas, Jacob Reimer, Nick Lorusso, Marco Vargas
Outfielders: D’Andre Smith, Yohairo Cuevas
SPs: Gary Gill Hill, Jack Wenninger, Irving Cota, Noah Hall, Dakota Hawkins, Joel Díaz, Jose Chirinos, Jonathan Jimenez, Wyatt Hudepohl
RPs: Zach Franklin, Ben Simon, Felipe De La Cruz, Douglas Orellana, Calvin Ziegler, Saul Garcia, Luis R. Rodriguez, Bryce Jenkins, Cristofer Gomez, Ryan Ammons, Juan Arnaud, Ernesto Mercedes, Gregori Louis, Austin Troesser
Key Off-Season Dates 📅
GM/Industry Meetings, Las Vegas - November 9-12
Owners meetings, New York - November 17-19
Non-tender deadline - November 20
December 1 - expiration of current collective bargaining agreement
MLB Winter Meetings, Orlando - December 7-9
MLB Draft Lottery - December 8
Rule 5 draft - December 9
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What’s the 2027 bullpen going to look like? ✍️
Of all the things that went wrong for David Stearns and the Mets a year ago—and we all know it was a laundry list—in the spirit of being fair and objective, let’s talk about the one area of the team he nailed.
The veteran bullpen Stearns assembled centering around righties Devin Williams, Luke Weaver, and Huascar Brazoban, as well as southpaws A.J. Minter and Brooks Raley, was the unquestioned brightest part of the club for the season’s first half. Four of those pitchers were traded at the deadline, but impressively, the Mets bullpen kept rolling, thanks in large part to Kodai Senga’s transition to a high-leverage relief role, as well as the ascendance of guys like Daniel Duarte, Dedniel Núñez, and Nate Lavender.
All told, the Mets relief corps finished with a 3.76 ERA, good for 5th in the National League, behind only playoff teams like the Brewers, Dodgers, Padres, and Braves.
So while Stearns and company have a lengthy shopping list of things to do this winter to get the organization back on track—much of which Drew hit on yesterday— if there’s one thing we at least should have confidence in, it is his ability to do it again in the bullpen.
And make no mistake, he will have to do it again.
The first question that will need to be answered is an important one: Who is the closer?
Williams was very up and down in the role, working to a 4.43 ERA across 44 appearances. He was better than he’d been in the Bronx the year prior, but we now have two full seasons of evidence that he has not been the same pitcher in New York that he was in Milwaukee.
Then there’s Senga, who struggled mightily as a starter but somewhat surprisingly flipped a switch in relief—particularly when he became the closer. He was able to convert eight of his nine save chances, and pitching in one-inning spurts clearly made his stuff more effective.
So that’s the first order of business, because any relief corps without defined roles is one that’s set up to fail.
Then there are guys like Duarte, Lavender, and Nunez who thrived down the stretch. How much stock can Stearns put in that? How risky is it to expect all three to hit over the course of a full season?
It certainly would make sense to me to bring in a handful of more battle-tested arms to ease the pressure on the young trio. And there are certainly some names out there that fit the bill—many of which are familiar.
For starters, Minter and Raley were both terrific Mets, and are both free agents again. You’d have to believe New York will at the bare minimum explore a reunion with the duo.
Names like Adrian Morejon and David Bednar could obviously help the Mets in 2027, but the fact that they’re both now attached to the qualifying offer makes those guys feel less likely.
A perpetually underrated hurler that I feel would be a tremendous addition for the Mets is righty Jason Adam, most recently of the Padres.
Adam endured an injury-limited 2026, but he’s been consistently excellent in a setup role for both the Rays and Padres for five years running. He’s got 119 Major League holds and 26 saves on his resume, and he stands out as the type of stabilizing force the middle of this bullpen could really use.
Stearns needs to address the rotation, first base, DH, potentially 2B? With potential improvement across the roster, the bullpen simply cannot regress from where it was a year ago. And that process officially starts now.
Around the League 🚩
The Astros have scheduled an interview with Albert Pujols for their vacant managerial position (Rompiendo Sports)
David Bell has stepped down from his role as Toronto’s assistant GM/ VP of Baseball Operations (Athletic)