Why the Mets Should Pursue a Top Free-Agent Pitcher Before Spring Training

While it appears that the Mets don't plan on pushing for the playoffs until after the 2024 season, the New York should certainly look at signing one of the premier pitchers remaining in free agency.

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and World Series star Jordan Montgomery both remain available despite pitchers and catchers reporting to camps in just a few days. The Mets don't need to target the playoffs this year, but they should target one of the remaining starters.

1. Who's to say you land the pitchers in next year's market?

As we saw this offseason, you can be in on one of the top pitchers in the market yet, come up short to an opposing team. Look no further than Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who despite a strong offer from the Mets and several visits from Steve Cohen, ended up signing in Los Angeles.

The 2025 free agent market is expected to be led by Corbin Burnes, Shane Bieber, Walker Buehler, and Max Fried. Burnes is a Scott Boras client so he'll likely hit free agency but, with such a strong market and spending a year in Baltimore, it may be hard for Cohen to land the new Oriole. The same could be said for Buehler and Fried with the Braves retaining most of their young talent and the Dodgers expecting to stay in contention for the next five years.

That leaves Bieber as the most available of the free agents in the 2025 free agent class. He, however, has an injury history that may scare off teams compared to Snell and Montgomery. Bieber pitched 21 games in 2023 before missing time with elbow inflammation and in 2021 he missed extended time with a subscapularis strain.