NY Mets: Five free agents to return the pitching staff to prominence

29-year-old SP Kevin Gausman stabilizes NY Mets rotation

Signing RHP Kevin Gausman to a potential three-year, $39 million deal would make sense for a Mets ballclub looking to ‘win now’ for a couple of reasons.

Not only would he bring stability to a pitching staff in need of rotational depth, he would also fill the fifth slot behind LHP David Peterson at a reasonable price and wouldn’t prohibit the team from spending on a premium starting pitcher and position player during the rest of free agency.

And due to Peterson’s role as a lefty arm, the team can shop Steven Matz and finally move on from the fruitless hope that he will find his form again while in Mets colors. The experiment is over. He isn’t going to improve. In fact, since 2018, Matz has allowed the most home runs in the NL, with 66 long balls given up (14 allowed in 2020).

Similarly, bringing in Gausman will make it easier for the team to let Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha look for employment elsewhere if it wasn’t already clear that they did not perform well enough last season to warrant new deals.

In 2020, Gausman pitched on a one-year, $9 million deal with the San Francisco Giants and posted a 3.62 ERA through 12 starts along with 79 strikeouts and a 1.11 WHIP.  While he has never posted a sub 3.50 ERA during his eight-year career, his ability to stay off the IL is more than most of the Mets pitchers in the last two seasons can say.

Overall, signing Gausman would be a smart investment that would help the Mets win now, while also allowing ownership to spend money on additional pitching help and other needed upgrades in the field.