Former Mets pitcher Rick Porcello remains unsigned after poor 2020 season

Rick Porcello is a former Cy Young winner, World Series Champion, and only 32-years-old. Since debuting back in 2009, he has never made fewer than 27 starts in any full season. In his one year with the New York Mets in 2020, he was fully healthy.

Health isn’t everything. Equally as unimportant in Porcello’s search for a new ball club is what he did several seasons ago. Free agency has a bias toward the recent and Porcello’s 2020 performance in New York is hurting his case for a new contract.

It’s mid-March and the guy Brodie Van Wagenen signed for a one-year $10 million deal a winter ago remains unemployed in Major League Baseball.

The Mets that left this winter had a tough time finding big league deals

The Mets let a lot of players walk away this winter. There weren’t many tears shed. Justin Wilson—now a New York Yankee—was the only player fans seemed to have interest in bringing back.

Michael Wacha was one of the first to sign, landing a team-friendly deal with the Tampa Bay Rays where he’ll hope to regain his confidence from earlier on in his career. Several other members of the 2020 Mets have inked deals as well, several settling on minor league contracts. Todd Frazier and the Pittsburgh Pirates comes to mind as one of those agreements.

The lack of interest in Porcello after two straight miserable years does not bode well for the still relatively young right-handed starter. It’s proving that his best ability was, in fact, his availability. Right now, he’s fully available.

A few other former Mets remain unsigned

Some lesser-talked-about Mets still without contracts include Rene Rivera, Matt Adams, Neil Walker, and AJ Ramos. Only Rivera actually played for the Mets last year, appearing in two games.

Free agency was awfully tough on a lot of MLB nomads this past winter. Outside of the star players, many settled for less than they would have probably liked.

In Porcello’s case and that of the other names mentioned, it’s not so much the financial losses the league faced as much as it is how they performed. Why invest a few million dollars in a veteran on the decline when you can possibly see a kid outperform them at a fraction of the price?

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I would like to ban the name Brodie Van Wagenen from my vocabulary one day. Seeing how poorly the Porcello deal worked out in 2020 and how few teams have any interest in him at all this winter further adds to the legend of BVW and all of his swings and misses.