3 former NY Mets players available in free agency whose best offer might be retirement

Kevin Plawecki retired recently and so too could some more recently employed New York Mets players. Not everyone gets a retirement tour where gifts are presented to them in each city. Sadly, some players end up calling it quits because the phone calls stop coming in.

A minor league deal could always get tossed their way, but after serving more than a decade in Major League Baseball, would they be so willing to ride the bus? For these nomadic ex-Mets, cozying up with an AARP card might be their next step.

1) J.D. Martinez

If J.D. Martinez couldn’t get a better contract offer last winter than the one he got from the Mets in March, what’s he going to receive this time? Martinez was coming off of an awesome 2023 campaign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Although health concerns lingered, he produced the kind of numbers you’d swear came from a guy who played a full season. With just 113 games and 479 plate appearances, Martinez hammered 33 home runs and drove in 103. He’d settle on a one-year deal with the Mets worth a large portion of the $12 million deferred.

Teams no longer seem equipped or interested to employ an expensive DH-exclusive player. There isn’t a David Ortiz in the league any longer. Martinez was the last of his kind, apparently. Based on how things ended with the Mets in 2024, he could be completely done.

The year’s totals included a .235/.320/.406 slash line with 16 home runs and 69 RBI in just under 500 plate appearances. It was his September slump which featured more than 30 at-bats without a hit that should have teams staying away. Martinez could be viewed as a buy-low option for some ball club. However, with career earnings of over $150 million and just about every personal accomplishment out there he can realistically achieve, spending as much time with his growing family seems awfully tempting.