3 free agents who always made more sense for the NY Mets than signing Frankie Montas

3) Nathan Eovaldi

It's a bit of a different situation contract-wise with Eovaldi, but this is a guy the Mets should've been all over in the offseason, and the numbers show why. On the first year of a new three-year, $75 million deal with the Texas Rangers, Eovaldi has continued to prove why he is one of baseball's most underrated pitchers, shoving at age 35 with a 1.49 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP through 18 starts.

Eovaldi has been one of the more consistent pitchers in the game across his 14-year career. He's had bad years, but none since 2019. Since then, he has an ERA of 3.44 and a WHIP of 1.13 across 133 starts. His velocity isn't quite what it used to be. However, Eovaldi still throws one of the best offspeed pitches in the game, with a run value of 8 (98th percentile), and his fastball remains effective, regardless of velocity, with a run value of 13 (95th percentile). His overall run value is 28 (99th percentile). Eovaldi also continues to be one of the best in the game at limiting walks, a trend that's spanned his entire career. His walk rate is an elite 5.1% (92nd percentile).

The Mets had their reasons for passing up on him, a lot of it being a multi-year contract at his age, but the value he would've provided for even one year would be far worth what Montas has given them so far.