3 free agents who've already signed the NY Mets will regret missing out on

The New York Mets have been quite active this offseason, to say the least. The big addition was Juan Soto, who signed a record-breaking contract. It is both the most expensive and longest contract ever in professional sports, not just MLB or baseball. They’ve also added a handful of starting pitchers, re-signed some players from last year, and have added some outfield depth with Jose Siri.

While the Mets have landed their fair share of free agents, there are some other ones they missed out on. Some could have fit the team very well with its current roster construction, and the Mets may go on to regret not signing them. 

1) Joc Pederson

The Mets recently re-signed Jesse Winker, who figures to be the left-handed hitting platoon partner for Starling Marte at designated hitter. But they missed out on a player that could potentially be significantly better in Joc Pederson. The Mets showed some interest in the veteran slugger before he signed a two-year deal worth $37 million with the Texas Rangers.

Pederson is coming off a season where he hit .275/.393/.515 with 23 home runs in 449 plate appearances. He had a healthy 12.2% walk rate, albeit with a below-average 23.4% K%. The DH also had an isolated slugging percentage of .240. Overall, it was a career year for Pederson. His .904 OPS is the first time he has put up an OPS above .900. Pederson’s .391 wOBA and 151 wRC+ were both career bests as well.

Pederson was elite in multiple batted ball stats. His xwOBA of .378 was in the top 95th percentile, while his xSLG% was in the top 90th percentile. Pederson regularly ripped the cover off the ball with an average exit velocity of 92.3 MPH, which was in the top 93rd percentile. His barrel rate was also elite at 12.8% (87th percentile of batters in 2024). The only noteworthy batted ball-based stat he wasn’t above the 85th percentile in was xBA, but still was well above average in the 77th percentile. 

Almost all of Pederson’s playing time was against right-handed pitching. 407 of his 449 total plate appearances were against opposite-handed hurlers. He hasn’t been bad against left-handed pitching recently, however. Pederson has put up at least a 100 wRC+ when facing LHP in four of the last five seasons, including a 124 mark last year. But keep in mind, he’s had more than 100 PAs against lefties just twice since making his debut in 2014. 

The Mets are taking much more of a risk with Winker than Pederson. For a guy who has to rely on his hitting to do the talking, Winker has some worrying statistics under the hood, as he was below the 50th percentile of xBA, xSLG%, exit velo, and barrel percentage. Now that it looks like Pete Alonso isn’t going to re-sign with the Mets, they’re going to miss having a big middle-of-the-order slugger, and that’s something Pederson could have brought.