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

3) Jose Leclerc

The Mets bullpen wasn’t bad last year, but it wasn’t great. They were about middle of the road in most statistics. They recently made a solid addition by signing A.J. Minter, which adds another much-needed lefty pitcher to the mix. But they missed out on a right-handed relief arm in Jose Leclerc, which could have been a nice complement to both Minter and all-star closer Edwin Diaz.

Leclerc put up a 4.32 ERA, the second-worst mark of his career. But he had a solid 3.48 FIP and 1.32 WHIP across 66.2 innings of work. Although his 11.1% walk rate was poor, it is not out of the ordinary for him. Leclerc has a career 13.2% BB%. He offsets that poor free pass percentage with a strong 30.9% K% and above-average 0.95 HR/9 ratio.

Aside from decent peripherals, other numbers suggest a rebound for Leclerc in 2025. He had both an above-average 87.4 MPH exit velocity (84th percentile) and a 7.4% barrel rate (56th percentile). The right-hander also had a solid 3.66 xFIP, 3.26 SIERA, and 3.64 xERA. Both his xFIP and SIERA are the best he’s put up since 2018, while his xERA was in the top 64th percentile of pitchers.

The Athletics ended up signing Leclerc to a one-year, $10 million deal. As of right now, that leaves Reed Garrett as the Mets’ go-to right-handed set-up man. Of course, there’s still a lot of time left for the Mets to add a decent righty to the bullpen. But Leclerc was a very underrated reliever who is now off the board.