3 good free agent fits for the NY Mets somehow still available

The New York Mets’ offseason has been nothing short of exciting. They’ve added a handful of fresh faces, brought back some decent veteran help like Sean Manaea and Jesse Winker, and, of course, the most exciting addition of the offseason, adding Juan Soto to the largest contract in professional sports history. Although we are approaching February, there are still a handful of free agents still looking for teams.

Some of the players still available would make good fits for the Mets. Even though the Mets have spent a ton in free agency, they shouldn’t be done adding. These players could each bring something new to the Mets’ depth chart.

1) Jurickson Profar

Jurickson Profar was once touted as the consensus number one prospect in all of baseball back in 2013. However, after a series of injuries and inconsistent seasons, it seemed like Profar would never reach the ceiling he was once projected to have. But Profar unexpectedly had a huge 2024 season in his second stint with the San Diego Padres and hit like he was expected to about a decade ago.

Through 668 plate appearances, Profar batted .280/.380/.459 with a .365 wOBA, and 139 wRC+. The switch-hitter provided above-average thump with 24 dingers and a .179 isolated slugging percentage. He kept his strikeouts to a minimum with a 15.1% K% but drew walks at a healthy 11.4% rate. 

Expected numbers also loved Profar’s performance. He was in the 92nd percentile of both xwOBA (.364) and xBA (.282) while in the 72nd percentile of xSLG% (.444). Profar put up a 91.1 MPH exit velocity. This was a career-high by a mile, with his second-best single-season mark being 87.5 MPH set in 2022. His 7.2% barrel percentage was another career-high by a margin, with his previous best being just 6.5% in 2019.

Profar’s outfield defense leaves a lot to be desired. In 2024, he had -8 defensive runs saved with -6 outs above average. The switch-hitter had double-digit negatives in both defensive stats in 2023. Profar covered -2 feet above average in his jump, which was bottom five in the league. His route-running abilities were also below average. The only above-average part of Profar’s defensive game was his arm, which he was in the 68th percentile of arm strength.

As Brian Germinaro recently wrote, Profar could be an outside-the-box idea to help with first base depth, with Pete Alonso potentially out of the picture. Profar has 466 innings logged at first base throughout his career. However, it has been a minute since he has played there semi-regularly. The last time he started double-digit games at first base was in 2021, and the last time he started at least 20 games at the position was 2018.

MLB Trade Rumors projected Profar to sign a three-year contract worth $45 million ($15 million AAV) at the start of the offseason. He made some huge improvements to his game, resulting in a career-year for the former number one prospect in all of baseball. With how poor his left field defense is, a move to first base could ultimatley lead to him providing more value.