5 best Mets starting pitcher free agent targets who won't cost $100 million

3) Luis Severino

Trying to retain Luis Severino appears to be a no-brainer for the Mets organization. The Dominican right-hander had a good season with the team in 2024, making his contract worth more than $14,250,000.

In the scenario where Severino is not inclined to accept the qualifying offer extended by the Mets worth $21.5 million, the team should try to make a multi-year offer to the pitcher who served as a stabilizer of the Mets' rotation thanks to his ability to go deep in games and limit your opponents' power contact. Indeed, Severino was efficient on the mound last season, managing to pitch 31 outings, where he accumulated 182 innings pitched, the sixth most in the National League in 2024.

Likewise, Severino showed significant improvements in the type of contact generated by opponents, decreasing his hard-hit contact by almost 10 percentage points compared to his 2023 season. His four-seam fastball, which had been a headache in 2023, improved in terms of swing and miss and hard hit contact compared to the previous season due to a better location of this pitch, and in the same way he changed the use of his pitch arsenal by incorporating the use of the sweeper, a pitch that allowed him to keep the opposition to a batting average of .133 with a slugging average of just .238.

According to projections, Severino would be signing a three- to four-year contract at an average annual value of $17 to 18 million. At the estimated value, the return of this signing would be important for a rotation that does not have consistent pitchers with a track record at the moment to battle for a postseason spot in 2025.