5 free agents the Mets should sign after giving Juan Soto $765 million

4) Hoby Milner

The Mets still need to find some help in the bullpen, especially when it comes to lefty arms. Danny Young is their only LHRP on the 40-man roster. One player who might be a huge bargain and still a free agent is Hoby Milner. Milner put up a sub-2.00 ERA in 2023 and a 4.73 ERA in 2024, leading to the Milwaukee Brewers non-tendering him.

But his ERA is deceptive. Milner had a 23.9% K%, 5.2% walk rate, and 0.84 HR/9 in 2024. Those were nearly identical to his 23.4% K%, 5.2% BB%, and 0.70 HR/9 in 2023. Milner induces a ton of soft contact, which did not change in 2024. He held opponents to just an 87.7 MPH exit velocity, which was in the 78th percentile of pitchers this past season. But his 2.7% barrel rate was in the 99th percentile. There were only two relievers with 50+ innings pitched out of the bullpen with a lower barrel percentage: Aaron Bummer and Tim Hill.

Milner’s underlying ERA estimators were as good as ever before. He had a 3.15 xERA and xFIP, with a 3.08 SIERA. Both his xFIP and SIERA were better than they were in 2023 at 3.66 and 3.43, respectively. However, his biggest and most dramatic improvement was his overall ability. His Stuff+ rating went from just 74 in ‘23 to 103 last year.

While Milner is older and entering his age-34 campaign, there’s no doubt the sidearm Southpaw has a ton of rebound potential. It’s surprising that the Brewers even non-tendered Milner to start with. The Mets could definitely use another left-handed bullpen arm, and Milner could be quite effective in 2025.