5 NY Mets free agents still without a job as spring training approaches

4) Max Kranick

The Mets should re-sign Max Kranick. Pay him money to sit out the year and rehab from Tommy John surgery. He was way too effective to begin the year for them to bail this quickly.

The lack of a new contract probably means Kranick is hoping for a major league deal of some kind. The Mets haven’t avoided big league deals with injured players. They may, however, prefer to stay away from doing this in abundance. Kranick was already non-tendered by the Mets back in November. While they’ll pay Tylor Megill and Reed Garrett to stick around, they’ve yet to answer the question if they will for Kranick, too.

This could be a matter of timing. Once the 60-day IL opens up, Kranick should become more popular. Other teams may be thinking the same way. Until they have the open roster space, which the Mets will have a few spots, signing Kranick makes a lot of sense as long as you’re willing to accept he’ll miss a full year barring a quick recovery. Even then, they’d probably only get a month of him in the big leagues.

One reason to maybe feel a little less inclined to sign Kranick is that his most useful role was as a multi-inning reliever. The TJ surgery might’ve been a result of overuse. If Kranick is merely a one-inning reliever, he loses a little bit of his specialness.

Don’t rule out the Atlanta Braves here because of Kranick’s familiarity with pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. They’ve already added several ex-Mets pitchers this winter. None are high-profile but neither is Kranick.