8 easiest Mets players on the 40-man roster to non-tender or release this offseason

One part of the New York Mets offseason will be non-tender decisions. Less fanciful than free agent decisions, the non-tender candidates are those the team decidedly chooses to move on from. Typically, these are players who meet a certain criteria. Most important is how the player performed. However, teams also weigh whether or not the player has minor league options remaining or how much their contract will cost even through arbitration.

Money isn’t a major concern for any of these future 40-man roster casualties that’ll be easy choices to move on from.

1) Danny Young

There was a time when keeping Danny Young made sense for the Mets. He was great in the meat of his 2024 season. He’d end up finishing the year with a meek 4.54 ERA but with a still promising 11.5 strikeouts per 9. He had a 0.000 ERA in July and a 2.45 ERA in August. Then came September when it inflated up to 10.57.

Young was used sparingly in the postseason. One could argue he only made the roster because the Mets didn’t have any other true lefty reliever available. David Peterson was the only other option, but he wasn’t used so much as a lefty but more so as a high-leverage long man.

Why can’t Young return in 2024? His minor league options are exhausted. A flame out late in the year assured us all the only way he could possibly return is if he manages to stick around as depth in case of injury. And if this happens, he’ll be on the clock immediately.

2) DJ Stewart

Breathe your sigh of relief. DJ Stewart will not be back with the Mets in 2025. Maybe the offensive equivalent of Young in some ways, the Mets force fed him on the roster simply because they had the desire to have a left-handed bat off the bench. The acquisition of Jesse Winker helped alleviate us from seeing him overused.

Stewart ended up hitting .177/.325/.27 on the year with only 5 home runs. It seems the success he had in 2023 was indeed a mirage. Other than routinely drawing walks, he didn’t offer the Mets very much at all.

David Stearns will get rid of Stewart for a reason that’ll be familiar on this list. They can no longer option him to the minor leagues beginning in 2025. There is no chance he sticks around.