Last year’s NY Mets DH duo is getting no love in free agency

The New York Mets tried to get cute in 2025 with the DH spot, and for a while it kind of worked. Starling Marte and Jesse Winker were a “two-bat solution” — who (in theory) could grind at-bats and run into a few big swings.

Now it’s February 2026, Spring Training is basically staring everyone down, and that DH duo is getting treated like it’s the leftover tray at the party nobody wants to take home.

The Mets’ 2025 DH duo just ran into a brutal free-agency reality

Marte’s part is the easy one to explain: teams don’t really know what they’re buying anymore.

He did hit .270 in 98 games and didn’t look washed at the plate. He still ran a respectable .745 OPS, chipped in nine homers, stole seven bags, and generally looked like a functional big-league hitter when his body cooperated. But he’s also 37, clearly no longer a “play every day” outfielder, and his free-agent value lives in a very specific lane. 

The way the remaining free-agent pool is being framed tells you exactly where Marte sits. MLB.com’s February roundup of unsigned hitters literally groups him into the “corner outfielder depth” bucket with names like Randal Grichuk and Tommy Pham — useful pieces, but not offseason centerpieces at all. 

Marte has popped up in the exact kinds of rumors you’d expect. Boston has been tied to right-handed outfield help because their mix leans lefty. The Yankees’ “right-handed outfield depth” chatter has also included him. 

Winker is a different kind of cold market — and honestly, it’s much worse.

With only 26 games in 2025, he didn’t really have a platform season. Teams aren’t debating whether his bat fits; they’re debating whether his body does. When a player’s most recent year is basically an injury montage, February tends to turn into “prove it in camp” territory. Even MLB.com’s “who’s left” list includes Winker right alongside Marte among the unsigned outfield/DH types, which is a pretty loud signal about how the industry is currently valuing him. 

It’s not that New York misread them. The Mets just lived the reality of both players in 2025 — Marte was helpful in slices, Winker was mostly unavailable — and the rest of the league is pricing them accordingly. The DH duo that felt like a savvy, matchup-based idea in April has turned into two free agents waiting for the calendar to blink first.

And at this point, the update isn’t about where they will land — just the honest truth that teams see them as optional, not urgent.