This NY Mets free agent reunion isn’t good enough for what they need

If there’s one thing the New York Mets badly need it’s for their upcoming road jersey reveal to go over really well on Saturday at Amazin Day. Well, maybe not. What the team wears on the road is not going to change your fandom. We’ll talk more about if the jersey is a travesty than if it’s the greatest thing we’ve ever seen. In the end, it’s how filthy the laundry gets in late October we care about most.

In order to make this a meaningful year, the Mets have an incomplete task at hand. It involves bettering the bullpen which, at the moment, includes one significant addition we can be proud of. A.J. Minter was a good signing by the ball club. However, there needs to be at least one more upgrade.

The team only has a small number of roster spots they could conceivably hand out to an additional relief pitcher. They’ll have a bullpen short one arm with the use of a six-man rotation. Realistically maybe only able to dispose of one more arm—Sean Reid-Foley and Danny Young are replaceable—a reunion with Ryne Stanek just doesn’t cut it for any final bullpen arm they could add.

The Mets should aim higher than Ryne Stanek to complete their bullpen

The team will need to leave at least one spot in the bullpen to option players back and forth to Syracuse. Either Reed Garrett or Dedniel Nunez should have that spot. Both existing together is only a possibility if the Mets get rid of Reid-Foley and Young which remains in play.

The $11 million AAV for Minter far exceeds what David Stearns was willing to pay any bullpen arm last year. Things have changed significantly. This isn’t a year about buy low candidates despite the team doing that exact thing with several of their early offseason signings.

Stanek might have had a 6.06 ERA with the Mets in 17 games post-trade deadline, but we know he is capable of much more. A lifetime 3.65 ERA with multiple excellent years in the recent past including a 1.15 ERA performance in 2022 for the Houston Astros, he’s a typical breed of relief pitcher who’ll suffer from a couple bad outings or look like an All-Star when things swing his way. His incredible 10.6 strikeouts per 9 over his career will continue to make him a desirable player. In a Mets uniform last year, he struck out one-third of the hitters he faced. Walks and a few too many home runs allowed are what made us lose some confidence in him.

Fortunately, the playoffs are nothing new for him. Stanek was one of the most relied upon arms for Carlos Mendoza. His performance earned back favor with fans and erased the negative perception created in the regular season, all of which was mostly based on a bad ERA.

Early in the offseason, Stanek made sense to come back. Not so much any longer. Outside of the team convincing Griffin Canning to accept a minor league assignment, any of those final bullpen spots need to be used on someone a bit more reliable on Stanek. The Mets balked at paying Tanner Scott and we can understand it. What about all of those other available relievers still unsigned?

It has been a relatively quiet January with Jesse Winker headlining the actual moves they’ve made as we await a Pete Alonso conclusion. The Mets can and should do better than re-signing Stanek.