3 Mets free agent signings who would be more of a nightmare than a dream come true

New York Mets fans have learned to dream big in the offseason. Under the direction (and wallet) of Steve Cohen, everyone is fair game as long as the East Coast isn’t a turnoff.

They traded for and then extended Francisco Lindor in year one. Year two included the addition of Max Scherzer. They lost Jacob deGrom then quickly pivoted to Justin Verlander. All the while they’ve been able to retain players like Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo to enormous contracts.

Not every free agent addition that brings a future Hall of Famer, ace, or big time slugger to Queens has become the dream we wanted it to be. If the Mets land any of these three, it feels much more nightmare than dream-like.

1) Paul Goldschmidt

Let’s say Pete Alonso does sign somewhere else. Then what? What do the Mets do at first base? There is a former MVP out there and Gold Glove winner they could sign on a short-term deal. Nah. That’s a Wilpon move.

The best days of Paul Goldschmidt are behind him. The 37-year-old is only a little younger than J.D. Martinez and he, too, suffered offensively this past year. Only two years removed from winning the 2022 MVP, Goldschmidt hit a career-low .245/.302/.414. He played in 154 games for the St. Louis Cardinals and yet everything was down with one exception: strikeouts. He whiffed 173 times which matched a career-high.

There isn’t anything appealing about Goldschmidt any longer. Sure, the 2024 Mets helped set a standard of players bouncing back from the grave. That was a little different. Goldschmidt’s career is winding down. Sean Manaea and Luis Severino were evolving.

It wasn’t long ago that the prospect of having Goldschmidt on your team was enough to make a fan in any city giddy. A somewhat down year in 2023 followed by a much weaker campaign in 2024 makes him an easy pass.

2) Shane Bieber

Shane Bieber is another one of those guys we would’ve loved to see suit up for the Mets. That was then. This is now. Bieber missed most of the 2024 season due to injury. We can’t fairly judge him on what he did in those starts. So we go back to 2023 when he wasn’t as sharp as he had been in the past.

Bieber posted a 3.80 ERA for the Cleveland Guardians in 21 starts. His strikeouts fell to 7.5 per 9 after the previous season when they had already tailed off a little bit at 8.9 per 9. This was a guy who has averaged over 10 per 9 in his career.

In this MLB career that began in 2018, missing time has been a habit of his. A valiant innings eater when healthy with two seasons of 200+ innings pitched, he tossed only 96.2 in 2021 after winning the Cy Young in the previous abbreviated campaign in 2020.

All players, especially pitchers, seem to carry the risk of injury. Bieber certainly seems to fall into a similar category as Severino. He was never quite as bad as Severino became with the New York Yankees. So why not take a chance on him?

The 2025 Mets shouldn’t be about taking chances with big roster spots.