Juan Soto and 3 other Mets free agent targets playing in the 2024 World Series

You don’t need any convincing when it comes to Juan Soto. The only reason you wouldn’t want the New York Mets to sign him is because you’re going against the grain. That’s perfectly fine. It won’t eliminate him from the discussion among fans and MLB insiders. 

Soto isn’t the only participant in this year’s World Series who could be a match for the Mets. These three others on the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers playing with an expiring contract are also desirable fits. 

1) Blake Treinen

The Dodgers have a lot of pitchers heading into free agency. Chances are they’ll be able to keep a lot of them. It’s more of a matter of whether or not Los Angeles wants them back. 

Someone who has been there for a while and is nearing the end of his career is Blake Treinen. It seems like only yesterday when he was pitching for the Washington Nationals. Perhaps one of the more underrated relievers in years, Treinen bounced back nicely in 2024 after throwing just 5 innings total in 2022 and none at all in 2023.

A 1.93 ERA this past year continued a theme of three straight seasons below 2.00. No longer a closer and yet someone who can step in to close games as needed, he’d be a dream candidate to put in the Mets bullpen in front of Edwin Diaz.

Consistently lower walk rates and good strikeout numbers, Treinen turns 37 next summer, but that shouldn’t scare us too much. He seems to be following a similar path as David Robertson. As long as he’s not looking to break any piggy banks with his next contract, he’s a good match for the Mets.

2) Tim Hill

Does Tim Hill make Mets fans swoon? Maybe not. This doesn’t mean he’s a bad free agent candidate to sign. He’s the exact kind of left-handed reliever David Stearns would sign to become a member of the 2025 Mets bullpen.

The Yankees don’t have a whole lot of other superb free agent fits for the Mets. Even if Gerritt Cole opts out, does he really feel like a solution? We don’t need to have watched much of Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres, Alex Verdugo, etc. to know how problematic their performances have been at times too. Hill is a little different. The 34-year-old Hill has been good in the past and after posting a 2.05 ERA in the regular season for the Yankees might have shown himself to be a quirky enough bullpen arm to consider.

Hill somehow managed to prevent all of those runs at Yankee Stadium despite pitching to contact. He struck out only 3.7 per 9 innings. Limiting his walks to only 1.8 per 9, he did something a lot of Mets relievers couldn’t.

Of course, with Hill there is the bad. He had a 5.87 ERA in 23 innings with the Chicago White Sox before joining the Yankees. It was up at 5.48 in 2023 as a member of the San Diego padres. His career ERA in the regular season now sits at 3.99 which is largely a result of groundballs. He has a career rate of 60.7% and got it up to a high of 69% with the Yankees this year.

When he’s on, Hill gets the job done. There is no way the Mets should consider him to be their number one lefty in the bullpen. Make him the Jake Diekman to someone’s Brooks Raley except with better results and no Tommy John surgeries.