Howie Rose wants the NY Mets to steal a Phillies free agent not named Kyle Schwarber

The New York Mets will be searching for a top-of-the-rotation workhorse this winter and will find a flush field of options on both the free-agent market and trade block. That said, the plethora of options doesn't mean that all should be put on equal footing.

Everyone will have their preferences, and with that, we can take a look at what longtime Mets radio man Howie Rose thinks the best course of action would be. Rose suggests the Mets can kill two birds with one stone, weakening their chief rival, the Philadelphia Phillies, and bolstering their rotation in one fell swoop by signing southpaw Ranger Suarez this offseason.

The logic behind Rose's plea makes some sense, but upon closer inspection, Mets fans would hate the decision if it were to become a reality.

Mets fans would hate it if Howie Rose's suggestion of signing Phillies ace Ranger Suarez comes true

In his career, Suarez has often tormented the Mets, logging a total of 59.2 innings with a 3.17 ERA. At face value, taking a known Met killer away from the Phillies might seem like a big win.

However, what the Mets need is a true ace, and what can happen at times on the free-agent market is that good-not-great starters can get miscast and paid ace-like money. Based on contract predictions, there's a good chance that happens with Suarez.

The 30-year-old lefty is projected to get a six-year, $164 million contract by The Athletic's Jim Bowden (subscription required), despite many of his comps like Yusei Kikuchi, Nathan Eovaldi, and Sonny Gray all landing contracts in the three-year, $70 million range.

If that's the company he keeps, it's easy to say that Bowden is out of touch, but he's not alone in that lofty projection. Spotrac pegs Suarez's market value at six years, $161.5 million, for a $26.9 average annual value that isn't far off from what Bowden predicts. Now with multiple sources, you can say that here there's smoke, there's fire, and Suarez will be paid handsomely.

That's ace-like money, and a career 3.38 ERA might make you think he'd be worth that type of contract. However, a look under the hood reveals that he's not.

First and foremost, a starter can only call himself an ace if he can be a workhorse, and that's not Suarez. While he's avoided major injuries throughout his career, bumps and bruises have limited him, and he's never made 30 starts or exceeded 157.1 innings pitched in a single season.

Furthermore, he's a questionable fit for what the Mets like out of their starters. A sinker-slider pitcher, the lefty saw his average fastball velocity dip to a career-low 91.2 miles per hour in 2025. While velocity is not the end-all-be-all, it's notable that he's already a soft tosser looking at a deal that will take him into his mid-30s.

The Mets prefer pitchers with electric stuff, and Fangraphs Stuff+ gives us a perfect tool to measure that. Scaled to 100, anything over is above average, while anything under 100 would be considered below average.

Suarez's Stuff+ has never exceeded 100, coming in exactly average in 2023, and below average every other year of his career. In 2025, he posted a mark of 96, one point below his career average of 97. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and Suarez excels at locating his pitches, but stuff matters, and starting out so low means there's nowhere to go but down from here.

All said, Suarez doesn't fit the bill of what the Mets are looking for. He's not a workhorse nor a true ace, and by the end of a long-term deal, it's easy to see he'd become an albatross.