NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 1 strategy David Stearns doesn’t seem swayed to change

Juan Soto isn’t nearly the end of what the New York Mets need to do this offseason. The team has been pretty aggressive, but one strategy David Stearns implemented last season without the best results is continuing.

You don’t cry when you see Hoby Milner sign for only $2.5 million to join the Texas Rangers. After all, much like Brent Suter last offseason, he was returning to stomping grounds he knew. Milner grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Suter went to high school in Cincinnati thus leading to a deal last winter with the Reds. Each was a potential free agent match for the Mets. They didn’t get their shot at him this year with Suter signing a new deal with the Reds on November 1.

It’s very likely that the Mets wouldn’t have pursued Suter hard anyway. A consistent reliever in his career with the Milwaukee Brewers connection to Stearns, the theme of this offseason’s exploration into improving the bullpen seems to be the same as last year.

The Mets look like they’re waiting out the free agent reliever market, again

The Mets did make some incredibly cheap additions to last year’s bullpen in free agency in the early part of the winter. Jorge Lopez signed for $2 million. Michael Tonkin got $1 million. Lesser moves that would backfire quickly, the bigger bucks were spent in the latter part of the offseason when the team inked Jake Diekman, Adam Ottavino, and Shintaro Fujinami in a short span of days in February.

New York hasn’t been caught sleeping when it comes to the top-tier relievers. However, many of those experienced closers probably aren’t in the realm of possibility for a team already paying Edwin Diaz a ridiculous amount to finish games. A lack of action last offseason when it came to buying relievers close to $10 million as well as the lack of rumors of them doing so this time around suggests the plan remains exactly the same. Furthermore, with all of the minor league signings as well as a few split contracts and even major league additions to the pitching staff, we can safely assume the hope is even two or three of those lesser additions work out well.

How wise of a plan is this?  A recalibration took place midseason with the Mets needing to add multiple bullpen arms. Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek, and Huascar Brazoban were all added in July via trade. Alex Young was a waiver wire addition who had some success, but was used mostly when the team needed a fresh arm.

Of those minor additions the Mets made last offseason, Danny Young turned out to be the most successful. A 4.54 ERA in 37.2 innings at the end of the season, unfortunately, spoiled the lengthy stretch he had in the summer when he was pitching much better. We should credit Stearns for holding onto Reed Garrett who never had a season anything like what he accomplished in 2024.

Focus for the Mets was on filling out the middle and back of the rotation while pursuing Soto. The bullpen arms can wait but they also can’t because of how quickly that market tends to move once it rolls. Waiting out the free agent market seems to be where this club is headed. Don’t sleep on a trade to land an arm or two either. As much as we can question the starting pitcher choices, there’s even more to raise with the bullpen.