NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 pitching projects David Stearns doesn’t need to sign

3) Walker Buehler

It made sense to take a flier on Walker Buehler when the Red Sox released him last summer. The Philadelphia Phillies ended up taking him away instead. He’d allow 1 earned run in 13.1 innings spread across a pair of starts and a relief appearance. In September, the Mets could have used the reinforcement.

Philadelphia was only able to add him because of how bad Buehler was for the Red Sox. The 5.45 ERA and modest 6.7 K/9 challenged the downfall of Fedde’s totals. A longtime teammate of May’s with the Los Angeles Dodgers for years, Buehler is far more established but with many of those same injury red flags. He combined to make 28 starts from 2022-2024 and hasn’t been all that great since with the exception being this year in Philadelphia and the last two rounds of the 2024 postseason.

The Mets were a team to have rumored interest in Buehler last offseason when he first became available. Many fans wanted him over Frankie Montas and you still aren’t crazy for believing so. Buehler had a much better chance at putting together a strong 2025 campaign. At the end, we can call it a push. Neither was very good.

Boston had their chance to turn Buehler into more. There comes a point when you just have to realize a pitcher is never going to be quite the same. As a fifth starter, sure. Sign him and get whatever you can. The Mets already have candidates for that role. Let’s pass again.