How Zac Thornton could become the unfortunate odd man out on the NY Mets roster

Nobody expects the New York Mets to completely overhaul the roster. Some of the more immediate changes happened at the trade deadline. It wasn’t just expiring pieces they traded. Luke Weaver and Huascar Brazoban were sent away. The team has work to do with David Stearns even admitting the rotation requires necessary additions.

The Mets will surely find a Justin Hagenman and maybe even a Griffin Canning who surprises us all. Tarik Skubal is the prize of the offseason. If the Mets were to sign him, any follow-up additions could be far less.

Unfortunately for one Mets player, any type of addition to the rotation could leave him as the odd man out. Zac Thornton pitched to a 3.42 ERA in 15 starts but with an expected ERA of 4.51 and not a whole lot of red on his Baseball Savant page, the excel spreadsheets tell us the front office could view him as more of a work in progress than automatic lock for the rotation.

Zac Thornton’s chances of making the Mets Opening Day roster have a lot do with how big they go with their rotation addition

Let’s say the Mets do sign Skubal. Then maybe Thornton does have a place. Sean Manaea is an undesirable wild card in the rotation equation. His salary along with more flashes of acceptability in 2026 as a starter than reliever might just have him earn the fifth starter role. Thornton, meanwhile, has his minor league options left. The Mets have continually shown they care about depth. A fully healthy Mets rotation would have them potentially demoting Thornton to work on things such as his velocity.

We’re seeing in the MLB playoffs how few teams actually have enough truly reliable starters. Openers aren’t just a fad. It’s a way for teams to attempt to navigate a shorter series. Thornton will have his use in 2027 even if, because the Mets chose to go with quantity, it has him reintroduced to Syracuse.

Rising Apple’s Pat Ragazzo predicted the Mets would not end up with Skubal but instead reunite with Clay Holmes while also adding Michael King. The Holmes and King duo seem like a practical pairing of players whose combined AAV wouldn’t be all that much less than what Skubal gets. Is one $44 million player worth more to you than two $22 million players?

Thornton showed he can get big league outs even without big strikeout numbers, a high dose of ground balls, or even a whole lot of missed bats or weak contact. The Mets may need to rely on him at some point, but a lot of the signs and common baseball logic will have him down on the depth chart and maybe left off of the Opening Day roster altogether.

Less than 40 innings in Triple-A, all coming in 2026, there is justification to have him sent to the minors to work on a few things. Lurking and right in line to take over for Manaea if he ends up cut or simply after his contract expires following the 2027 season, Thornton could be the victim of a roster crunch and the circumstances of a team that’s belief system doesn’t quite mesh with what he’s ready to offer.

It’s nothing personal. The Mets showed that they like him. They also can’t sit idle and plan for him to be as lucky as he was in his rookie year.

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