NY Mets rumors include the name of a free agent more surprising than Clay Holmes

Free-flowing New York Mets rumors should be expected to increase over the next few days as the MLB Winter Meetings take place. As sealed off as the front office may be from leaks, the agents looking for some leverage are sure to let some information out.

The Mets have been one of the more aggressive ball clubs when it comes to filling out their rotation. Already signing Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas to fill two spots, they move onto the last batch—hopefully seeking to add someone who is more upper echelon.

Recent Mets rumors have connected them to obvious choices. Nathan Eovaldi and Jack Flaherty are two names recently mentioned. Then there is a surprise, Nick Pivetta. A player in a similar spot as Luis Severino with the qualifying offer penalty attached to him, he’s the easiest to pass on regardless of the type of contract he is seeking.

Mets rumors naming Nick Pivetta as a consideration are puzzling for multiple reasons

Everything the Mets have done up to this point suggests caution. They throw out some of it by signing Juan Soto. That’s a given. Awarding anyone with the kind of money he’ll get is a little nutty. More outrageous would be to sign a player like Pivetta who’d essentially be like signing a free agent plus trading two prospects to acquire.

Pivetta would be a fun player for the Mets to throw into the lab and develop further if they weren’t giving up so much to acquire him. High strikeout numbers throughout his career have helped him standout. His walk rate has been about average with one of his bigger weaknesses being the long ball. It rose an alarming 4.7% last year.

Pivetta’s time in Boston didn’t include any truly awesome season. Other than showing durability with four consecutive seasons of logging 140+ innings even with a move to the bullpen thrown in for the 2023 season, we can understand why there’d be interest from ball clubs for a proven innings eater.

The results haven’t always been the greatest with a 4.29 ERA overall in Boston. His last two seasons were on the better side of the number at 4.04 and 4.14 this past year. A repeated 1.12 WHIP, as well, in each of the last two years had him trending in the right direction.

Under different circumstances, Pivetta could be a match for the Mets. Especially now with Holmes and Montas present, to add onto the qualifying offer sacrifices that would come with signing Pivetta—made even worse so if the Mets signed another player in his situation—we can wonder what the purpose of ever showing much interest at all in Pivetta was. I’d like to think the only contact they made with Pivetta was to get some dirt on the Boston Red Sox to eliminate them from the Soto sweepstakes.