NY Mets rumors revisited: A Cy Young start for a pitcher with penalties attached

You don’t get points for creativity with MLB contracts, but the San Diego Padres shouldn’t care much about that anyway. They’re winning games and doing it after an offseason that seemed to have them interested in shedding payroll. They made a few lighter additions to the ball club, one of which involved signing a player whose name somewhat unexpectedly appeared in offseason New York Mets rumors.

Throughout this season, we’ll revisit some of those offseason rumors and check in on how those players are performing with other ball clubs. Was David Stearns right to make the Mets rumors involving Nick Pivetta stay as a whisper?

It’s far more complicated than looking at his Cy Young caliber start and saying he would have been a good buy for the team.

Nick Pivetta has been unlocked with the Padres this season and would have surely been great for the Mets as well

Put Pivetta on the Mets pitching staff and the long awaited ace-quality arm would have emerged. That was the thinking we assume the front office had when Pivetta officially became a free agent and rumblings of interest in him caught some of us off-guard. After all, Pivetta turned down a qualifying offer from the Boston Red Sox. Signing him, after landing Juan Soto, meant losing two more draft picks this upcoming summer.

Through 4 starts, Pivetta has rewarded the Padres for their faith in him. He has gone 3-1 with a 1.57 ERA. Two of his starts included 7 shutout innings. One was a 1-hit allowed performance to open his season. The other more recent outing included 10 strikeouts.

The contract he signed with San Diego was an unusual one that’ll pay him $1.75 million this year with a huge boost up to $19.75 million next season. He has two more seasons available at $14.75 million in 2027 and $18.75 million in 2028 with opt outs available after 2026 and 2027.

Pivetta wasn’t necessarily the greatest example of a pitcher the Mets needed to add this offseason. In parts of five seasons with the Boston Red Sox he was 37-41 with a 4.29 ERA. He spent a large portion of 2023 in the bullpen for the Red Sox in what would turn out to be his career-best ERA season at 4.04. It seems like that could be shattered this year with the Padres.

A long 2025 season remains, but we can already look at the Mets’ lack of a deal with Pivetta in a couple of ways. It wasn’t a misfire simply because of the bitterness of the qualifying offer penalties. Signing him would have been like trading two prospects. Even if he goes out and wins a Cy Young, it’s hard to critique the Mets. Plus, with four years all in the player’s control, it goes completely against the front office’s philosophy.