Blue Jays cleverly sign free agent the NY Mets should have stashed first

It’s more common than it may seem. Just because a player is hurt and will miss an entire season, teams are willing to pay to lock him up early. We saw the New York Mets pay Drew Smith this past year to rehab only to non-tender him at season’s end. They did the same with Adbert Alzolay, penciling him in as a bullpen option for this coming season.

The Mets may have a few more players fitting this description already. Tylor Megill and Reed Garrett were tendered contracts by the Mets despite knowing they won’t pitch in 2026 outside of some sort of miracle recovery. It can go down as a waste of money or a clever way to start building a pitching staff for the future.

Finishing up the year, the Toronto Blue Jays made one of those signings. Rookie Nic Enright, who underwent Tommy John surgery and will miss all of 2026, signed a two-year minor league contract with the Blue Jays. It’s right out of David Stearns’ playbook with the deal matching what they gave to Alzolay last offseason.

Nic Enright could have been a smart pickup for the 2027 Mets

Enright pitched to a 2.03 ERA in 31 innings as a rookie for the Cleveland Guardians this past year. The 28-year-old righty has been floundering around in Triple-A for 222.1 innings, pitching to a credible 3.27 ERA there with 11.3 K/9. Clearly a bullpen option the Guardians would have kept around had he been healthy, two remaining minor league options would have made him even more valuable to pay now with the hopes of him contributing in the future.

The Mets won’t have this added flexibility with Alzolay. His minor league options have been exhausted. It’s one of the reasons why they might want to think about holding him back to begin the season. It really depends on how the rest of the process goes in trying to reshape this bullpen. Start the year with Alzolay and realize he’s not quite ready, the only option is for an IL stint, legit or not.

We don’t need to kick and scream over Enright going to the Blue Jays. The Mets might have made him an offer. They could simply just be turned off by his low ground ball rate, high fly ball rate, and 31st percentile fastball velocity.

The Mets do deserve credit for all of the options they’ve thrown at the wall this offseason who’ve joined the depth chart. They’ve actively scouted the Winter Leagues and are taking a chance on multiple journeymen relievers. Enright is one match who slipped away worth watching from a distance to see if it stings at all in 2027.