There’s one condition if the NY Mets decide to tender Tylor Megill a contract

November is a housekeeping month for Major League Baseball teams. Free agent signings and trades do happen, but it’s mostly about cleaning out the roster and making some fringe moves. Friday’s non-tender deadline will give the New York Mets some challenging questions. Among them is what to do with Tylor Megill.

Projected by MLB Trade Rumors to earn $2.6 million next year, it’s a cash flow amount that’ll go toward paying him to rehab the full 2026 season. This isn’t something unheard of for the Mets. They just paid Drew Smith $1 million to rehab in 2025 only to turn down his option for 2026.

Do the Mets add his salary to the books at around $2.6 million for 2026 knowing the only benefit is to maybe have him available for 2027? If so, it needs to come with one condition.

The condition: Tylor Megill never starts another game for the Mets and we see what he can do as a reliever

The thought that has crossed everyone’s mind at some point in the adventure that has been Tylor Megill is whether or not he is a major league starter. He has actually been pretty good the last two years. The issue is he hasn’t been good enough to solidify himself as a legitimate big league starter.

9-10 with a 4.00 ERA in 29 starts and a relief appearance between 2024-2025, his outstanding 11.1 K/9 rate is so slick it should have us constantly wondering how good he can be in relief.

A deep arsenal of pitches which actually dropped to only 5 last year, Megill has only dabbled in pitching as a reliever. The natural thought is he’d excel being able to give it his all in a shorter outing in comparison to a start where he’d be asked to go around 5 innings.

Excellent his first time facing hitters last year, he held the opponent to a .179 batting average. The second time through, it jumped to .274. It’s those mid-range pitches that seemed to hurt him the most last year. A .299 batting average against him in pitches 26-50 shows a clear limitation. Considering he'll be coming off of Tommy John surgery and need to be eased back into pitching volume, handing him shorter spurts makes sense.

Megill could be a goner from the 40-man roster beyond just his injury. The team has a full 40-man roster and keeping around too many bodies at the moment who won’t be of any use is problematic. They won’t be able to shift anyone to the 60-day IL to clear room until around the start of spring training. With a few guys they could cut and some known to be out for the coming year, the call on Megill is complicated because it seems like there is an untapped role for him.

Unfortunately, it requires patience, faith, and money.