10 best free agent targets the Mets need to go after hard in the next two offseasons

1) The Mets must make a big statement and sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto

After the fire leaves the past trade deadline, the Mets have set 2025 as the year in which the team would be in the best position to compete. This isn't to say the 2024 roster won't be competitive, but the team isn't planning to spend lavishly this winter.

Regardless of that, the team will try to look at options in the next free agency that can contribute in 2024 and beyond. This is a necessary step in the quest to establish and put together a more efficient team on the pitch, so Steve Cohen's most successful move should be to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

This would be a movement that is not only necessary but impressive. The fans are feeling down after lowering their aspirations from being a championship-competitive team to one that can barely put together a roster that wins game-to-game this season.

Yamamoto has been a four-time all-star in Japan, a two-time MVP, and a two-time winner of the Eiji Sawamura Award, the equivalent of MLB's Cy Young. The righty won the Triple Crown each of the last two seasons.  

Yamamoto has enough command of his pitches to achieve enough swing-and-miss to swing hitters with a K/9 above 9.0 in his career with a fastball that averages 95 mph, but his breaking balls are even more dominant. 

In thin free agency, as far as starting pitching goes, Yamamoto is the best option available not named Shohei Ohtani. The Mets could form a duo of aces from the Japanese market capable of making a huge impact in MLB without the need to overpay for reliable arms.