5 dream Mets roster additions for next winter to build a super team like the Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers are building their version of a super team. Now stacked with players acquired through trades and free agency, they’re showing the power of spending prospects and money to build a contender. The goal of the New York Mets should be similar. They don’t have to exactly replicate what the Dodgers do. Their sustained success over the last decade is the endgame the Mets should follow.

Eventually, we need to believe the Mets end up with a super team of some kind under Steve Cohen, right? The 2023 team wasn’t it. Nor was the 2022 squad that won 101 games. A true super team leaves little doubt about where you stand in the league.

Super teams seem to come up short more often than they succeed in all sports. Nevertheless, these five mega roster additions should already be on a bulletin board in David Stearns’ office.

1) Sign Juan Soto

You can’t discuss a super team without including the most super free agent available next offseason, can you? Juan Soto is in New York, just the wrong borough. He’ll represent the New York Yankees at the start of the 2024 season. All the while, Mets fans will keep tabs on him in hopes of convincing the superstar outfielder that Queens is the place to be.

Soto is the kind of addition the Mets need to make to turn their lineup into a true threat. In recent years, the Dodgers have traded for and extended Mookie Betts, signed Freddie Freeman, and only a few weeks ago brought Shohei Ohtani to town with the most unorthodox contract in the history of contracts. This includes any WWE contract stipulations. They then added Yoshinobu Yamamoto just to make sure everyone knew they weren’t messing around.

There are rare chances for a team to acquire a player like Soto. Him, alone, pushes the Mets closer to having their super team.

3) Sign Corbin Burnes

Matching the Mets and soon-to-be free agent Corbin Burnes goes beyond just the connection to David Stearns. It definitely helps.

It seems the Brewers have no shot at extending or even re-signing Burnes. After taking him to arbitration last offseason, the relationship has seemed tarnished. Burnes seems guaranteed to become a free agent and all it will cost the Mets is money.

Three straight All-Star selections and four straight years of being in the top ten of the Cy Young vote should make him one of the most desirable pitchers out there. Next winter’s list of free agent pitchers is stacked (more on them later) to the point where there is plenty of help available. Unlike the bidding war for Yoshinobu Yamamoto where the alternatives are much less, teams can pivot away from Burnes and let the bigger spenders like the Mets eat each other alive.

Burnes will hit the open market ahead of his age 30 season. It’s about what could be expected. He’ll do so with about 900 MLB innings under his belt, assuming he logs around 190-200 more in 2024. The Mets won’t be buying an overly damaged pitcher. For at least a couple of years, he can help anchor the rotation.

4) Trade for Devin Williams

Devin Williams is another one of those Brewers players that Stearns should be itching to reunite with. A free agent after the 2025 season, he’d be an offseason rental target for the Mets to pursue. Stearns already showed the Brewers will do business with him, acquiring Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor in a much less splashy trade than any involving Williams would be.

For a couple of seasons, Williams was the unquestioned best setup man in baseball. He finally transitioned into a closer role upon the departure of Josh Hader. He has been just as good ever since.

With Williams, he’d obviously go back to being a setup man with the Mets. While Edwin Diaz is here, it’s his job to close out the majority of games. Williams would be the best possible backup and the elite setup man we know we want handling the eighth inning.

Because this is a trade scenario, the Mets wouldn’t have to make Williams any promises of actually closing games. And with Diaz having an opt-out in his contract after the 2025 season, they’d have an already built-in backup plan for the ninth inning. They’d just have to make sure they don’t lose both of the relievers at the same time.

5) Sign Max Fried

There are a lot of really good pitchers available in free agency next winter. Some will be extended. Max Fried, who has been ignored by the Atlanta Braves, is someone who may have already gotten a little too expensive for their taste.

Choosing Fried here for the super team has as much to do with where he’s coming from as it does his abilities. Take your pick of any of the free agent starting pitchers. There are plenty of them.

Snagging Fried away from the Braves would be a victory for the Mets. Although he has battled some injuries, Fried owns an incredible 62-26 record and 3.03 ERA. His highest ERA in any season was the 4.02 he posted in 2019 when he won a personal-best 17 games. We can blame the juiced baseballs for the ERA jump, can’t we?

If you want to build a super team, you have to play a little dirty. Fried would be my choice. Maybe yours is plucking Gerrit Cole away from the New York Yankees if he opts out. Perhaps you’d prefer to do what the Dodgers have to so many other teams and strip away Walker Buehler from them. Whichever it is, the Mets need some big arms for their roster whether it’s a super team or something less they plan on constructing.