5 Mets free agent targets they passed on last year that they should sign this winter

The New York Mets have a huge offseason ahead of them as they try and wipe away the bad scent that was the 2023 season. The Mets came into the year expecting to compete for a World Series, but were out of it by July.

While there likely was no magic move Billy Eppler could've made to pull the Mets from a 75-win team to a World Series team, there were still moves he could've made to make the team a bit better.

New York passed on some intriguing free agents that would've made them at least a little bit better, but opted to pass. This offseason they can look at some of those same free agents and this time bring them to Queens.

1) J.D. Martinez

J.D. Martinez is a player the Mets considered both at the 2022 trade deadline and in the 2023 offseason but opted to pass both times. The reasons for that were because he was older, had just gone through a down year where he was plagued by back issues, and was strictly a DH.

The Mets opted to stick with Daniel Vogelbach as their primary DH and paid the price while Martinez reverted back to his old self with the Dodgers. This isn't a huge surprise considering it feels like everyone bounces back with the Dodgers.

Despite obvious concerns for regression and the unfortunate reality that he's strictly a DH, the year Martinez just had combined with the gaping hole the Mets have at DH makes him an obvious candidate for them to pursue.

Martinez was an all-star with the Dodgers, hitting 33 home runs and driving in 103 runs while posting an .893 OPS and a 134 OPS+. He'd provide an instant boost to a lineup that could really use it even if his numbers aren't quite as gaudy.