What every Mets free agent addition had in common before signing

Let’s lump Carlos Correa into this group, too. Even he had something in common with each of the New York Mets free agent additions before they came to an agreement.

It’s a theme throughout the tenure of Steve Cohen. The Mets are not targeting free agents with a qualifying offer attached to them. It’s one of the reasons why they weren’t going after Correa last winter due to the fact that it would have cost them the number 14 pick in the draft—their actual draft pick in addition to the 11th overall from not being able to ink Kumar Rocker a year earlier.

This way of thinking didn’t change. The only player the Mets did sign with a qualifying offer attached to him was Brandon Nimmo. You can’t lose a draft pick to yourself so they went out and re-added him anyway.

Next year the NY Mets could change their feelings on the qualifying offer free agents

The Mets got through another offseason of avoiding free agents with the QO. Next winter might not be so easy. Shohei Ohtani would get one. Other notable free agents like Matt Chapman and Julio Urias are sure to receive the offer as well.

The Mets can still go big in free agency by avoiding the QO players. Manny Machado turned down the qualifying offer from the Baltimore Orioles after the 2018 season. Because he has received it once already, he can’t be handed one again.

Anyone else who may receive the QO from their team doesn’t seem quite worth losing a draft pick over. Ohtani definitely would be and given the fact the Mets would lose a second-round draft pick instead, it’s a little more tolerable. The 2022 draft had the strange circumstance of the two first-rounders.

Navigating through every offseason and avoiding QO players is impossible to do forever. The Mets signed veteran and international pitchers to get around it. It should be noted the team did show interest in a couple of players whose signings would have resulted in a lost draft pick. Trea Turner and Carlos Rodon were the likeliest to end up with the Mets with the former playing center field if Nimmo walked. Things would have evened out if they did sign him and lose the pick. The same goes for Rodon with Jacob deGrom gone.

Because the team did lose deGrom and Chris Bassitt who had the offer on the table, they’ll now receive a compensatory pick after round four for each of them. All the while, the Mets didn’t lose any picks.