3 free agents the Mets should sign ASAP, 2 they should let go somewhere else

The Mets should sign Hyun-Jin Ryu ASAP

Starting pitching remains a major concern for this Mets team. The additions of Luis Severino and Adrian Houser should help a little, but they still could use another starter to join Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana.

The biggest names on the market are Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Snell isn't happening because he has the qualifying offer attached, and Montgomery simply doesn't make sense at the price tag he's going to warrant. The Mets could dip to the next tier and sign a guy like Shota Imanaga, but again, it's hard to see them investing what could be a nine-figure deal into a guy they don't view as a game-changer. Yamamoto was that guy, nobody else seems to be.

Lucas Giolito made the most sense as a pitcher with upside that they could rely on to take the ball every fifth day. It's a shame they let him go to Boston. Hyun-Jin Ryu doesn't give the Mets any reliability when it comes to durability, but he does have some upside. That's where the Mets should be looking right now.

He has just two seasons of 30+ starts in his ten-year MLB career, but Ryu has a 3.27 ERA overall. He hasn't stayed healthy much at all, but when he does pitch, he's quite good. He only made 11 starts this past season for Toronto but had a 3.46 ERA.

He's a guy who has finished in the top three in the Cy Young voting twice in the last five years but has also combined to make just 17 starts in the last two seasons. Having him and the oft-injured Severino in the same rotation is a bit worrisome, but the Mets really don't have many other options right now.

Hoping Ryu pans out for a year and either helps the Mets win games or net them a decent prospect at the deadline makes the most sense right now instead of overpaying drastically for a pitcher who probably isn't even much better when the 36-year-old is actually healthy.