3 Mets free agents we can already expect to be gone after the 2023 season if not sooner

This year’s New York Mets class of free agents is about as gigantic as it gets. Next winter does include some notable players, too. There are plenty of expiring contracts, opt-outs, and options on different deals the team signed players to.

Already, before even taking the field for the 2023 season, it feels like these three Mets players will be gone after the coming campaign if not sooner.

1) NY Mets pitcher Carlos Carrasco won’t be back after next year

Trade rumors involving the Mets shopping Carlos Carrasco could have his time in Queens come to a close much sooner than later. Carrasco is signed for only one more season after the team chose to pick up his option for 2023. Do they flip him now for another need? It doesn’t seem to fit much with how the rest of the roster is shaping up. What the Mets may always do is use him as a trade deadline asset to send him somewhere else and acquire a starting pitcher upgrade.

Regardless of what happens with Carrasco in 2023, it doesn’t seem likely we’ll see him on the 2024 roster. It’s not ageism. The Mets are unafraid to sign top-level starting pitchers in their upper 30s.

Carrasco first joined the Mets for the 2021 season as a number three or four starter capable of giving them number two or three stuff. He struggled in year one but rebounded nicely in 2022.

What separates Carrasco from other pitchers his age the Mets have targeted is the performance. He is in a class or two below Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. The team can look at other free agents with fewer innings on their resumes to replace him or go forward with a younger guy. Eventually, we probably will see Tylor Megill or David Peterson grab a rotation spot.

Of course, that may also depend on whether they make it through the 2023 season. Both of them are trade candidates as well.

3) NY Mets infielder Eduardo Escobar has already moved to the trade block

Consider Eduardo Escobar the Carlos Carrasco of the bats. He is very much a trade candidate with the addition of Carlos Correa to the roster. Yet another double initials player the team could deal before we even get to Opening Day, the better plan would probably be to have Escobar become a part-time player and use his bat regularly against left-handed pitchers.

Escobar’s currently undefined future does have one light many of us will agree on. His option for 2024 doesn’t seem likely to get picked up. By the time we get to 2024, the Mets will need to have Brett Baty on the MLB roster permanently. Escobar’s rough 2022 season puts him in a spot where he’ll have a lot to prove this year. As strong as his finish was, we need to see much more from the veteran infielder.

Keeping Escobar after the 2023 season means paying a part-time player quite a bit of money. It’s not an issue for Steve Cohen, however, the Mets may be able to find a better fit for themselves.

One thing we can always consider is the Mets picking up Escobar’s option and then trading him next offseason. This is risky. The circumstances are different from Carrasco in a pitcher-friendly league. We definitely have learned to expect anything and everything from the Mets.