The Mets can’t claim they’re trying to compete without at least making Jordan Montgomery an offer

The panic of losing Kodai Senga for any amount of time is real. The projected Opening Day starter for the New York Mets won’t miss days. It might not even be weeks. It’s likely to turn into months.

This leaves the Mets turning to their internal options for help. It may not put a white flag in the season. If Luis Severino is back to the stud he was for the New York Yankees and healthy plus Tylor Megill lives up to the hype the analytics team has thrown out there this offseason, the club can stay afloat long enough until Senga returns and/or the trade deadline arrives.

The team has stated they plan to stick with what they have as a replacement for Senga. Reasonable and befitting of everything they’ve done up until this point, the unfortunate part is they actually do have options out there. Specifically, it’s free agent Jordan Montgomery they need to make an offer to.

The Mets don’t need to sign Jordan Montgomery, but it’s a mistake to not make an offer

Upon seeing the Senga injury, Montgomery’s agent Scott Boras felt a little tingle of excitement. He has gotten several of his clients big deals from the Mets in the recent past. Pete Alonso is the next big one he’ll hope to take a percentage from, whether it comes from Steve Cohen or someone else’s bank account.

Seeing a player go down with a major injury right at the start of spring training will typically put a team up against a wall. There isn’t much to do. Last year’s Edwin Diaz injury on March 16 was impossible to rectify with a transaction. This isn’t the case with losing Senga.

Montgomery is the pitcher to make an offer to over even Blake Snell who seemed to be written off by the Mets entirely because of the qualifying offer penalties. Montgomery was traded midseason in 2023 therefore no longer eligible to receive one from the Texas Rangers. He was someone that made sense for the Mets from the start of the offseason until they stuck with shorter deals.

No one has bitten on Montgomery yet and with spring training games already beginning, he’s running out of time. The Mets would have failed this offseason if they didn’t at least check in on him. Right now, hearing any sort of desperation from David Stearns would do very little to lower the asking price. Boras isn’t about to take less money to help them out even if it means dragging out Montgomery’s free agency longer.

It’s reasonable for the Mets to refuse to give into outrageous contract demands for anyone, especially with how the offseason has gone. Still, with the Mets selling their belief that they can compete this year, it feels necessary to make an effort to come to terms with Montgomery in some form—as implausible as it may seem.

Despite a future roster crunch when Senga does return, the Mets would have obvious ways to fit everyone all in. Adrian Houser has been exceptional in relief during his career. As the occasional sixth starter as needed, he’d easily fall into a bullpen role at times as well.

What the Mets shouldn’t do is give into and sign any of the lesser remaining free agents. Even someone such as Rich Hill who won’t cost a whole lot, no longer has the upside Montgomery could bring.

A lot needed to go right for the Mets to be good this year. Already, one big thing has gone wrong. A reasonable offer to Montgomery is the sensible next step to take.