Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 free agent pitchers for the price of 1 Justin Verlander or less

New York Mets v Houston Astros
New York Mets v Houston Astros / Carmen Mandato/GettyImages
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3) NY Mets should have at least explored the idea of signing Chris Martin

Chris Martin wasn’t a particularly awesome free agent reliever anyone was crossing their fingers for the Mets to sign. He has had some good years. He has had some much leaner ones. Last season he was just okay with the Chicago Cubs until after a trade deadline deal sent him to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He turned that late success in Los Angeles into a guaranteed two-year deal with the Boston Red Sox where he has been pretty awesome this year.

The $8.75 million AAV might have been a bit of a surprise for many, but for a Mets club looking to win it all this season, he should have been a consideration. It’s much more hindsight with Martin than it would be with Bassitt or Chafin. But the message stands. Spreading the wealth out would have benefited the Mets far more, at least at this early stage of the season.

There are any number of combinations we can find in free agency to point at and claim the Verlander contract was doomed to fail if the results were anything less than his absolute best. Even trades where they took on a contract could have yielded better results.

The Martin signing, for equal value of what the Red Sox paid him, leaves us with $6.3 million left. Maybe it costs slightly more to get him to New York. In any case, the Mets may have learned a lesson here.

The clichéd phrase of “not putting everything into one basket” has hurt the Mets this year with certain areas of the roster getting overlooked. The bullpen, in particular, didn’t have nearly enough talent in it from the start. Any kind of Daniel Vogelbach resurgence will fail to convince many he was the right fit for the DH role.

How will this affect the Mets going forward when it comes to spending? Short record-breaking deals haven’t been successful so far. Steve Cohen’s wallet will remain open but maybe instead of handing out a one-hundred dollar bill he comes with a stack of twenties to spread it around.

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