The next free agent pitcher the Mets should sign after Luis Severino

The New York Mets made their first notable addition of the 2023-24 offseason by bringing in former Yankees starter Luis Severino on a 1-year, $13 million pact, according to multiple reports on Wednesday evening, and it will offer help to a pitching staff that desperately needs depth in the rotation.

But if the Mets want to inch closer to contention, they will need to get more pitching help beyond Severino. The good news for David Stearns is that he can look at a familiar southpaw from his days with the Milwaukee Brewers that can help bridge the gap, who is available as a free agent and coming off arguably his best season in the majors. And that would be Brent Suter.

Free agent reliever Brent Suter is the next pitcher the New York Mets should sign to further bolster their pitching. 

Brent Suter was one of the most unheralded free agents that worked out for the team that signed him a year ago, with the Colorado Rockies.

On a pitching staff that conceded a league-worst 957 runs last year, it was 33-year old Suter that had the best season or any Rockies pitcher, posting a 150 ERA+ and a 3.44 FIP over 69.1 innings in 57 appearances as their lefty specialist.

Suter’s peripheral stats according to Baseball Savant were excellent last year. He doesn’t strike out as many batters, nor does he throw hard (his 4-seam fastball averaged 86.0 mph). But he makes up for it by inducing soft contact, as he averaged an exit velocity of 84.0 mph, which ranked as the best among 280 pitchers that faced 250 batters last season or more in the major leagues.

Suter’s offspeed stuff was quite effective and it makes him the pitcher he is, as opponents hit well under .200 against the changeup and slider in 2023.

Suter previously pitched with the Brewers from 2016-2022 and pitched to a 3.51 ERA in 394.2 innings pitched there. Stearns ran the baseball operations department in Milwaukee Signing Suter would be on brand for Stearns for familiarity. Both went to Harvard too, for what it's worth, so they have that connection too.

Adding Luis Severino is not going to solve all of the Mets pitching woes overnight, considering that he was ineffective last season with the Yankees and is a health risk, as he strained his right lat each of the past two seasons and is three years removed from Tommy John surgery. But I feel like the Mets’ bigger problems lie with their bullpen.  

Suter would make a needed addition to a bullpen that made life miserable for fans last season. He'd pair up with Brooks Raley as effective soft-tossing lefties to neutralize some of the best lefty hitters in the game, with some of them in the NL East (think Atlanta's Matt Olson and Philadelphia's Bryce Harper).

This would be an opportunity for the Mets to pivot from the failures of the Billy Eppler era where lack of bullpen depth proved to be a problem in 2022 and in 2023.