3 offseason moves that will make the Mets early National League favorites

The New York Mets have their work cut out for them this week at the Winter Meetings in San Diego in the wake of seeing Jacob deGrom sign with the Texas Rangers. However, there are three things the Mets can do to be one of the favorites in the National League going into the 2023.

The Mets signing Justin Verlander can help replace the void Jacob deGrom left behind.

Justin Verlander will be 40 years old next year. I don't care. He was the best pitcher in baseball last season, headlining one of the greatest pitching staffs in recent memory with the Houston Astros last season.

Two future Hall-of-Famers in the same rotation is dreamy, and fans saw a glimpse of that with Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom in August. What fans don’t seem to remember was that there were scenarios that had Verlander as the target for the Mets instead of Max Scherzer. The two were great together in Detroit for five seasons before Scherzer left for the Nationals, and could even drive together to the Mets' spring training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

The Mets’ expectations last year were sky high because of the elite starting pitching they possessed, and when they failed in October, the season ended a lot earlier than planned. When deGrom was healthy, he was the premier starting pitcher in baseball, but he wasn’t, and is now with Texas. The best possible replacement for New York is Verlander because he is built for New York.

If Tylor Megill, David Peterson, and Elieser Hernandez are their third, fourth, and fifth starters in the rotation on Opening Day, this is not a World Series team. Having Verlander in there, pushing Carlos Carrasco to the No. 3 starter, makes such high expectations a lot more reasonable for the Mets.

Verlander is one of the ultimate competitors in baseball and is unfazed by the moment, and that's what Mets fans want and should expect from Verlander if he comes to the Mets.

The Mets bringing aboard multiple veteran relievers helps ease the early tension that concerns their bullpen depth.

If you were on the Fangraphs.com RosterResource website on the night of December 4, you saw the Mets’ projected bullpen as Edwin Diaz, Drew Smith, Bryce Montes de Oca, Jeff Brigham, Stephen Nogosek, John Curtiss, Tayler Saucedo, and Yoan Lopez. That is not good enough of a bullpen to get you far.

But the beauty of the free agent market is while it is thin on key offensive players and starting pitching, the relief market is traditionally deep because of all the movement on a year-to-year basis, and there are plenty of good ones, including 2022 Mets in Seth Lugo, Adam Ottavino, and Mychal Givens, and a lefty I begged the Mets to get from the Tigers at the trade deadline in August in Andrew Chafin. Chafin declined his 2023 team option with Detroit last month.

Other veteran relievers that could help New York are Taylor Rogers, Craig Kimbrel, David Robertson, and Matt Moore. The Mets need to sign at least two of these above names to shore up the seventh and eighth innings of games.

The bullpen was good, but not elite, and given salary commitments to other players, it will take the bullpen to be good again to get the Mets in the World Series conversation again.