6 important Mets players who could be gone next year if they fail in 2024

2) Jose Butto

Jose Butto will come into this season with only one minor league option left. Likely to get used, it puts him up against the ropes just like the rest of the players named on this list. Butto’s value to the Mets comes as a starting pitching depth piece. A move to the bullpen is probably the only way he sticks around and they’d need to be confident enough in him by the end of 2024 to guarantee him that spot.

Butto had an uninspiring 2023 season in Triple-A. He made 19 starts and finished with a 5.93 ERA. He was amazingly better at the major league level in his 42 innings of work which came mostly as a starter. The 3.64 ERA with nearly identical walk and strikeout numbers per 9 could suggest he was a bit unlucky in the minors. One explanation was giving up home runs at a rate of 1.7 per 9 in the minors compared to 0.6 per 9 in the majors.

Butto won’t get the luxury of spending a couple of years bouncing between the majors and minors. This year is it and that’s only if he can outperform some of the competition.

He’d need to have a phenomenal season to be even in consideration for a fifth starter role next season. In a competition alongside an optional player such as Tylor Megill (he didn’t make this list by the way), the Mets would be likelier to choose the guy they can demote over someone who’d be a candidate to get DFA’d immediately.