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

3) Joey Lucchesi

Time moves differently in outer space. Looking at Joey Lucchesi’s tenure with the Mets, one might conclude that they’ve been an astronaut. He is somehow about to enter his fourth season with the organization. So far, so mysterious.

Tommy John surgery stole his second half of 2021 and expelled him from having any MLB innings in 2022. He did get to make 9 starts for the big league club last year, posting an impressive 4-0 record and 2.89 ERA to boot. The promising turn in a career that seemed stalled should have him very much in the mix for more starts again in 2024.

Lucchesi, now 30, is down to his final minor league option. It’ll get used this year at which point the Mets will then have to decide for 2025 if he’s a major league option for them or not. They could either tender him a contract in his final year of arbitration eligibility and see if there’s space on the roster, trade him, or non-tender him in the offseason and move on.

There will be opportunities for Lucchesi this season to start for the Mets. Another outcome is for them to trade him away midseason in any sort of a sell-off they may undertake. As a sixth starter down the stretch for another club, he might have some value. We saw how pricy free agent pitchers in the mid-tier class were in the offseason. They’ll be worth something this summer even if they’re as unproven on a regular basis as Lucchesi.