Taijuan Walker is not a priority for the Mets

The New York Mets are going to have an epic offseason one way or the other. Prepare yourselves for a winter of Mets rumors, rumblings, and speculation.

An early hit in this category came from SNY’s Andy Martino. Oh, quit your groaning! Something, something, broken clock right twice a day. Regardless of what you think of him, Martino is in the know. In the case of free agent pitcher Taijuan Walker, he seems to believe the Mets rumors will pass him by.

Mets rumors indicate the team does not have Taijuan Walker as a priority

Martino isn’t fully committing to a departure from Walker. Nonetheless, it’s not a big leap to assume Walker is outside of their top list of priorities. Let’s connect the dots ourselves.

Walker was the fourth of the starting pitchers to make the postseason roster. He only did so as a bullpen arm when Joely Rodriguez went down. That’s indicator number one the Mets are probably not going to pay him a whole lot when they have other needs to address.

Secondly, let’s not forget when it was when Walker joined the Mets. The 2022 season was year number two. He is not a Billy Eppler addition. With Sandy Alderson out and Eppler driving the car, he’ll want to make his mark. Re-signing Jacob deGrom and maybe even Chris Bassitt would help do so far more.

Walker was effective in 2022—far more so than the year prior when he collapsed in the second half. He went 12-5 with a 3.49 ERA for the Mets. The performance was pretty much exactly what they needed from their fourth/fifth starter. Making him a big part of offseason Mets rumors shouldn’t be out of the question. It’s just not so reasonable to believe the Mets will match what he could get from other teams. Someone is going to pay him to be their number two or three guy. The Mets will look at other options.

If Walker is indeed out of the picture, the Mets could either look at options like Tylor Megill or David Peterson to be starters next year. Alternatively, there’s free agency and even trades to make.