Top 10 free agent targets for the Mets when the lockout ends

The New York Mets have had an A+ offseason so far. They signed Starling Marte, Mark Canha, and Eduardo Escobar all in one night. The offense seems to be transformed from one of the league's worst to one that is at least capable of being one of the better offenses in baseball. And oh yeah, they signed Max Scherzer too to help form one of, if not the best one-two punches at the top of a rotation ever.

When the lockout finally ends, the Mets still have some holes to fill on their roster. Their lineup is good, but there're some free agents that would make it great. Since they lost two starters in Marcus Stroman and Noah Syndergaard and only signed Scherzer, the Mets could use another arm.

While the Mets roster looks good on paper, there is still work to be done.

When the lockout ends, here're some players I expect the Mets to target.

10. Yusei Kikuchi

This one comes with a little bit of risk. Yusei Kikuchi has been in the Major Leagues for three seasons thus far. He's gone 15-24 with a 4.97 ERA in 70 career starts. Simply put, he has not been what the Mariners hoped for when they signed him to a three year $43 million dollar deal.

However, I believe Kikuchi has some promise. This season he had a really solid first half which saw him go 6-4 with a 3.48 ERA in 16 starts. Unfortunately, the second half was not kind to Kikuchi as his ERA shot up to 5.98 in 13 starts.

I believe Kikuchi has good stuff and has shown in spurts that he can be good. It's just about putting it together for an extended time. His 9.3 K/9 shows that he's able to put hitters away, it's about limiting walks (3.6 BB/9) and the home run ball (1.5 HR/9).

Since Kikuchi hasn't proven anything at the big league level I expect him to get a cheap prove it deal and the Mets should be all over that.