The Mets spent part of the 2026 season trying to patch together the margins of their roster with veteran bets, the kind of moves that are supposed to uncover one more useful arm or bat. Sometimes that kind of gamble pays off. More often, it leaves you staring at a quick exit and wondering whether the club gave up too soon.
A handful of those castoffs have since found new homes, and the results have been mixed enough to make for a useful check-in. Some have settled in.
Some have kept sliding. And in a couple of cases, the Mets may have been onto something after all.
Craig Kimbrel is the most interesting case of the bunch. The Mets took a shot on the 38-year-old with two ideas in mind: maybe there was still something left in the tank, and maybe, if there was, it would be another way to stick it to the Atlanta Braves. He landed with the Tampa Bay Rays and wasted no time making New York look a little silly, showing mid-90s velocity and the kind of nasty slider that once made him one of baseball’s most feared closers.
So far, Kimbrel has made 13 appearances and logged 13 innings for Tampa, with a 3.46 ERA. That number doesn’t tell the whole story.
His xFIP sits at 4.21, almost the same as the 4.24 he posted in Queens. His strikeout rate has slipped from 9.00 K/9 to 7.62, but the biggest changes have come in two other areas: his home run rate has dropped from 1.80 HR/9 to 0.69 HR/9, and his left-on-base rate has jumped from 56.2% to 75.3%.
Better? Maybe.
Luckier? Definitely.
Bryan Hudson has been a much cleaner success story for the White Sox. The Mets traded cash considerations to Chicago in February for the six-foot-eight left-hander, banking on the version of Hudson who had turned in a 1.73 ERA for Milwaukee in 2024.
He didn’t survive spring training in New York’s view, but Chicago brought him back quickly, and he’s been steady ever since. Through the All-Star break, Hudson owns a 2.20 ERA across 42 games and 41 innings and has become a real piece in the White Sox bullpen.
Luis Garcia’s path has gone the other direction. After a 2025 season that took him through both Los Angeles clubs and the Washington Nationals, he came to the Mets as a 39-year-old middle-relief gamble.
It didn’t last. He put up a 7.11 ERA in 6 1/3 innings before getting cut loose.
Minnesota gave him another chance, but the results were even rougher: 8 2/3 innings, a 10.38 ERA, and a release by the end of May. He’s still a free agent.
Austin Slater has been bouncing around even more than that. Over the past year, he went from the White Sox to the Yankees, then to Miami with the Marlins, then to the Mets, and finally back to Florida with the Rays.
His job has been to hit lefties, though that hasn’t exactly been happening. He hit .250/.286/.300 with the Mets, then .273/.360/.364 in seven games for Tampa before getting sent to Triple-A.
There, he’s put up a .289/.400/.526 line.
Richard Lovelady is the one that probably stings the most for Mets fans, at least in the short term. David Stearns brought him back over the offseason, and the Mets moved on after just 7 1/3 innings.
Washington picked him up, and he’s thrown 23 innings over 27 appearances with a 3.91 ERA. But the surface numbers hide a mess underneath.
His walk rate is sitting at 6.65 BB/9, and his FIP is 5.58. That kind of control problem usually catches up eventually, which would make the Mets feel a little better about how quickly they let him go.
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