The Mets have plenty to sort through this offseason after a second straight rough year, and the bullpen figures to be part of that reset. New York finished last in the NL East at 74-88, its first last-place finish in over 20 years, after a 12-game losing streak in April and a midseason managerial change helped sink what was supposed to be a promising season in Flushing.
With the Mets trying to position themselves to contend in 2027, the roster is going to need real turnover. And among the biggest questions is whether New York should keep rolling with three relievers who have each flashed value but come with enough baggage to make a trade this winter worth considering: Huascar Brazobán, Dedniel Núñez, and Reed Garrett.
Brazobán arrived from the Milwaukee Brewers last offseason in the same deal that included Freddy Peralta, a trade that clearly didn’t work out for New York. Peralta posted one of the worst ERAs in baseball during his time with the Mets and, after being dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays, now has a chance to win a World Series.
Brazobán was supposed to give the Mets flexibility, working as both a long-relief option and a back-end starter. Instead, neither role stuck.
In 32 games and eight starts, the 28-year-old produced a career-worst 5.53 ERA with 41 strikeouts, 16 walks and a 1.34 WHIP over 53.2 innings. He was also bounced between the majors and Triple-A Syracuse, and with no minor league options left, keeping him around could be a risky decision for New York.
Núñez, meanwhile, is the kind of arm who can make a bullpen look much better when he’s healthy. In 2024, he was electric, putting up a 2.31 ERA with 48 strikeouts in 35 innings over 25 outings before his season ended with surgery for a flexor injury.
The problem is that the follow-up never really materialized. Núñez appeared in only 10 games for the Mets in 2025 and struggled to a 4.66 ERA over 9.2 innings before undergoing season-ending Tommy John surgery on July 12, 2025, which also cost him most of 2026.
He returned on August 4 and looked like his old self, finishing with a 2.31 ERA, 48 strikeouts, a 0.91 WHIP and one save in 25 games. But the health concerns are impossible to ignore, especially since he has never gone beyond those 25 outings in a season.
Garrett gives the Mets a different kind of dilemma. He was a bright spot in 2024, his first full season in New York, when he logged a 3.77 ERA with 83 strikeouts over a career-high 57.1 innings in 53 games.
He followed that with another solid year in 2025, finishing at 3.90 ERA with 64 strikeouts across 55.1 innings. Then came Tommy John surgery, which kept him out all of 2026.
The issue with Garrett isn’t just the surgery. It’s the consistency.
His walk numbers have been a problem, and that showed again in 2025 when he posted a 10.9% walk rate and issued 26 walks in 55.1 innings, or 4.23 per nine. He had similar issues in 2024, when he walked a career-high 30 batters and carried a 12.1% walk rate.
After moving out most of their bullpen at the trade deadline, the Mets are expected to have a new-look relief corps in 2027. That makes this a logical offseason to cut bait on arms with real upside but plenty of uncertainty. Brazobán, Núñez and Garrett have all shown they can help a bullpen, but New York may decide that too many questions remain to keep all three around.
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Francisco Alvarez Left The Mets With The Same Big Problem
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But the bigger issue for the Mets never really went away. Alvarezs bat cooled badly after the trade deadline, and the numbers told the story of a catcher who finished with a .233/.311/.399 line and a 99 wRC+, while the defensive side remained shaky with negative run prevention and framing metrics. He ended the year at 1.4 fWAR, leaving New York with the same familiar question at a position where the upside is obvious, but the overall value still has to catch up. [Read more 🡒]
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Now theres a bit more context to revisit it with. Ohtani never moved in a trade, eventually leaving the Angels through free agency instead, while the Mets have since watched those prospect names take very different paths. Baty and Parada remain part of the conversation in Queens, Ramirez has his own development track, and the old what-if is the kind of front-office debate that never really disappears when a player like Ohtani is involved. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Instability Could Complicate Search For The Veteran Batting Voice They Need
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Still, landing the right fit may not be simple. Recent performance has already made the job a tougher sell, and the organizational uncertainty around the club only adds another layer of difficulty as it tries to persuade a respected candidate to step into the role. For the Mets, the challenge is not just finding a hitting coach with a strong resume, but finding one willing to take on a situation that has plenty of questions attached to it. [Read more 🡒]