The Mets have bigger winter priorities than second base, and that’s why they should stay out of that market altogether.
David Stearns already pointed to first base and the starting rotation as the major areas needing attention in his end-of-season press conference, and second base did not sound like a spot he was eager to attack externally. That tracks, because the Mets already have a built-in answer if they decide not to chase another expensive fix.
Marcus Semien was a major disappointment in 2026 after arriving from the Texas Rangers in the Brandon Nimmo deal. He hit .215 with 15 home runs and 49 RBI in 139 games, and his defense, once a strength, fell off sharply.
The result was just 0.5 Wins Above Replacement on a $26 million salary. The Mets may still come out ahead in the long run since Semien’s contract is two years shorter than Nimmo’s, but they also have to live with the possibility that they’re burning as much as $52 million if he doesn’t bounce back in 2027.
Brett Baty gives the club a reason to hold the line. Stearns spoke highly of him in his final 2026 press conference, and Baty’s season offered enough to suggest there’s real value there.
He played solid defense at second and brought some offense too, hitting .236 with 11 homers and 56 RBI. His late-season surge leaves open the possibility that he can get closer to the form he showed in his 2025 breakout.
That’s the key reason the Mets shouldn’t be tempted by a free-agent splash at the position. The market has names, but it does not have clean solutions.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. sits at the top of the second-base board, but he’s coming off a down year with the New York Yankees and drew Aaron Boone’s ire for what looked like a lack of focus in the field. The talent is obvious. The fit for the Mets is not.
Luis Arraez brings the kind of contact bat that fits the Stearns approach, but he’s already a limited defender at second, he’s turning 30, and the whole equation gets shaky if the bat cools off or he has to move off the position. Brandon Lowe, who launched 35 home runs a year ago, could also be a target if the Pirates decline his qualifying offer, but his injury history is hard to ignore at age 32, especially after the Jorge Polanco gamble backfired last season.
Gleyber Torres carries his own red flags. He played only 96 games for the Tigers in 2026 and is now on the wrong side of 30.
Jeff McNeil is another name in the mix, though the Athletics are expected to decline his team option for 2027. And if the Mets wanted him back, they already had the chance to keep him instead of making what was essentially a salary-dump trade last winter.
There’s also the issue of blocking the kids. Emilien Pitre and Jefferson Rojas both finished at AAA Syracuse and could debut early in the season, while Mitch Voit is not far behind after reaching AA Binghamton.
All three are among the Mets’ top 10 prospects. Pitre looks capable of at least filling a McNeil-type utility role, and Rojas and Voit have the upside to become long-term starters if everything clicks.
That makes the case for patience pretty straightforward. The Mets need a stopgap, and Semien already serves that purpose. Throwing more money at a weak second-base class would only create another expensive problem and clog a path the organization may want open.
Stearns has generally kept his free-agent commitments short, with most of those deals set to come off the books by the end of the 2028 season. There is no second baseman in this class who looks worth the kind of short-term overpay Bo Bichette got last year, and there’s no reason for the Mets to be the team that takes that swing.
Second base can wait. First base and the rotation cannot.
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