The Mets are heading into an offseason where the rotation sits near the top of the agenda, but David Stearns still isn’t tipping his hand on whether New York will chase the biggest arm on the market: Tarik Skubal.
That uncertainty comes after a 2026 season that never quite lined up for the Mets, with the pitching staff becoming a problem more often than the club wanted. There were stretches when some of the young starters in the rotation looked better than expected, but the overall feeling around the group is that change is coming over the next couple of months.
Stearns has already made it clear that the Mets will have time to address the rotation, and his comments point toward an aggressive offseason. The question is whether that aggression means going after the premium option or working the edges of the market.
Skubal, who was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers by the Detroit Tigers at this year’s Major League Baseball trade deadline, stands as the top available player this winter. Beyond him, the free-agent class is solid but not loaded. If the Mets want a meaningful upgrade, the paths appear to be signing Skubal, taking chances on lesser free agents, or swinging a major trade.
Still, the latest reporting suggests the Mets are not locked in on Skubal. Anthony DiComo pointed to Stearns’ approach as the reason the team’s interest remains unclear.
“At his end-of-season press conference, Stearns mentioned wanting 10-12 starting pitchers in the organization at the start of Spring Training.
“While at least one of those will come from outside the organization, Stearns declined to answer a question regarding his desire to shop at the top of the market -- in other words, to pursue Tarik Skubal, the best starting pitcher available. Committing hundreds of millions of dollars to a soon-to-be 30-something starter is not Stearns’ MO.
But picking and choosing lesser starters has yielded checkered results for him. In 2024, it worked brilliantly.
In 2025, it did not,” Anthony DiComo wrote.
Stearns built a strong reputation with the Milwaukee Brewers by uncovering talent that other teams missed. With the Mets, though, the results have often been tied to splashier moves, and not all of those have paid off the way fans hoped.
That leaves this offseason with room to go in a different direction. However it unfolds, the Mets need the end result to be clear: an above-average staff.
In Other News...
Mets Face A Tricky Arbitration Squeeze With Roster Spots At Stake
The Mets are heading into one of those winter decisions that can shape the edges of a roster before the real moves even start. Several arbitration-eligible players are in play, and the club has to balance cost, performance and roster space while deciding who gets a contract offer and who gets squeezed out. Francisco Alvarez appears headed toward a tender, which gives the Mets a familiar young piece to keep in place as they sort through the rest of the group.
Christopher Morel and Cristian Pache look like the clearest non-tender candidates, with both performance and roster considerations working against them. Mark Vientos, Cionel Perez and Tylor Megill sit in a more complicated middle ground, where the Mets could explore tenders, trades or other roster moves depending on how they want to structure the winter. It is the kind of arbitration crunch that rarely grabs the spotlight, but can quietly determine how much flexibility the team has once the offseason really gets going. [Read more 🡒]
Mets May Face A Big Rotation Pivot This Winter
The Mets are expected to spend the winter looking hard at ways to fortify a rotation that needs impact help, and one of the biggest names on their radar is Tarik Skubal. The pursuit figures to be fierce, with the Dodgers looming as a major rival for his services, which only underscores how aggressive New York may need to be if it wants to land a frontline arm.
Michael King also fits into the picture as another starter worth watching as the market develops. He has made the move from bullpen work into a rotation role and could become a real target for clubs seeking rotation stability, giving the Mets a possible alternative if the top tier of the market slips away. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Face One Offseason Challenge Steve Cohen Can't Simply Spend Away
The Mets are headed into an offseason that looks less like a splashy shopping spree and more like a test of judgment. Under David Stearns, the front office is weighing how to improve a roster that still needs help in several places while keeping an eye on budget considerations, a familiar balancing act even with Steve Cohen in ownership. Rather than focusing only on the biggest names, the discussion has turned toward finding useful fits who can patch holes without forcing the club to chase every high-priced option.
That is why a range of players has come into the conversation, from Tarik Skubal and Alec Bohm to lower-cost possibilities such as Austin Nola, Tyler Mahle and Matt Fairbanks. The common thread is obvious: the Mets need more than money to solve this winter. They need value, flexibility and the kind of additions that can strengthen the roster without draining the resources they may want to preserve for bigger moves later on. [Read more 🡒]