The Mets had to trim their 40-man roster, and Eric Wagaman ended up being one of the names squeezed out. On paper, that makes sense.
In 26 games and 52 plate appearances for New York this past season, the right-handed first baseman and occasional utility option hit just .191/.269/.319. He didn’t do much to solve the club’s need for a right-handed bat in a part-time role.
Still, there’s a case that the move came a little early.
Wagaman had minor league options left, and his track record wasn’t empty. Before his Mets stint, he put up a .250/.296/.378 line the year before, then followed that with a .285/.358/.454 showing in Triple-A. That’s the kind of depth profile teams usually keep close, especially when the roster is already tight and more decisions are coming with Rule 5 protection moves.
The biggest reason to pause is what Wagaman did against left-handed pitching. He went 0 for 9 against righties, but he still managed a .239/.326/.395 line overall versus lefties this season.
In 2025 with the Miami Marlins, he was even better in that split, hitting .283/.321/.462 against left-handed pitching. That’s not star-level production, but for a bench bat whose job is to punish lefties, it plays.
That’s also where the comparison gets awkward for the Mets. Christopher Morel and Mark Vientos occupy a similar lane, and both are names that don’t exactly fit neatly into a roster crunch.
Neither can be sent to the minors without going through waivers. Vientos has the one thing that keeps him from being treated like a pure roster casualty: his breakout 2024 season.
The Mets’ 40-man roster is full now, and it’s heavy on pitchers. On the position-player side, the depth is thin, with third-string catcher Hayden Senger and Ronny Mauricio among the players who are also out of options. That kind of roster construction forces clubs to keep cycling through the same sort of depth pieces, the way teams have done with players like Jose Iglesias, Tommy Pham, Austin Slater, and then Wagaman.
So no, this wasn’t a move the Mets are likely to regret in any dramatic way. Wagaman walking away isn’t some franchise-altering mistake.
But it is fair to wonder why a player with usable splits and minor league flexibility was the one shown the door while Morel, with worse numbers and no options, remains in the picture. The Mets will keep searching for that kind of bench fit, because that search never really stops.
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Peterson did show some improvement after the trade, enough to remind teams why his name had lingered in the conversation for so long. Now he is headed into free agency for the first time, and the timing adds another layer of uncertainty with looming CBA negotiations expected to shape the market. For the Mets, it is another sign that a once-familiar chapter is closing, even if the next one for Peterson is still waiting to be written. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Risk Letting A Dangerous Bat Slip To A Rival
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For the Mets, the calculation seems to be less about the players talent than about timing and roster fit. Their bigger push is expected to come on the pitching side, though that does not necessarily close the door on Sato completely. If the market shifts or ownership decides to get more aggressive, New York could still circle back, but for now the danger is obvious: a bat with real thump could end up landing with a rival while the Mets wait on a different part of the board. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Could Make A Costly Bullpen Bet Fans Would Debate
Adrian Morejons market is already shaping up to be one of the more interesting bullpen stories of the winter, and it is easy to see why the Mets are being mentioned as a possible fit. The left-handed reliever has been handed a qualifying offer that could pay him $23.15 million next season if he accepts, a figure that would set a new high-water mark for a pitcher in his role. Even without closing duties right now because of his current teams setup, his underlying performance has been strong enough to keep him squarely in the conversation.
For the Mets, the appeal is obvious even if the cost would spark debate. Morejon is viewed as a pitcher who should move into a closers job with his next team, and the expectation is that he can still get better from here. That makes the qualifying-offer attachment a real hurdle, but also the kind of bet a bullpen-needy club sometimes has to weigh if it wants impact rather than just depth. [Read more 🡒]