The Mets are going to be attached to just about every available name this offseason, because that’s what happens when a team has obvious needs and a fan base that can dream up a move for anybody with a pulse and a bat. But three of the free-agent fits that keep popping up have clear roadblocks, and none of them look like real Queens answers by the time the 2027 season opens.
Ty France is the first name that makes some sense on paper. He just turned in a monster year with the San Diego Padres, and he checks a box the Mets could use at first base.
The problem is that the fit gets awkward fast. Jared Young is already on the roster, and the Mets already have a first-base situation that isn’t exactly begging for another layer of complication.
France is 32, and if New York has spent this long worrying about Pete Alonso’s regression, it’s fair to ask whether this is really the direction they want to go. From 2023 through 2025, France was a .686 OPS hitter, and his 2026 production looks more like the outlier than the new normal.
Adrian Morejon is a different kind of target, but the same basic issue applies: the price would be steep, and the Mets may not want to pay it. Signing him would trigger qualifying offer penalties, costing New York its fourth- and fifth-highest draft picks along with an extra $1 million in international bonus slot money.
Morejon would be an upgrade in the closer’s role over Devin Williams, but that still doesn’t line up cleanly with how the Mets have tended to operate. They need a top starting pitcher more than another expensive reliever who could end up helping reset the market.
There’s also the possibility that Morejon gets a chance to start somewhere else, which would only push him further away from Queens. The better time for the Mets to chase a player like him would have been as an Edwin Diaz replacement or alternative, and that window already feels closed.
Now the bullpen looks stuck, with Williams, Sean Manaea, and Kodai Senga all seeming likely to wind up in relief at some point.
Jake Bauers is the least convincing of the three. If France is a shaky fit, Bauers is even harder to justify.
He’s the kind of player the Mets would hope Jared Young could become more like, but Bauers still brings a thinner résumé than France and doesn’t offer the defensive value the club would want at first base. The Athletic’s Jim Bowden is the only one really pushing that connection, and even that doesn’t make the fit any cleaner.
Bauers did show in 2026 that he can be a much better player, and he could absolutely help somebody in 2027 and beyond. The Mets just don’t look like that team.
And with Bauers also tied to a qualifying offer, that alone should take him out of the conversation.
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