{"id":435277,"date":"2026-01-24T22:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435277\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:07:08","slug":"latest-on-mets-offseason-pursuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/435277\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Mets’ Offseason Pursuits"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mets\u2019 offseason has seen a bevy of major names both coming and going off the roster, and the New York Post\u2019s Joel Sherman<\/a> provides a nice breakdown of both the team\u2019s moves and some of the behind-the-scenes plans (or backup plans) that went into these transactions.\u00a0 Sherman\u2019s piece also details some free agent and trade candidates who hadn\u2019t been previously cited as Mets targets, including Ranger Suarez<\/a>, Ryan Weathers<\/a>, Johan Oviedo<\/a>, and Pirates hurlers Bubba Chandler<\/a> and Braxton Ashcraft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s trade<\/a> for Freddy Peralta<\/a> earlier this week helped the Mets finally secure the frontline rotation help they\u2019d been seeking all winter, which helped because many of the other pitchers the team was exploring had already changed teams.\u00a0 The Yankees acquired Weathers from the Marlins two weeks ago, the Red Sox landed Oviedo from the Pirates in early December, and Suarez signed with the Red Sox last week as well on a five-year, $130MM contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That type of long-term deal for a pitcher was thought to be outside of the Mets\u2019 comfort zone, as multiple reports<\/a> indicated that the team preferred shorter-term arrangements when trying to find rotation help.\u00a0 The same was largely true of the Mets\u2019 position-player pursuits, as the team offered Kyle Tucker<\/a> four years and $220MM, and then landed Bo Bichette<\/a> on a three-year, $126MM deal with two player opt-out clauses.\u00a0 If Bichette hadn\u2019t signed and Suarez had remained available, Sherman wrote that the Mets \u201cwould have pivoted to try to upgrade the rotation with a willingness to do the five years at $130 million Boston did.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an example of how the offseason can be a series of sliding doors, with a team\u2019s priorities quickly changing when other teams start making moves and various star players leave the board.\u00a0 Bichette himself wasn\u2019t even known to be a Mets target until the eleventh hour, as missing out on Tucker led the Mets to quickly turn to Bichette and snatch him away from an almost-finalized agreement<\/a> with the Phillies.\u00a0 And, as it turned out, the Mets ended up landing their desired ace in inexpensive fashion in terms of money (Peralta is owed $8MM in 2026 before entering free agency next winter), but at the hefty trade cost of noted prospects Brandon Sproat<\/a> and Jett Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prying Bichette away from the Phillies may have provided some measure of revenge for the Mets after their unsuccessful pursuit of Kyle Schwarber<\/a>.\u00a0 New York was known to have interest<\/a> in Schwarber\u2019s services, and Sherman noted that the Mets \u201cwere much deeper in on him than previously publicly known.\u201d\u00a0 It was widely expected that Schwarber would re-sign with the Phils and he indeed rejoined the club for five years and $150MM.\u00a0 As interested as the Mets were, Sherman wrote that they \u201cperceived they would have to beat [five years\/$150MM] by a good deal to get him to leave Philadelphia,\u201d so the Amazins backed off.<\/p>\n

The Mets had plenty of talks with the Marlins about Edward Cabrera<\/a> before Cabrera was dealt to the Cubs, so it isn\u2019t surprising that Weathers\u2019 name was also brought up in those discussions.\u00a0 Sherman reported that 8-10 teams had interest in Weathers, and it ended up being the Yankees (another Cabrera suitor) who landed the southpaw for a four-prospect package.<\/p>\n

It was no secret that the Pirates were looking to upgrade their lineup this offseason, and with a surplus of arms on the roster, the assumption was that Pittsburgh would look to move starting pitching for some bats.\u00a0 The five-player deal that sent Oviedo to Boston brought back Jhostynxon Garcia<\/a> as a young outfielder who can help the Bucs as early as 2026, and Mike Burrows<\/a> was traded to the Astros as part of the three-team swap<\/a> with the Rays that brought Brandon Lowe<\/a> to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

With Oviedo and Burrows gone, the Pirates have probably closed the door on further pitching trades, as GM Ben Cherington has said the team would now be open to adding a bit of rotation depth, if anything.\u00a0 Chandler (one of baseball\u2019s top pitching prospects) and Ashcraft (a former second-round pick) each made their MLB debuts in 2025 and look to be part of the Pirates rotation both this season and for years to come, if everything pans out.<\/p>\n

Sherman said the Mets \u201cextensively\u201d discussed Chandler, Ashcraft, and Oviedo in negotiations with the Pirates, and it would be fascinating to know the specifics of those talks.\u00a0 Gauging by the Oviedo deal, the Bucs were presumably looking for controllable position-player talent, so any of Brett Baty<\/a>, Mark Vientos<\/a>, Ronny Mauricio<\/a>, or even top prospect Carson Benge<\/a> might have been on the Pirates\u2019 wish list.\u00a0 If Pittsburgh had looked for more of a veteran bat in the Lowe mold, Jeff McNeil<\/a> (who was dealt to the A\u2019s<\/a> just before Christmas) might have been a fit, but it is hard to imagine the Pirates would\u2019ve given up a significant MLB-ready pitcher for McNeil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mets\u2019 offseason has seen a bevy of major names both coming and going off the roster, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,66396,66395,189882,5152,591,22730,89961,85],"class_list":["post-435277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-braxton-ashcraft","tag-bubba-chandler","tag-johan-oviedo","tag-kyle-schwarber","tag-mlb","tag-ranger-suarez","tag-ryan-weathers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}