The New York Mets have a gathering scheduled with the prize of this winter’s free-agent crop, two-time AL Cy Younger Award winner Tarik Skubal, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The 2 events will sit down to speak this week. Heyman provides that Skubal is hopeful of getting a deal completed earlier than the league imposes a lockout and transaction freeze on Dec. 2 amid collective bargaining negotiations with the gamers union. Heyman’s colleague, Joel Sherman, wrote just a few minutes prior that rival brokers and executives have framed the Mets as one of many extra “aggressive” groups within the early phases of the offseason, each with regard to free-agent pursuits and commerce talks.
A match between Skubal and the Mets is an apparent one. The Mets had been in all probability the Nationwide League’s most disappointing workforce in 2026, floundering by way of a disastrous first half and ultimately waving the white flag forward of the commerce deadline. President of baseball ops David Stearns traded 9 gamers — David Peterson, Clay Holmes, A.J. Minter, Freddy Peralta, Tyrone Taylor, Huascar Brazoban, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley and Ben Rortvedt — forward of the Aug. 3 commerce deadline.
The explanations for the Mets’ 2026 downfall had been plentiful, however shoddy beginning pitching was close to the highest of the listing. Holmes missed months with a fracture in his leg after being struck by a comeback liner. Veterans like Peralta, Peterson, Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea didn’t pitch wherever near their capabilities (although Peralta rebounded following a commerce to Tampa Bay). Younger, controllable arms like Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Zac Thornton give the Mets some purpose for long-term optimism, however the in-house choices past that trio aren’t notably inspiring.
Barring a commerce, Manaea shall be again for the ultimate season of his three-year, $75M deal however is coming off a middling 4.78 ERA in 150 2/3 innings. Jonah Tong was as soon as one of many sport’s high pitching prospects and considered as a core piece of the long-term rotation, however he posted a 4.54 ERA with a 12.6% stroll price in 23 Triple-A begins. Tylor Megill shall be again after lacking the 2026 season attributable to UCL surgical procedure, nevertheless it’s laborious to know what to anticipate from him after a prolonged absence.
Bringing in rotation assistance is a pure goal for Stearns & Co. — and Skubal is clearly essentially the most impactful technique of doing so. He’s going to command the kind of high-salaried, long-term dedication to which Stearns (like most entrance workplace leaders) is often averse, however contracts of this magnitude are typically negotiated instantly with the proprietor. Steve Cohen, baseball’s wealthiest proprietor, dealt instantly with agent Scott Boras on negotiations with Juan Soto and Carlos Correa (who agreed to a $315M cope with the Mets earlier than considerations together with his bodily scuttled the contract). Skubal, like Soto and Correa, is a shopper of the Boras Company.
As shown in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, the Mets completed the 2026 season with the best money payroll of any workforce within the sport and trailed solely the Dodgers when it comes to their luxury-tax obligations. MLBTR contributor Ethan Hullihen tasks greater than $276M on the Mets’ books already (together with projected arbitration salaries), with a CBT quantity north of $289M. Neither is more likely to function a deterrent for Cohen, who signed Soto for a document $765M after ending up the 2024 marketing campaign with a payroll within the vary of one-third of a billion {dollars}.
By now, Skubal’s accolades want little clarification. He’s a two-time Cy Younger Award winner who’s posted 4 straight seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA, a strikeout price north of 30% and a stroll price shy of 5%. General, he carries a 2.47 ERA, 31.1% strikeout price and 4.5% stroll price over his previous 626 1/3 regular-season innings. No pitcher within the sport is inside even one level of the 26.7-point hole between Skubal’s strikeout and stroll charges. Since 2023, Skubal is second amongst certified starters in ERA (trailing Blake Snell’s 2.46 by the smallest quantity attainable). He’s third in swinging-strike price and stroll price whereas sitting in a fifth-place tie for strikeout price.
It wouldn’t function a deterrent anyhow, however the truth that Skubal was traded midseason additionally rendered him ineligible to obtain a qualifying provide. As such, whichever workforce indicators him gained’t must expend any draft or worldwide newbie capital. So far, the incumbent Dodgers and ever-aggressive Padres have already been tied to Skubal. The Cubs, regardless of their standing as a big-market workforce with a dire want for rotation assist, not often play on the high of the free-agent market and reportedly aren’t planning to make a serious run at him.
