The New York Mets still need a veteran starter at the top of the rotation, but finding one won't be easy.
The New York Mets are once again rumored to be interested in free-agent starter Tarik Skubal, and once again the fit makes sense. The Mets have their future ace in right-hander Nolan McLean, and they have several young starters who look ready to join their rotation on a full-time basis.
Adding Skubal at the top would give the Mets the veteran presence that Freddy Peralta was supposed to provide when the Mets acquired him, and owner Steve Cohen is always eager to spend.
But it’s complicated, largely because of the upcoming labor strife. The lockout will likely happen on Dec. 1, and Will Sammon of The Athletic raised an obvious question: What if the new CBA comes with a new salary cap or some kind of equivalent?
That will be especially challenging for the Mets. As Sammon noted, New York is already paying big bucks to outfielder Juan Soto and shortstop Francisco Lindor, and adding Skubal would give the Mets an incredibly top-heavy payroll that would give them little room to fix the rest of their roster problems.
There are other questions more specific to Skubal as well. He’s approaching his age-30 season, and he’s already had three elbow procedures. This is not a player who looks like a good choice to bet the farm on pitching wise, but that’s not going to stop owner Steve Cohen, who loves to go star hunting when his number comes up in the offseason.
There are other options, but they’re not necessarily good ones. The Mets wound up trading for Freddy Peralta, which came with a high cost, but he couldn’t handle the New York crucible and the Mets wound up trading him to the Tampa Bay Rays.
The market won’t help with this problem. According to sources around the league, Skubal is close to being it when it comes to adding an ace or another top of the rotation option, which will only drive his price up depending on whether or not there’s a cap.
According to GM David Stearns, the Mets response to this will be to go bargain hunting. Per the league sources that Sammon used, the Mets are expected to look for back-of-the-rotation help, which is usually a crapshoot of epic proportions. The Mets decided to rely on the likes of Sean Manaea, David Peterson and Kodai Senga last year, which is why they were so bad, and it’s very easy to envision this sort of thing happening again.
