Strong Momentum Is Building For Mets To Sign Skubal

New York Mets GM David Stearns wouldn’t say Tarik Skubal’s name out loud on Tuesday at the GM meetings, but according to Tim Britton of The Athletic, the starting pitcher who finished his season with the Los Angeles Dodgers represents the key to the Mets offseason.

Stearn talked about “different dimensions and many different ways to build a team,” and he added that the Mets will “explore all of them.” 

But Britton said the Mets have the “means, motive and opportunity” to land Skubal, and the labeled the offseason a pending disappointment if this doesn’t happen. 

The writer based his argument on all the things that go wrong when you finish 74-88 and have been 30 games under .500 since the middle of the 2025 season, and he pinned all of this primarily on the starting pitching. 

Specifically,  the starting staff has ranked 27th in the majors in innings pitched and ERA. Right-hander Nolan McLean is a foundational piece, and several other young arms have started to emerge, most notably Christian Scott and Zac Thornton. 

But improving the rotation with a top-of-the-rotation starter would be the most impactful move, and it would improve the Mets as a whole as well. Britton also argued that no other team has a need as sharp as the Mets, with the Dodgers having other front-line options and all the other playoff-caliber teams chasing Skubal either have well-stocked rotations or several rotation holes to fill. 

Skubal’s stats are obvious, and Britton didn’t waste a lot of time on those. His 18 WAR over the last three seasons is almost double that of the next best rotation candidate, Sonny Gray, at 10.8. According to Britton, that’s the largest gap between best and next-best starters since 2013. In this year’s starters class, there’s Skubal and there’s everybody else. 

Finally, the writer addressed the argument against paying at least $350 million for a six-inning pitcher. He simply cited the way the game has changed, and Britton followed up by saying that Skubal averaged more innings per start over the last three seasons than anyone else in baseball. 

Britton didn’t address the two obvious issues with Skubal, though, with those being his age at 30 and his history of arm trouble. We heard some of these same arguments in favor of a big move before the trade for starter Freddy Peralta, who went on to star for the Tampa Bay Rays in the postseason after his disastrous tenure with the Mets led to a midseason trade. 

But the media drumbeats are starting for the Mets to sign Skubal, and while no one knows if this is the best move, it is the most obvious one.