The Mets are in strong position to be smartly aggressive on the free agent market this offseason.
With just $170 million or so committed to the payroll for 2025 after a ton of money came off the books, and with their payroll situation in very strong shape over the next half decade, Steve Cohen, David Stearns, and the rest of the front office have a tremendous opportunity.
Of course, the Mets won't just throw money around with reckless abandon.
Not with the savvy and measured Stearns running baseball operations.
The above is why you won't find two of the biggest starting pitching free agents -- Corbin Burnes and Max Fried -- on this list.
There's a chance one or both of them sign contracts that look like relative steals six or seven years for now, with Burnes (who could get a seven-year deal) and/or Fried having stayed healthy and ace-like during that span. But long-term contracts for pitchers over 30 years old very rarely work out.
You also won't find Pete Alonso, Sean Manaea, or Luis Severino on here, but that's just because they're internal free agents. This list will focus on external free agents only.
But Alonso and Manaea should be among the Mets' top targets. You can read the case for Alonso here and the case for Manaea here.
As far as the top five external free agent targets? Here they are...
No. 4: Alex Bregman
Bregman should be viewed as a potential fallback option if the Mets aren't able to nab their top target, whose name you can probably guess. And Bregman could fit in a scenario where the Mets re-sign Alonso (Bregman at third base, Vientos at DH) or where they don't (Bregman at third base, Vientos at first base).
There are reports that Bregman could be seeking an enormous deal, and some projections have him getting as many as seven years and close to $200 million. If that turns out to be where the bidding goes, the Mets should pass. But if Bregman's deal is reasonable -- something like five years -- he could make a ton of sense.
