Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 best free agent starting pitchers we could realistically expect

New York Mets rumors pointing toward a possible starting pitching addition have fans speculating as to what kind of a deal they could strike with any of the remaining free agents. The two at the top, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, aren’t realistic possibilities.

Snell’s asking price and the qualifying offer penalty imposed by MLB struck him out as a real option. Montgomery, on the other hand, always has been a good fit for the Mets. The trouble here is that if his asking price does come down, other teams would be more willing to outbid the Mets who’d most likely end up in the next threshold of luxury tax penalties.

What about everyone else? Dig a little deeper and these three pitchers could make some sense for the Mets in some capacity.

1) Michael Lorenzen

Finding space for Michael Lorenzen on the MLB roster is difficult. A lack of minor league options for pitchers other than Shintaro Fujinami means if the Mets sign Lorenzen he’s going to need to be on a minor league pact or handed the fifth starter spot.

Is Lorenzen any better than what the Mets already have? An All-Star last year with the Detroit Tigers and the hurler of a no-hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies, he crashed and burned late in the season immediately after the no-no.

Lorenzen does have some decent numbers as a pitcher but most came pitching in relief. As a swingman out of the bullpen for the Mets, he’d actually be a big improvement over many of the others. The Mets could conceivably hand him a starting rotation spot to begin the year and move him to the bullpen once all of the starters are healthy (LMAO).

Other teams should be able to offer Lorenzen more of a guarantee to start for them. He’s a Plan-C for the Mets. A name we know the Mets have checked in on, this is probably the best we could hope for at this point.

2) Vince Velasquez

A bit of an outsider to join the Mets because he won’t be expected to pitch until at least midseason, Vince Velasquez is actually coming off of a successful 8-start season with the Pittsburgh Pirates. A career-best 3.86 ERA (small sample of course) should have teams considering him later on this year if he can prove he’s healthy. A guy best known for his time with the Philadelphia Phillies, this free agent is clearly available because of the concerns of whether or not he will pitch at all this coming year.

Curiously, the Mets didn’t add any players in a “rehab status” to the roster this offseason. We saw the club sign John Curtiss back in 2022 all while knowing he’d miss the year. This was all a planned addition for the 2023 season. It didn’t work out well but it also didn’t kill the team.

A minor league deal with Velasquez wouldn’t cause any pain for the Mets. One reason to stay away is that by the time he is ready to pitch again, the Mets would like to think at least one if not more of the prospects could be MLB-ready.

He’s a warm body that might just earn a paycheck to rehab. Not even Brandon Woodruff was able to get a deal from the Mets to do this and he’s in a much higher class of player.

3) Brad Keller

Longtime Kansas City Royals pitcher Brad Keller remains available and without all that much in the way of rumors as to where he could land. He appeared in only 45.1 innings for the Royals last year due to an injury which took away most of his chance to build a big year right before hitting the open market.

At 28-years-old, Keller is someone whose age should work in his favor when it comes to getting a job. Obviously a candidate best suited for a minor league contract, he’s someone the Mets should look into for some starter depth or even for some relief innings.

Keller has a lifetime 4.27 ERA in the majors but has gone over this total in each of the last three seasons. A somewhat high walk ratio and a low strikeout one in his career, Keller has relied on groundballs for outs more than anything else. The 51.8% is impressive but it hasn’t exactly translated into much success.  The batted average of balls in play against him is at .301. This high total comes in large part to how few outs he gets via strikeout.

Signing Keller would go against the grain of many other offseason pitching additions by the Mets. Less than two weeks from St. Patrick’s Day, he’s still one of the best we could realistically expect the Mets to land.

This article was originally published on risingapple.com as Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 best free agent starting pitchers we could realistically expect.