Despite right-handed pitcher Zack Wheeler rejecting the Mets’ $17.8 million qualifying offer, re-signing the Georgia native should be a top priority this winter.

Wheeler, 29, had an interesting tenure with the Mets organization to say the least.

After being acquired for now current manager of the Mets, Carlos Beltran, back in 2011, Wheeler went from the marquee pitching prospect in the system, to an afterthought midway through the decade, to a valuable No. 2 starter the last two years.

In 2018-19, Wheeler was worth nearly 9 fWAR while pitching nearly 400 innings.

The longtime Met is sure to have an active market this winter and rightfully so. Wheeler has impeccable fastball velocity, which ranks in the 94th percentile by Baseball Savant. That’s paired with a strong spin rate on his curveball a fantastic exit velocity and a low hard hit percentage.

Over the last two seasons, Wheeler has also seen success by minimizing the walks he’s yielded. His six percent walk rate in 2019 is the lowest of his career as tracked by Statcast.

Should the Mets fail to re-sign Wheeler, they will be taking a big hit to their starting rotation.

For a team that is trying to return to the postseason for the first time since 2016, that’d be a big blow. Losing his 4+ fWAR production is going to be very hard to replace, unless they signed someone like Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg, which is as likely as seeing a pig fly.

In house, the Mets are lacking in starting pitching depth. Some of the recurring characters who general manager Brodie Van Wagenen has floated around as potential options are Corey Oswalt, Chris Flexen and Drew Gagnon. Prospect David Peterson will likely debut this year, but it’s a crapshoot with what kind of production they will get out of him.

Going into the season with that big of a hole in the rotation would be irresponsible and would be too risky, especially if you are trying to compete.

So what this all comes down to is that the Mets are going to either have to spend more than they are comfortable with this winter, or they are going to have to again dip into their already depleted prospect pool to soften the blow if they can’t re-sign Wheeler.

New York has a lot to do this winter, there’s no doubt about it. But their offseason should start with re-signing Wheeler and go from there.