One of the biggest needs that president of baseball of operations David Stearns has pointed out for the 2024 New York Mets is starting pitching. After the trades of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at last season’s trade deadline, plus Carlos Carrasco‘s departure and David Peterson‘s injury that will keep him out for 6-7 months, the Mets find themselves in dire need of starting pitching.

New York has addressed a spot in that rotation with the signing of Luis Severino. Severino will reunite with his former coach in the Bronx turned Mets manager, Carlos Mendoza. The Mets still need more help in the rotation, and that help could come from the 2023 National League Cy Young Award winner, Blake Snell.

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Jon Heyman of MLB Network and the New York Post discussed Snell’s free agency and market. Heyman said that Snell hasn’t been tied to many teams and that the Dodgers like him, but he understands the Mets are a potential fallback option for the lefty. Heyman says that Snell will probably get over $200 million along with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and if the Mets miss out on Yamamoto, Snell could be a backup for them, too. The Mets have also been linked to Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery.

Snell is a two-time Cy Young award winner, both in the American League in 2018 while in Tampa Bay and last year in the National League with San Diego. He led MLB in ERA in both seasons with 1.89 in 2018 and 2.25 in 2023.

The Mets, to this point, have been linked to Yamamoto, but they’ve also lacked a strong left-hander in the rotation since Johan Santana, even as far back as Al Leiter. Adding a good left-hander like Snell and inserting him in the rotation as an ace, along with Kodai Senga, would give the Mets a nice duo at the top. After that, the team could fill out the rest of the rotation, which now includes Severino and José Quintana. The Mets added two Cy Young award winners in Scherzer and Verlander over the last two offseasons. They could choose to go that route again this offseason with Snell.

Check out our free agent profile of Blake Snell!