Per an industry source, the New York Mets have begun doing their due diligence in the mid-rotation free-agent market, touching base with three veteran starters — right-handers Charlie Morton and Corey Kluber, and southpaw Mike Minor — as options to fill out their front five.
With Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman — who accepted the Mets’ $18.9 million qualifying offer last week — already Sharpie’d into the rotation and right-hander Noah Syndergaard apparently making progress in his rehab from Tommy John surgery, there are still holes to fill.
Kluber, 34 and a two-time American League Cy Young Award winner (2014 and 2017) has made just eight starts since the beginning of the 2019 season due to myriad injuries (broken forearm, oblique in 2019; shoulder tear in 2020), but was a top-tier starter in the years leading up to his health issues (2.85 ERA, 151 ERA+ from 2014 through 2018).
Morton, 37, is coming off a down year with Tampa Bay after making two consecutive All-Star appearances in 2018 and 2019 with Houston and the Rays, respectively (3.09 ERA, 140 ERA+ over 63 combined starts; 4.74 ERA, 90 ERA+ in 2020).
Minor, 32, has been a quintessential back-end starter for most of his career — save for his 65-relief-appearance, 2.55 ERA 2017 season in Kansas City. Despite putting up a 5.56 ERA over 12 appearances (11 starts) between Texas and Oakland in 2020, Minor’s 3.84 ERA (1.19 WHIP, 130 ERA+) line over 2018 and 2019 (60 starts) evidence remaining value.
We will keep you posted with new information as it becomes available.
