The Boston Red Sox had themselves an eventful weekend, signing Lucas Giolito to a deal the New York Mets should’ve topped, and trading Chris Sale to the Braves for Vaughn Grissom. The Red Sox improved their biggest weakness, their starting pitching, by signing Giolito, but then took another step back by trading Sale.
With them clearly needing more pitching, the Red Sox appear to be focused on the free agency market to fill that need. Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports that “the Red Sox have told at least one free agent target that they need to shed more payroll before pursuing him as aggressively as they want to.” It’s crazy to see a big market giant like the Red Sox penny-pinching like this and is very reminiscent of how the Wilpon Mets used to act.
Fortunately for the Mets, they now have Steve Cohen who can take advantage of teams looking to clear money. The Mets already did that once this offseason with the Brewers, trading Coleman Crow in exchange for Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor. The Red Sox won’t trade players like Rafael Devers or Masataka Yoshida to clear money, but any of these three players can be seen as realistic options that the Mets can try and acquire.
1) Kenley Jansen
One player Cotillo notes as an “obvious trade candidate” is Kenley Jansen, a reliever who is still quite good but is owed $16 million in 2024. The Red Sox don’t appear to care about Jansen still being a solid reliever and are so focused on shedding money to the point where he might not cost much at all to acquire.
Jansen is known for his dominance with the Dodgers. While he’s not quite as good as he was back then, he’s still a fantastic high-leverage reliever and would be a strong option setting up for Edwin Diaz. This past season, he posted a 3.63 ERA in 51 appearances and 44.2 innings of work for Boston, converting 29 saves in 33 opportunities.
The ERA might be a bit high, but a lot of that has to do with four awful September appearances before he landed on the IL. His ERA sat at 2.74 at the end of August.
Jansen adds experience this bullpen lacks, and would fill a void as a primary set-up man that the team still needs to fill. The fact that he’s 36 years old and pretty expensive makes him a bit undeseriable, but that also means he wouldn’t be hard to acquire. There aren’t many better options out there in free agency for the Mets to get. If Boston is really just dumping salary, I don’t see a downside in pursuing this. Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s just one year.
2) Chris Martin
Arguably the best option that the Mets can realistically trade for is Chris Martin, another reliever who comes at a better cost and coming off a superb year.
In 55 appearances for the Red Sox last season, Martin posted a 1.05 ERA in 51.1 innings of work. He was so good, in fact, that he finished 12th in the AL Cy Young voting despite not even being their closer. He displayed absurd command, allowing just two home runs and eight walks (three of which were intentional) all season.
While it’s almost impossible for Martin to be that good again next season, he is a guy who has been consistently solid throughout his career. He has a 3.36 ERA in 324 MLB appearances across parts of eight seasons, two-and-a-half of which were spent in the NL East with the Braves.
Emilio Pagan signed a two-year deal with the Reds this offseason at $16 million. Cincinnati gave a lesser reliever more in terms of AAV, and an additional year. There’s nothing wrong with the Pagan deal, but it shows how valuable Martin is at his pricepoint.
The Mets desperately need at least one, preferably two late-game relievers to form a bridge to Edwin Diaz alongside Brooks Raley. Getting Martin who is set to make just $7.5 million next season in a salary dump that wouldn’t involve giving up much in return would be a huge get for the Mets.
3) Nick Pivetta
The Mets starting rotation is an absolute mess right now. They signed Luis Severino and traded for Adrian Houser to join Jose Quintana and Kodai Senga. They could round out the rotation in house with a player like Tylor Megill, Jose Butto, or Joey Lucchesi, but it’s hard to see them not making at least one more addition.
We know the Mets were all-in on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but he’s a Dodger. They also seemed to be very interested in Lucas Giolito before Boston snagged him. There are other free agent starters they can grab, but with how expensive mediocre starting pitching is, don’t be surprised if the Mets look to round out their rotation in the trade market.
Nick Pivetta is far from an inspiring addition, but he’s projected to make $7.5 million in his final year of arbitration according to Spotrac. Considering the fact that the Mets gave Luis Severino, a pitcher who had a 6.65 ERA this past season and comes with massive durability concerns almost double that, $7.5 million for one year of Pivetta is good value.
Pivetta is known more by Mets fans for his days with the Phillies, but he’s been better in his Red Sox tenure than he was in Philadelphia. He’s far from an ace, but he’s similar to Giolito as a guy they can realistically rely on to give them starts and innings. He combined to make 63 starts for the Red Sox in 2021 and 2022, throwing 155 or more innings both years. That has value.
This past season Pivetta flip-flopped between the rotation and bullpen. He had his ups and downs, but finished strong as a starter, posting a 2.37 ERA in his last five starts. He ended his season with seven scoreless innings in Baltimore allowing just two hits and striking out ten.
He hasn’t put it together consistently at all, but there is some upside to Pivetta, who also is a durable innings eater. He’s not the best pitcher they can get, but they can do worse for a fifth starter.
