The Mets’ starting rotation appears set for the start of the 2024 season, but the option of reuniting president of baseball operations David Stearns with one of his former Milwaukee Brewers products down the road is still very much on the table.
Brandon Woodruff remains a free agent, likely in the market for a two-year deal after undergoing shoulder surgery in October that will keep him out for the majority of the 2024 campaign.
As long as he is on the market, New York and Stearns will always be considered an option — something that SNY’s Andy Martino brought up on Tuesday night.
“One pitcher that I think is worth keeping a bit of an eye on for the Mets is Brandon Woodruff,” Martino said. “Nothing close or particularly hot there with Woodruff… but I do think that that’s a possibility and something to keep an eye on.”
The 30-year-old right-hander has spent the last seven years in Milwaukee where he was just one of several well-developed talents under Stearns’ watch with the NL Central club.
Since 2020, he’s been among the best starting pitchers in the National League, exhibiting a 2.76 ERA and 0.982 WHIP across 81 starts and 473.1 innings pitched. He finished fifth in the National League Cy Young voting in 2021 thanks to a 2.56 ERA and 211 strikeouts in 179.1 innings pitched.
Despite the injury issues that kept him out for four months from April to August last season, he was 5-1 with a 2.28 ERA with 74 strikeouts in 67 innings pitched before he was shut down for the year in late September.
Signing him this offseason would allow the Mets to bring Woodruff in for his rehab in 2024 and potentially plug him in as a legitimate No. 2 starter for the 2025 season behind Kodai Senga. That is if the Mets don’t go big-game hunting next winter ahead of the start of their perceived World Series push.