has been among the most popular targets on the rotation market for teams seeking upside on short-term deals, and the Mets to the growing list of teams with interest in the longtime Dodgers righty. Buehler has also reportedly drawn interest from the , and even the low-payroll . The Mets stand to lose three members of their 2024 rotation, with , and all reaching free agency this offseason. Theyll also be without , their top pitching prospect who made his MLB debut in 24, for most or all of the 2025 season after he underwent UCL surgery. The Mets already replenished some of those innings with to sign veteran righty to a two-year contract, but theres a clear need for some additional help. Buehler, 30, was once one of the National Leagues most promising young pitchers but has seen that trajectory slowed by injuries. He pitched just 65 innings in 2022 and mi sed all of the 2023 season while recovering from the second Tommy John surgery of his career. His World Series heroics still loom large in the minds of most fans, but Buehlers 2024 results on the whole were generally dismal. He totaled only 75 1/3 innings and did so with a 5.38 ERA and the worst rate stats of his career. Even in his first postseason appearance, the Padres roughed him up for six runs in five innings during the National League Division Series. Buehlers velocity was down nearly two miles per hour from its 2020 peak, while his 18.6% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate were way off from his prior career levels (27% and 6.3%, respectively). This past seasons paltry 8.2% swinging-strike rate ranked 190th out of the 204 Cam Brown Jersey big league pitchers who to sed at least 70 innings on the year. His career rate coming into the year had been a sharp 11.6%. Whether Buehler can recapture some or all of his 2018-21 form is a question someone will pay a good bit of cash to find out. Over those four years, he combined to log a 2.82 earned run average in 564 innings, fanning 27.7% of opponents against a 6.1% walk while sitting in the upper 90s with his heater. That upside is tantalizing, but its also been three years and one major elbow surgery since weve seen that version of Buehler with any real consistency. The Dodgers couldve made him a $21.05MM qualifying offer in hopes of keeping him but instead declined to make that offer. The lack of draft pick compensation hanging over Buehlers head will surely enhance his appeal, but its also perhaps a red flag that the team that knows him best opted against that one-year offer (despite po se sing some of the deepest pockets in MLB). Buehler fits Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns ostensible preference for shorter-term deals that maintain roster flexibility. As Sherman points out, Stearns inked ten free agents last year during his first season in control of the Mets and only guaranteed a second year to Sean Manaea (whose contract gave him the right to opt out of that second year, which he ultimately chose to do). During his time as the Brewers president of baseball ops, Stearns similarly avoided the deep waters of the free agent market. Its still not fully clear whether that prior mentality will continue to drive his moves in Queens, however. The Brewers never had anywhere near the level of spending capacity the Mets po se s, so its only natural that Stearns eschewed risky long-term commitments to free agents during his time in Milwaukee. And while he did so last offseason with the Mets, that was in part because the 2024 season was largely viewed as a transitional year while the Mets waited for dead money from the , and deals (among a few smaller-scale examples) to come off the books. The Mets are now about $150MM shy of their 2024 spending levels, . A notable portion of that is earmarked for a hopeful signing of , of course, but theres no reason the Mets couldnt take a more aggre sive stance elsewhere in free agency and broker some lengthier and more impactful deals for starting pitchers. What type of deals Buehler commands could ultimately boil down to personal preference. Sherman suggests there are clubs with interest on one-year arrangements and others open to the idea of multi-year deals with opt-out opportunities. Speculatively speaking, Buehler would appear best-positioned if he takes a deal that allows him to return to the market next winter, whether thats a straight one-year pact or two years with an opt-out. Doing so could position him as a candidate for a nine-figure deal if he bounces back in 2025. However, if he wants to max out right now, there could conceivably be teams willing to offer medium-length contracts with lighter annual values than hed receive on a straight one-year deal or on a two-year pact with an opt-out. Rechon Black Jersey