New York Mets Free Agents – Rico Brogna Episode 579

New York Mets Free Agents – Rico Brogna Episode 579

Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] [Music] It’s the Amazing Rico Bron podcast with your host Evan Roberts. Welcome to Rico Bron and more importantly, welcome to the off season. It took a very long time, but we have made it. It is truly the baseball off season. This is like our second Rico Bron of the off season. If you missed it, we did a Rico Brilli right after game seven of the World Series. So, if you want to hear reaction to all of that and a mailbag edition of the Rico, that happened on late Saturday night, early Sunday morning. But today on the Rico Bron, we really begin the off season by ranking our free agents. If you missed it, we did do an episode called Replacing Edwin Diaz and replacing Pete Alonzo where we spent a lot of time talking about potential replacements for the two big free agents. And those are obviously the two big free agents that get the most attention, you know, when you’re talking about Edwin Diaz and Pete Alonzo exercising their optouts and becoming free agents. But they aren’t the only ones. So today on the Rico, we’re going to talk about all of them. We’ll give you our opinions on if they should come back, if we want them back, and we’ll even rank them in terms of importance. So, let’s just get Pete Alonzo and Edwin Diaz out of the way. Uh, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about both of these guys. They are the two premier free agents. Pete Alonzo is looking for a seven-year contract. He may have to settle for a four or fiveyear contract. Uh we went through all the different options in terms of if they moved on from him, potential first base options, potential just slugger options to replace the production you’re going to lose. But I think we could all agree even if you prefer Kyle Schwarber or Josh Naylor or Alex Bregman, Pete Alonzo would still be nice to have come back. Uh he is coming off a very productive 2025 season. And I even mentioned the emotional aspect of it. Uh seeing Pete Alonzo in a different uniform would be tough. Let’s just call it like it is. Obviously, if it’s a division rival like the Philadelphia Phillies or any team we don’t like, that would make it more difficult. But I’ve tried to stay away from the emotions of it, from the hey, he’s the all-time Met home run leader aspect of it. He’s a very productive baseball player who, while he does have his flaws, would be greatly missed. Edwin Diaz, we talked a lot about him, how difficult it would be to replace an elite level closer, he’s going to ask for a lot. He should ask for a lot. I mean, he can look at Josh Hater’s contract that he signed a couple years ago with the Houston Astros and very much say, “I deserve more than that. I deserve more money. I deserve more years.” He is the premier closer in all of Major League Baseball. And I’m going to start off by telling you that as I battled ranking these free agents in terms of who I want back the most, I’m going to give you the headline right at the top. Edwin Diaz is number one. Edwin Diaz to me is more important and tougher to replace than Pete Alonzo is. And from an emotional standpoint, obviously Pete’s homegrown. He has an imprint on the organization. But I’m talking about baseball. I’m talking about getting to where Toronto and LA got when they played the seventh game of the World Series. Who actually gives them the best chance to get to that place? And it is Edwin Diaz. And I think a part of that is as we went through on replacing Edwind Diaz and replacing Pete Alonzo, there are options in terms of replacing Pete Alonzo that you can walk away from and say, “Hey, we’re just as good or maybe we’re better.” I don’t think you could do that with Edwin Diaz. So Hoff, I’ll start with that. Do you agree with me that if you are going to rank the 14 free agents and it’s 18, but we’ll get to how it’s really 14 and how it may be 16. We’ll get to that in a minute, but I want to start with the headline stuff. Would you agree that Edwin Diaz is more important to bring back than Pete Lonzo or No, I I mean I I I want to fight you on this because I’m a Pete Lonzo guy. I think he needs to be here for for life. But if you’re just taking position by position of the free agents that we have that are gonna lose leave this team or potentially could leave this team, there’s no doubt about it. Edwin Diaz is the one person you can’t replace at that position. We we Yeah, we dissected it. Go through it. Was it episode 577 about it? Yeah, it it is. I can’t hear you very well, so it’s probably your internet connection. It’s definitely not mine. My internet connection is the best. though I assume I always assume it’s yours. Uh I it replacing him is what puts him at top the list. And I do think that both guys in their own way have entered our hearts as Met fans have entered our hey we’re loyal to that guy. We bought his jersey. Our kids love him. He’s been here for a very long time. And and I think when I talk about players, like I can’t ignore that aspect of it, but it’s also not the end all be all because at the end of the day, we all as Met fans want to see him win a World Championship. And I’d rather win a World Championship uh with a bunch of guys that I didn’t have an emotional attachment to. I gained one because they won a World Series versus the guys that you went through the hard times with. And and there’s no doubt both of those guys we as Met fans have gone through hard times on. Uh Edwin Diaz got off to a terrible start when he was traded here back in 2019. And he certainly had his ups and downs even in 20 and 21 before he electrified us in 2022. And Pete’s had his ups and downs, but really it’s about the team up and downs from his rookie year of 19 to the disappointment of 20 to collapsing in 21 to being really good to the playoffs in 22. We all know the story. So, I think to me with those two elite level free agents, I’d like to have them both back, but if I had to rank them, I’d put Edwin Diaz one, Pete Alonzo, too. All right, let’s get to the other guys that you may have forgotten are free agents. Let’s start with the position players. Jesse Winker. Jesse Winker was ressigned to a one-year, $7.5 million contract late during the offseason of 24 and to 25. I think we were all happy to bring Winker back. He made a real good impact on this team after he was acquired at the trade deadline of 2024. He was non-existent in 2025. And I think if you look at Jesse Winker’s career, we have really gotten the full Jesse Winker experience. If you really think about it, go through his career. He’s a 32-year-old outfielder who a couple of years ago in 2021 with the Cincinnati Reds was an all-star and he looked like he was a burgeoning superstar. the following year when he’s with Seattle and Milwaukee in 22 and 23, he was actually abysmal. And in 2023, he missed half the season. In 2024, he has a pretty good year with the Nationals. We acquire him. He’s really good for us. And even though his numbers didn’t jump off the page, he was impactful because we remember the walk-off home run against the Orioles and certainly electrifying in the postseason and having a lot of big moments in the postseason, whether it was the wild card series against the Brewers or the divisional series against the Philadelphia Phillies. And then last year, and now I’m referring to 2025 as last year. I think we’ve graduated to that. He played 26 games. And when he played, he wasn’t that good. So if you think about 2122 23 that experience he had with Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Seattle and now you look at 2425 that’s Jesse Winker. If he stays on the field he has a chance to be impactful as we saw in 2024. But there’s always the possibility he’s going to miss half the season and not be very productive. Long story short, I’m not against bringing Jesse Winker back. Here’s the priority though. The Mets brought Jesse Winker back in 2025 with a pretty much everyday role. They viewed him as the most of the time designated hitter against right-handed pitching. That can’t be the case. If you bring Jesse Winker back, I think he comes back as a fourth outfielder slash you may get some at bats at DH because I think when you look at Winker’s career for the most part and you have to factor in the injuries, you have to factor in the down seasons. That’s who he is. So, would I be for bringing Jesse Winker back? Sure. On a one-year deal for pretty much the same money he just made, maybe a little bit less. I have no problem with that. But the real priority is to make sure that if you bring him back, you’re not relying on him. And I think the Mets were pretty reliant on Jesse Winker. We forgot about it because as time went by, you almost forgot that the season started with the Marte Winker DH platoon. That was the plan. Mark Ventos was the third baseman. Brett Batty was essentially battling for the last spot on the roster. A lot has changed, but the DH role is still wide open. The third base spot still feels sort of open. Second base feels open, and who knows about first base, as we talked about with Pete Alonzo. So, I’d bring Winker back, but I would want to bring him back in a more limited role than the expectation was for him in 2025. I’m afraid to ask Hoff’s opinion because his internet was so bad the last time. But Hoff, where do you stand on bringing Jesse Winker back? Well, good thing I I I screwed around my internet. I realized I was on my phone connection. So that’s why this was all screwy. It’s No, I don’t want Jesse Winker back. I don’t I have no interest. It’s time to leave couple years ago behind us and move forward. Jesse Winker, no. No, thank you. Moving forward. Wow. even in a limited role. Even in a hey, you’re the fourth outfielder. I mean, I don’t know how much more limited you can get from last year. Well, no, no, hold on, hold on. He turned into a limited role, but remember, he was brought back to be the left-handed DH, and that I wouldn’t want to I’d bring him back as a fourth outfielder. I mean, that’s that’s how I would view him. And obviously, it depends how the rest of the roster is constructed, but as a bat off the bench, he is a he’s a fine piece to have. Here’s the problem, though, Ev. The way that you define it, I could buy into it, but the way that they’d actually use him would be someone that they’d split time at DH, split time. They’d try to get him 122 games. They would, and that’s just too many. I I think it all depends on the roster makeup and and that’s where I think the answer fits. Now, this will be a lot easier, okay, because Winker is it’s conflicting based on his role, based on who else is on the roster. This one should take 5 seconds. Cedric Mullins as a free agent. You want to take it from here? Hoff, would you like to bring Cedric Mullins back? Yeah, I’ll take it from here. Yeah. Uh that’s even a more no thank you than the Jesse Winker. Cedric Mullins had a terrible uh trade deadline once he got came to the Mets. It was just a waste of time. I would prefer seeing anybody else at bat over Cedric Mullins in a Mets uniform for the rest of my life. And defensively, he sucked. So, and that’s my priority when I look at center field because I assume that the plan is going to be for Carson Benj to eventually be the center fielder and very well could be the center fielder right out of spring training. Like, I put that on the table. I would give Benj that opportunity to go win the job in camp. He’s got to perform. It’s not going to be handed to him. Uh Jet Williams is a guy I’m still toying in my head about possibly being a factor in center field. David Stern said to me a year and a half ago, so it’s a long time ago, so I don’t know if things have changed, that he viewed Jet Williams as a guy that could play every day, everywhere, so he could be like a Ben Z type of player. I don’t know if that’s kind of the same thing a year and a half later. Uh I think that if Jet Williams hits, he may end up settling at one position. But the reason I say that is it’s going to make sense to have a veteran center field option. And you could argue that guy is already here and his name is Tyrone Taylor. You cannot argue that that guy is Jose Siri. Uh, and I guess you could argue if Cedric Mullins didn’t experience the New York Mets for a month and a half, we would have viewed him as a free agent target, but I think because we experienced it and we saw it firsthand and he was bad all the way around, he’s not going to fit. Harrison Bader may fit if he’s willing to come back on that kind of role, but Cedric Bones is not going to fit. I think that’s an easy open and shut. He will not come back. Those are the position players, ladies and gentlemen. Everyone else is either arbitration eligible, pre-arbitration, or currently on the roster. It’s the pitching that features a lot of free agents. And I do want to go through this because there are two guys with player options, two guys with team options, and then you’ve got other straightup free agents. And I’m going to put Diaz to the side. We’ve already talked about him. Let’s start with the player options because I think this is going to be very quick. Frankie Monttos has a $17 million player option. There is no world in which Frankie Monttos turns that down, nor should he. If a team is dumb enough to give you guaranteed $17 million, you take that. So Frankie Monttos not really a free agent, he’s going to exercise the $17 million team option. AJ Mter is interesting because AJ Mter has an 11 million player option and I don’t know if I just misspoke about Montas. It is a player option. It’s not a team option. Player option, player option, player option. I think in my head I said team option, player option. AJ Mter, same thing is an 11 million player option because he missed so much time. Even though relievers are in demand, I mean, if you’re a team in Major League Baseball, you want relievers. you’re going to need relievers. And I think AJ Mter could do well in the free agent market. He not only missed basically all of last year, remember when the Mets signed him, he had missed the final month and a half with Atlanta. So, I’m going to assume that AJ Mter is going to pick up his team option, his player option at $1 million. Uh, if somehow he doesn’t, would I be interested in bringing him back? Sure. I mean, why not? It’s it’s a reliever. and he didn’t do anything bad last year other than run into bad luck of getting hurt. So, those are the two guys who have player options. We’ll keep an eye on that over the next 48 to 72 hours. The team option guys, Drew Smith, look, the Mets are going to pick up the $2 million team option because remember he had Tommy John surgery and then they signed him to this contract. So, I think it was to rehab him and then to eventually pick up his option. So, I assume that the Mets would do that. Brooks really to me is a no-brainer. Brooksley was one of the Mets best relievers last year and his team option is a very reasonable $4.8 million. Remember the Mets signed him after his major injury and Tommy John. They signed him, he came back and arguably after Edwin Diaz, he was their Mets’s best reliever. So that’s a very easy slam dunk $4.8 million team option. So those are the four free agents with options. Let’s get to the other guys. Let’s get to Tyler Rogers. Tyler Rogers. I think a lot of Met fans don’t want Tyler Rogers back because even though his overall numbers looked okay, which is why you really can’t look at an ERA from a guy coming out of the bullpen, he pitched to a 2.30 RA, he didn’t strike anybody out and he allowed a lot of inherited runners to score. And I think people got sick of me even saying, “Oh, it’s soft contact.” Uh Tyler Rogers was sort of disappointing. He wasn’t as bad as the other relievers they acquired. But I don’t know about you, Hoff, I’d like to bring Tyler Rogers back. Um, I think that if you look at his resume and you look at how difficult he can be to face a submarining right-hander, a guy whose resume, if you look at most relievers, is actually really consistent over the last four or five years. I’m not overly concerned about the strikeout numbers being down. He’s not a high strikeout guy anyway. Uh, I actually would prefer to bring him back. And for anyone who’s going to argue, don’t bring him back. He sucked. You have to replace him. And if you go through most relievers that are available, Tyler Rogers is going to have one of the more uh impressive resumes, especially his durability. He goes out and takes the baseball whenever you want. So, if it’s up to me and the contract’s reasonable, I would like to remarry Tyler Rogers. A and just question before I get into my answer, what what spot in the uh back of the bullpen do you want him to really be? I mean, he’s more of like a rubber band guy or is he specific seventh, eighth, ninth guy? Well, look, I obviously it would be nice to have a deep enough bullpen where Tyler Rogers isn’t your second or third best reliever. He’s a guy who comes in, gets a tough right-hander out, inning ends, and you move on. Uh, but he’s a guy that I think can be a nice piece in your bullpen because another thing in your bullpen is I think you want guys that give you different looks. You want guys that not only throw different pitches but also have different velocities and certainly different arm angles which he supplies and you also want guys that you can rely on. I mean the Mets don’t have a lot of guys in their bullpen that they can rely on. I mean even Reed Garrett who is reliable. We’re not going to see him next year. He’s out for the entire season. The Mets had a lot of guys go down to injuries. And I knock on wood for Tyler Rogers career going all the way back to 2021. I’m going to ignore 2020 cuz you almost have to. The guy leads the league basically in appearances every single year. So would I want there to be two other relievers, maybe three other relievers that I call the eighth inning guy over Tyler Rogers? Sure. We’ll spend more time on that as free agency and trade rumors start. We do pods on that. But in terms of just having him in that bullpen, I think he’s really valuable. And I think what we need to do a month removed from the season is kind of get the bad taste out of our mouths and ignore that because he has a chance to rewrite that in 2026 if you bring him back. So personally speaking, I do think that he has a rubber arm like you said. So like the there is value there. There’s no doubt about it that you could use him 70 plus 80 games or whatever it is. It’s gonna be something where do I put him as a top gun? Do I put him at the top like the way that he was brought in with Edwin Diaz and Hellley and Rogers? The one, two, three punch. That can’t happen. He is a good bullpen arm that will fill up some really good innings and will help us get out of jams. But I do think that there’s a reason why the Giants traded him because they felt like they used him to his max. Maybe he goes back to San Francisco or maybe San Francisco says, “I can’t believe we just got four pieces for Tyler Rogers.” No, but that that that last part is answering your question on why they traded him. I mean, they felt they were out of the pennet race and they got a huge return for a 33-year-old reliever who’s a free agent at the end of the year who they could very well bring back. I don’t think there’s anything deeper than the Giants just made a smart business decision around him. Well, yeah, you say that, but then every time I feel like we deal with the Tampa Bay Rays, there’s always like we’re getting back somebody’s junk and it’s like, oh, this guy lasted for two weeks and now we have the IIL. But he see I think with Rogers and we’re going to get to a lot of the other relievers they acquired because remember the Mets acquired rentals. That was basically their their trade deadline. I think and I don’t want to make an excuse for him because again, you know, we did our grades and we didn’t give Tyler Rogers a great grade, but I think a lot of it’s bad luck and I think over the course of a 162 game season, uh, I think he will pitch to what he’s done over the last four years, which is a guy that’s going to be reliable in terms of being able to appear in games and not have IIL stints and mostly be effective. I think the negative is when you don’t strike guys out. And Tyler Rogers was never a strikeout guy. Like even with San Francisco, he was striking out six, seven guys a game, which nowadays is not very high for a reliever. He came to the Mets, he was striking out three guys per nine innings, which is incredibly low. I mean, it’s an insanely low number. I think when you pitch to contact, you’re more likely to pitch to bad luck. But to answer your first point about him, I think if he is your third or fourth best reliever in your bullpen, you have yourself a pretty good bullpen. So, I’d bring him back. Trying to spout out a contract that seems fair. I mean, would I bring him back on a two-year $18 million deal? That does seem fair. Uh, we’ll see what he ends up. Write that one down. Let’s see if I’m accurate because sometimes predicting contracts are one of the most difficult things to do upon entering free agency. Reliever number two in this free agent discussion is Gregory Sto. Gregory Sodto obviously was acquired um earlier than the other ones, a couple of weeks before the trade deadline. And he really had the tale of two routes with the Mets because his first month with the Mets in August was pretty good and then he really fell off in the month of September. I may surprise you with this. I’m going to view Gregory Sodto in a similar way to the way I view Jesse Winker. If I can get Sodto back on a one-year contract, and he’s not a guy I’m relying on, to the point you made about Rogers Hoff, like he’s my fifth guy out of the bullpen. He’s my third lefty out of the bullpen because remember, I’m probably already going in to 2026 with AJ Mter and Brooksley. And so Sodto is just a reliever that happens to be a lefty. He’s not my left-handed specialist by any stretch. And by the way, neither is Mint or Aureli. I think they’re all really good at getting lefties or righties out, but I’m not going to say f no to Gregory Sodto. Do I love him? No. Are there plenty of relievers that I prefer? Yes. Do I want to rely on Gregory Sodto? No. But if I’m bringing him back as maybe the sixth reliever in my eight-man bullpen, I’m not gonna lose my mind over it. So, he is more on that. I’d bring him back. I don’t love him. He is what he is. He’s a typical up down reliever. And if he gives me a third lefty in my bullpen, another guy with a different look, fine. I assume you are going to give me an F no, though. Well, here’s what confuses me is that I don’t understand relievers. I don’t understand their bipolarness. I don’t understand their year-to-year glitches. Um, so yeah, Gregory Sodto, if I just took him off of this one year, I’d say hell no. But that doesn’t mean that next year he can’t be effective. The next year he could be a dominant closer or dominant reliever, whatever. So it’s like the price has to be right for me to want to bring him back. I am not sitting here telling you he’s going to be on the the top the the top of the order as far as ninth and eighth inning guy, but like you said, if he’s going to be the fifth, sixth, seventh reliever, I’ll take a gamble on. Yeah. And that’s the thing we have to keep in mind about relievers. And you’re going to hear a lot about this when we do our podcast on relieving free agents and trade possibilities for relievers. Most of these guys are just complete lottery tickets. Which is why I like a guy such as Tyler Rogers cuz he isn’t. When you look at his career, he is more steady than most other relievers. Let’s get to Ryan Hley. Ryan Hel is a fascinating one because he got off to one of the worst starts a human can get upon being traded to a New York team. He was worse than Billy Taylor for those that remember that trade that was made in 1999 uh when the Mets made two trades with the Oakland days. One for Kenny Rogers, the other one for Billy Taylor. So I always get confused on which guy was in the trade. Like one of them involved Terrence Long, one of them involved Jason Isinghousen. Uh, but I do remember that Jason Isinghousen was for Billy Taylor. It’s an all-time bad trait. And Billy Taylor was so bad, he was unpitchable come postseason time. So even when the Mets made the playoffs in 1999, Billy Taylor was nowhere to be seen. I bring him up because until Hellley finished his season strong. He had put up worse numbers than Billy Taylor, which to me is like the holy grail of crappy relievers. But what I can’t ignore about Ryan Helley is that it did get better. And I think it’s very easy to forget that because overall his numbers are atrocious. His final erra with the Mets is 7.20. I mean, it’s just abysmal. Looking at these numbers, they’re awful from start to finish. But he actually I start to finish is probably not the right the best term because his last few appearances he pitched well. And so I don’t want to completely throw that out. I want to kind of think to myself, well, what does that mean? And just for the record, his last six appearances starting on September 12th against the Texas Rangers, here’s what it looked like. A scoreless inning with one hit allowed, no walks. A scoreless inning against the Padres’s with no hits allowed and a walk. A scoreless inning against the Nationals in which he got a hold. No hits, no walks, one strikeout. A scoreless inning against the Nationals, also in a close game. One walk, two strikeouts. Two scoreless innings against Chicago, a game they were getting blown out in. One hit allowed, two strikeouts. And then a scoreless inning in the final game of the season against Miami. Uh, one inning, one hit, one walk, one strikeout. So, he ends up going seven scoreless innings with three hits and three walks allowed in his final six appearances. There’s something there where we have to give him like a little bit of credit that maybe, oh, he figured it out. He figured out how to deal with I don’t even want to say New York, but pitching the eighth inning or pitching the seventh inning. With all of that said, I do not want to bring Ryan Hley back. And I’ll tell you why. I think he’s going to get paid like a closer. I think that teams are going to be able to look past the five RA and they’re going to look at the rest of the closers market. They’re going to see Riceella Glacius and Kenley Jansen and obviously we know Edwin Diaz is the holy grail. And I think that a team and we’ll see if I’m wrong about this is going to pay Ryan Hley based on the fact that he’s so much younger than those other guys. He’s 31 years old, which may not feel young, but a Glacius is 36 if memory serves correct. Jansen is 37 38. And so I’m not comfortable paying Ryan Hellley as if he’s a top level closer. If Ryan Hley had to come back on a make good one-year contract, sure I would be encouraged enough by his last six appearances to say why the hell not. But under no circumstances would I bring him back to replace Edwin Diaz. Like if they lose Edwin Diaz and Ryan Hley is the guy they bring back and you know what, he can close. He’s clo that would make me way too nervous. nor do I think is that fair to him? Like he’s already hated by Met fans. You’re going to tell him now go be the replacement for Edwin Diaz. So the only way I’d be interested in bringing Helley back to me is a situation that I don’t think is realistic, which is him making no money on a one-year contract and signing a make good deal. I think he’s going to do better than that. And for that reason, Hoff, I would say good luck on your future endeavors. Yeah, I agree. And the fact is that I don’t want to see his entrance music again. And I’m sure that if they if he does come back, he’s going to be a high leverage guy and he’s going to want that entrance music. So just just let’s just just cut ties while you can. There’s no reason to there’s no reason to force that. Like you know like the the Darren Ruffs of the world, the Daniel Voglebacks of the world when no when you know we made mistakes with those. It’s almost like hey we’re going to play them because I I’m going to tell you that they’re going to work out. They’re going to work out. This is a clean slate. It is a free agent. Don’t have to go back to the well. That that is the best part about trading for rentals. You don’t have to talk yourself into, oh, we traded for BG back and rough. We have to bring him back. No, Cedric Mullins is a clean rip the band-aid off break. And I think ultimately Ryan Hley will be too. If I’m wrong about Hley’s market, I think we can have a discussion about this, but I don’t think it’s a fair to him or to us to bring him back as the closer. And by the way, I do want to prepare everyone for this. If he goes to, let’s say, the Angels, right? Let’s let’s just give the Angels the team because they let Kley Jansen walk. Jansen continues his tour around Major League Baseball and Ryan Hley signs a contract to be the closer for the Angels. I I would expect him to go back to being one of the better closers. I I don’t think Ryan Hley now sucks. So, I think we need to prepare ourselves that he can go somewhere and be successful. And that’s why I hope it’s a team like the Angels because it would annoy us if he ends up in Atlanta replacing Rice Glacius and all of a sudden he’s dominating for the Atlanta Braves. Uh but I’m willing to re kind of engage on the Hellley discussion if his market falls. I just don’t expect that to happen. Griffin Canning. Griffin Canning was a wonderful surprise uh when the Met pitching lab still existed. He was another return of the pitching lab in which you said, “Wow, they could turn anything into anything.” That’s amazing. Unfortunately for Griffin Canning, his story didn’t get finished because of the injury. I I would absolutely bring him back on one of those make good deals where it’s a two-year deal, team option on year two, very similar to what they did with Brooksley and Drew Smith. Timetable wise on Canning. I have no idea what to expect. I I don’t know if we see him at all in a 2026. If we do, you can’t expect much out of him. But in terms of bringing him back, I would have no issue with it on one of those very reasonable 2-year $10 million for the two years player op team option on year two. And finally, the last free agent we’ve gone through, how many guys now? 14 guys in total if you count the player options and the team options. Ryan Stannic, a man that the Rico audience affectionately knows as Fat Thor. I think Ryan Stannic is your typical up- down reliever like we talked about and I think he has shown that in his time with the New York Mets. I mean, Ryan Stannic has had some pretty good moments. Remember, he was one of the more reliable relievers in the postseason of 2024. Uh, last year 2025 was up and downs. He had that horrible series against the Nationals in which he just kept winning the Rico net negative award day after day after day. He also had some good moments. I think it was the extra inning game against the Rangers where Pete Alonzo hit the walk-off home run on a Sunday afternoon. He comes in Manfred man on second, fights through it. With all that said, I think the Mets should just replace Ryan Stannic with another one of those veteran up down relievers so we as Met fans don’t have to see him anymore. Sometimes as a relief pitcher, as a typical average up and down, sometimes good, sometimes bad reliever, the the statue of limitations just runs out. And so for Ryan Stannic, I think he just fits the statute of limitations. Hoff, you’re done with Ryan Stannic, I assume. I take that as a yes. I take that as a I’m done with him. So, let’s power rank these guys. All right, I’m going to go in order of guy I would want back the most down. So to me, number one is Edwin Diaz. Number two is Pete Alonzo. We have addressed that. Again, if you haven’t heard replacing Edwin Diaz or replacing Pete Alonzo, those are podcasts in the archives of the Rico Bron and certainly not the last. We are going to talk about those gentlemen and potential replacements. That to me is a very easy one-two. And for the sake of this, we are only going to rank 10 of the 14. I’m going to put Mter, Montas, Drew Smith, and Brooksley to the side since they have player options and team options that I think are going to be picked up. So, I’m going to use the true free agents along with Alonzo and Diaz for our ranking system. Number one, Edwin Diaz. Number two, Pete Alonzo. Number three, and I think it’s number three by a good margin, is Tyler Rogers. We went through it. The reliability that he brings, the different look that he brings. I have no problem resigning Tyler Rogers. In fact, I prefer to sign Tyler Rogers to a new contract. Hopefully, a reasonable one. So, I’m going to put him number three. Number four, this is where I think there is a actually, you know what? I’ll go Griffin Canning number four. I’ll make that one easy. Canning is more of a feel-good story. more of a hey, there’s no risk involved, so I’ll put him behind Rogers. Certainly not ahead of him. But now we get to the part where any of these guys leave, I’m not going to lose sleep. We’ve got Sodto, Helsley, Stannic, Mullins, and Winker. I’m going to put Jesse Winker next. As I explained, if they can bring him back in a fourth outfield role where they’re not relying on him to be the every DH against right-handed pitching, I think Winker can still supply that fire, that energy. He’s also not half bad when he’s healthy. And also, best part about keeping Jesse Winker, he can’t f us. I mean, how many times did Jesse Winker stick it to us with the Washington Nationals or the Cincinnati Reds? So, I’m going to put Jesse Winker in that five spot. Number six. Oh jeez. I’ll go Gregory Sodto. As I mentioned on a one-year deal as my sixth or seventh best reliever, whatever. All right, let me write this down so I don’t forget. Diaz one, Alonzo 2, uh, Rogers three, Canning four, Winker five, Sodto six. All right, so now I’ve got Stannic, Hell’s, and Mullins. Oh boy. All right, I’ll go Ryan Hellley next because like I said, I I wouldn’t be opposed to bringing him back if I thought the contract was going to be reasonable. I just don’t think it is. By the way, I have forgotten a major free agent, which is why I’m glad I’m looking at my sheet again. I forgot Stling Marte as a position player. I’m going to keep him to the Actually, you know what? Stop it right now. Let me get back to Marte. I don’t know how I missed him. I have it written down. We’ll we’ll get to the rankings in another minute. Let me get back to Starling Marte because I went through the position players at the top of the pod with Pete Alonzo, Jesse Winker, and Cedric Mullen. Starling Marte is actually really, really significant. Now, he made $20 million. So, I clearly their Mets are getting relief by no longer having to pay him that kind of money. The value in Marte is twofold. Number one, the leadership. Juan Sto’s comments cannot be ignored. Juan Sto said in the middle of the season, maybe I made too big of a deal of it, he’s the real leader of the Mets. He’s the real deal. And why it felt like a shot at Francisco Lindor, it may have just been him loving Starling Marte. So, I I can’t ignore that. I don’t think any of us can ignore that. And so, I think there is a value to that leadership role that he clearly provides in that room. I also don’t think he’s done. I mean, you look at Stling Marte’s production this past year, and I believe the Mets used him in the absolute correct way. He was not an everyday player. And even though he had one IIL stint, I think, and it wasn’t that long, he only played 98 games. But listen to the final production. 270 batting average, which is very high this day and age. 745 OPS, nine home runs, 34 RBI’s, seven stolen bases. and they used him in a way in which he was truly a part-time player. His splits, by the way, were essentially the same. So, even though they mostly used him against left-handers, he hit righties just the same. He is not at this point being a guy who can only face left-handed pitching. So, I think what Marte showed you, and I feel justified about this, was this is why you bring him back. Because if you’re not asking him to be an everyday rightfielder, if you’re not asking him to even be an everyday designated hitter, you’re going to maximize the value and the production of Starling Marte. So, I would bring him back. I would bring him back on a reasonable deal. I’m certainly not paying him $20 million a year. And I wouldn’t just be bringing him back because Juan Stoodto likes him. I’d be bringing him back because I think he can still produce. But this goes along with Jesse Winker. He has to come back in the same role they used him as, which is he’s going to play 90 to 95 games. They’re mostly going to be at DH. He’s a right-handed bat off the bench. Maybe early on in Carson Benj’s tenure. He’s a pinch hitter off the bench for him. We’ll see what second base turns into. Maybe he’s a pinch hitter late for second base and a guy who can play two, three times a week as a starting player. So, I I’m good with bringing him back. Obviously, that salary has to be very different. So, instead of making $20 million, maybe it’s more of a 2-year $20 million deal or a one-year 11 or 12 million deal. I think that feels reasonable for Stling Marte. Uh, by the way, I’m so glad that I didn’t forget him because after this Rico ended, even though I have it written down, so I can’t even be mad at myself. I have it right in front of me. I would have said to Hoff, we have to continue that. Rico, we have to do a part two talking about Marte. Hoff, where do you stand on bringing Stalling Marte back and then we’ll figure out where he belongs in these rankings. Would you want to bring him back or are you against bringing him back? I think we may have lost Pete. That’s okay. He’ll give us his opinion on it later. Rico, I do want to bring him back. And where I’m going to put him is after Tyler Rogers. I’ll put him ahead of Griffin Canning because I think Canning is more of just a a feel-good story. So, I’m going to go Edwin Diaz one, Pete Alonzo two. Tyler Rogers I put ahead of Marte because I do think that value he’s going to bring out of the bullpen. So, I put him three. I’ll put Marte four, Griffin Canning five. Jesse Winker six, Gregory Sodto 7, Ryan Hley eight if somehow the contract is reasonable and he’s not being paid like a closer Ryan Stannic will be in the nine hole and Cedric Mullins, yes you, Cedric Mullins, you are last. You are the least desirable free agent to bring back. I put Hley ahead of you. I put Static ahead of you. I put Sodto ahead of you. So, those are the 10. We know they will be free agents. Again, Drew Smith are team options. I assume they will be picked up. Frankie Monttos and AJ Mter are player options. We keep them aside. Where do you rank our free agents? Again, Edwin Diaz one, Pete Alonzo 2, Tyler Rogers three, Starling Marte four, Griffin Canning five, Jesse Winker six, Gregory Sodto seven, Ryan Hley eight, Ryan Stannic nine, Cedric Mullen 10. Do you agree with those rankings? Am I disrespecting someone in these rankings or am I rating someone too high? You could email us the ricobgmail.com the [email protected]. As I mentioned before, we are trying to do mailbags at least once a week throughout this off season. The other thing I do want to put on people’s minds. I want you to start thinking about the RICO rewatch. We have done Rico rewatches every offseason. We pick a game. It is available on YouTube. We pick a date. We all watch the Rico, the old mech game, and then we do a whole episode recapping the game and giving our thoughts about it. Uh, I I think we should do two this year. In my opinion, I think we should do a win and we should do a loss. That’s how I view it. We did game seven, 2006, and that was a that was an unmitigated, painful disaster. That was very difficult doing that one. Uh, we did game seven of the 1986 World Series. That was fun. I was hoping, you know what game I wanted to do? And I don’t think any of us have seen this unless you are above the age of, I would say, 55. Game five of the 1973 National League Championship Series. It was a winner take all NLCS game. The only winner take all NLCS game the Mets have ever won because they lost game seven in 88 and they lost game seven in 2006. But that game is not available on YouTube. You can find the radio broadcast but not the TV broadcast. That’s one I would love to do, but it doesn’t exist. So, give us your thoughts on RICO rewatch ideas, a win and a loss, and then we’ll agree on it and we’ll pick some dates to do it throughout this long offseason. But we do appreciate you listening and downloading the Rico Brillon. Make sure you download it so that it pops up into your inbox. We give you Rico throughout the offseason every couple of days. Thank you very much for hanging out with us on another new edition of Rico Bron. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Rico Brono podcast. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Make sure you download it now to keep it on you at all times. [Music]

Finally the MLB season has come to an end. You know what that means…. FREE AGENCY!!!! Let’s first run through the list of Mets who will be heading to the free agency. And let’s rank them too!

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