The New York Mets lost two of their most prominent players to free agency during the winter meetings, and today the parade out the door continued as the Toronto Blue Jays signed former Mets reliever Tyler Rogers to a $37 million deal over three years. According to Mitch Bannon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the deal also include a vesting option that could bring the total value up to $48 million.

The Mets’ fan base won’t be happy about this. They’re already reeling from losing closer Edwin Diaz and first baseman Pete Alonso to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles, respectively, and Rogers was one of the Mets most effective relievers with his funky, almost upside-down delivery.

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He is 34, which is one justification for letting him walk, but at some point the Mets have to pay to retain or sing someone on the pitching staff. There are two basic conclusions that can be drawn from this deal: (1) The Blue Jays are going for it after extending the Dodgers to seven games and coming within a few outs of winning the World Series (2) The Mets aren’t, at least not at this point.

Instead, Mets fans are left to wonder when the positive moves start. Alonso and Diaz both had their warts and flaws, but they were stars with the proven ability to perform in the New York market, and those players typically aren’t easy to find.

We’re assuming Stearns has some kind of plan in mind here beyond emphasizing defense and run prevention, but pitchers like Rogers are part of that whole run-prevention thing. Rogers hasn’t posted an ERA over 3.60 since 2022, according to Bannon and Rosenthal, and he also excels at suppressing home runs and walks, which are two areas where the Blue Jays bullpen struggled this season.

As for the Mets, they now have a new closer, but not much else. The Mets signed Devin Williams to replace Diaz, but Rogers was an important piece going forward, or at least that was the assumption going into the offseason.

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For GM David Stearns, his offseason hot seat just got a little hotter. He needs to make another move or two to stabilize the roster drain and get things back on track with the pitching staff, and it can’t be a minor move that comes off looking like a Band Aid. The Mets have a lot of holes in their rotation and bullpen right now, and Band-Aid fixes simply won’t get it done.