Reese Kaplan -- NY Mets 2026 Pitching Staff Options

There have been countless evaluations of what went wrong for the Mets in 2025 and what changes they need to make to ensure a repeat won’t occur for the 2026 season.  Everyone who is a fan knows the issues — injuries, lack of depth, inconsistent offense and, if you believe the personnel changes in the coaching staff, a poor performance of the people assigned to keep the players on track.

We can start with pitching as it was a black hole for most of the season that ended without October baseball.  First were the injuries with multiple players missing months (or longer) due to arms, abdominal muscles, elbows and other maladies.  For awhile it was never clear who was going to start and who was going to relieve due to the revolving door of pitchers who, by necessity, needed to be changed as often as you would your underwear.

Then came the exhaustion.  We saw David Peterson morph from ace-like stuff to batting practice pitcher.  Kodai Senga did the same and was treated even more harshly with a demotion to Syracuse.  Clay Holmes started off quite well but the unaccustomed volume of innings had him go through a less successful period.  Sean Manaea had a late start to the season and finished with some pretty ugly numbers including a 5.64 ERA.  Frankie Montas requiring surgery was addition by subtraction and Tylor Megill is gone for all of 2026 as well. 

Out of sheer necessity the Mets made the three late season additions of Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong.  McLean was a life raft for his 8 starts finishing with a 5-1 record and a 2.08 ERA.  Sproat who was a 3.83 ERA pitcher in the minors saw his number jump by nearly a full run.  The potential is there but not as an ace level pitcher.  Tong is perhaps the most puzzling as he totally dominated in AA at age 22 with 20 starts, going 8-5 with a 1.59 ERA, a WHIP under 1.000 and notching an average of 14.3 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched.  He hit the wall big time in the majors.  After a two game stint in AAA he finished his rookie campaign over 5 starts going 2-3 with a 7.71 ERA.  He’s got premier stuff but perhaps was rushed a bit in the club’s dual needs for pitching and their pursuit of the playoffs. 

Going into 2026 everyone is truly unsure what the front office will do to address these issues.  If Edwin Diaz indeed departs it would not be stunning to see Clay Holmes returned to the bullpen where he has dominated in the past.  If so, then the club is looking at potentially Sean Manaea, Nolan McLean, Kodai Senga and David Peterson as starters with Sproat and Tong fighting it out for SP5.  That rotation does not exactly fill opposing hitters with anxiety.

Many are advocating the Mets mortgage the future in trades for the likes of Tarik Skubal, Joe Ryan, Paul Skenes or Freddy Peralta.  Skenes and Skubal most definitely have ace stuff, but the asking prices in terms of player personnel will be huge.  Peralta and Ryan are probably number two level starters or number ones on less robust staffs.  Still, any of these four would immensely help.

The free agent options are plentiful but many of them are going to be seeking long term deals for big money.  Since David Stearns has rightfully been reluctant to commit to such an injury prone position as starting pitcher for megabucks and multiple years, it’s more likely they will fish around the middle of the pack for solid starters who are not quite ace material.  Hopefully this exploration will not include the likes of the next Frankie Montas. 

One name that has come up multiple times is starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai currently with Seibu.  He’s a slim and small pitcher who relies more on location and ball spin than sheer velocity.  His NPB Japanese career ERA is 3.15 which is quite good, but since 2022 he has pitched even better to an ERA under 2.50.  In his most recently complete season he went 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA, averaging 9.8 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched and a WHIP of just 0.892.  Going into 2026 he will be just 28 years old and although not as highly regarded as other NPB free agents, he looks to be someone affordable and worth a longer term deal than the over-34 aged pitchers in free agency domestically.

Not to rule out that group entirely, there are some decent arms to explore, including former Met Chris Bassitt, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly who will cost between $14 and $20 million on short term deals of one year plus an option for a second.  These types of additions would enable the Mets to keep Sproat and Tong as depth pieces working on improving their games and consistency in Syracuse.