The New York Mets are finally adding another starting pitcher, and a decent one at that.
When the Mets missed out on Trevor Bauer to the Los Angeles Dodgers, it was deemed acceptable. Bauer signed a record short-term contract with Los Angeles, and while Steve Cohen can afford to dole out that kind of dough, he’d rather fill out his team with a deeper roster than spend it all on one player.
Such is a fair argument, but just recently the Mets have failed to pick up two rumored free agent targets — James Paxton and Adam Duvall — because Cohen wouldn’t open his wallet. Paxton was the bigger defeat, especially since the Mets trade Steven Matz, arguably with the expectation Bauer would sign. When he did not, the middle of their rotation suddenly looked bare.
Taijuan Walker can solve that problem.
Walker is a good fit in the Mets rotation
Mets are in talks with Taijuan Walker, as @martinonyc reported today
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) February 17, 2021
There's no deal in place, but am hearing that conversations are ongoing & have taken place as recently as late this afternoon
Walker's one of the top free agent pitchers remaining as spring training begins
The Mets understand they can’t afford to miss out on another pitcher of Walker’s caliber. Walker, 28, is 35-34 with a 3.84 ERA in eight seasons with Seattle, Arizona and Toronto.
Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Carlos Carrasco make for a solid top-three to the Mets rotation, but they need to fill out the bottom two with capable starters. Walker would do just that.
Should the Mets miss out on Walker, they’d likely move on to Jake Odorizzi, but they don’t have nearly as much margin for error as they did when free agency initially began. Trading Matz ridded them of a backup plan.