As the MLB Winter Meetings roll on in Orlando, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns met with members of the media to discuss where things currently stand with his club.
Of course, starting pitching has been a hot-button topic for the Mets following a 2025 season that went downhill, in part, due to a starting rotation that simply couldn’t deliver enough innings, whether it was due to injuries or ineffectiveness.
Ask if the Mets would like to add a starter, Stearns said that while the club is certainly keeping all options open, they do have a talented group of young pitchers waiting in the wings.
While Nolan McLean firmly established himself as a part of the 2026 rotation and beyond thanks to his 2.06 ERA over the course of eight major league starts, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong could be in line for some more minor league seasoning before becoming full-time members of the Mets’ starting staff.
“I think we’d like to be able to add a starter. We are also really comfortable and like our young starters who are emerging,” Stearns said. “We saw that last year with Nolan McLean. But certainly we’re going to be canvassing where we can to bring in a starting pitcher and help stabilize the staff.”
Outside of the trio of McLean, Sproat, and Tong, the Mets also have names like Jonathan Santucci and Jack Wenniger, among others, who could potentially make an impact in 2026. And that doesn’t even include Christian Scott, who Stearns said should come into spring training without limitations following Tommy John surgery in late 2024.
“I think sometimes we often equate youth with unpredictability. I think young starting pitchers have a pretty good history in this league, especially of late, especially when they have certain stuff packages, of coming up to the big leagues and having success,” Stearns said. “Doesn’t mean we’re going to count on a staff exclusively of young starters, but certainly over the course of the year, we are going to expect significant contributions from a group that we think is really talented and about to get to the major league level.”
Throughout the early parts of the offseason, the Mets have been linked to big-name starting pitchers who could be on the move, either through trades or free agency, such as Tarik Skubal, Freddy Peralta, Michael King, and others.
So if the Mets were in a hypothetical playoff series right now, is the team’s Game 1 starter currently on the roster?
“I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll know that until we get much further along in the offseason and until we get to spring training,” Stearns said. “I also think that often times on opening day, the person you thought was the No. 1 starter in a playoff series, you actually get to the playoff series and it’s someone else. We lived that couple of years ago. I think even really good teams that go on and win a World Series like the Dodgers can live that over the course of a season. I’m less preoccupied by thinking about who is going to start Game 1 of a playoff series than I am about making the transactions that put the best possible team on the field that we can do.”
“You always want more ceiling,” Stearns added. “Do I think we need more ceiling? I don’t think I’d go that far, but you always want more ceiling.”
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