With free agency beginning Monday night, the New York Mets have the opportunity to start making meaningful additions to their roster. One position that could use help is second base , which led SNY contributor John Jastremski to offer his own suggestion for where the Mets could look for an upgrade late last week.
Jastremski's rationale for Gleyber Torres focused on the short-term fit he could offer to the Mets, specifically in regards to offering improvement defensively and offensively on Marcus Semien. The fact that Torres played in the New York market for the Yankees is a bonus for Jastremski, which also lines up with the fact that the Mets have made a habit of adding former Yankees to their roster since David Stearns took over as the President of Baseball Operations late in 2023.
The 2026 season was a trying one for Torres, who hit .260 with eight home runs and 38 RBIs while appearing in only 96 games due to injury. Jastremski's Torres idea is that he may be looking for a one-year prove-it deal to rebuild his value, which could make him a fit for the Mets if they want to look for a meaningful upgrade on Semien.
The idea of Torres is intriguing, but it is hard to see how the Mets would fit him onto their roster right now. Stearns didn't seem interested in exploring external additions for second base at his postseason press conference , specifically citing the team's young prospects on the verge of contributing and how pleased he was with Brett Baty's finish to the season .
Adding Torres would undoubtedly be an upgrade over Semien, but the Mets do not appear ready to move on from him and eat the remaining two years of his contract. Sending Semien out of town in a bad contract swap would kick the can down the road in terms of wasted salary, which is something Stearns appears eager to avoid, and there's reason to believe better health could unlock more from Semien in 2027.
The Mets also don't have many open position player spots to play with. They have the potential to enter the offseason with room for only two new additions to the 13-man position player group. With a clear need at first base and a right-handed-hitting outfielder, adding Torres on top of Semien would be overkill at the position.
The Mets' second base problems could also be short-lived since they have a few prospects on the verge of big-league contributions, namely Mitch Voit, Jefferson Rojas, and Emilien Pitre. Signing Torres would essentially block their path to the majors, which is something Stearns has wanted to avoid by creating lanes for young players to earn big-league reps.
If the Mets want to commit to platooning Baty and Semien, they could have a functional second base situation without spending free-agent dollars on Torres, allowing Stearns to allocate his financial resources elsewhere.
Neither Baty nor Semien would be a serious impediment to a prospect getting a big league opportunity, but having an expensive free-agent veteran here probably would, since the Mets would want to get the most bang for their buck out of someone like Torres.
The on-paper fit makes sense with Torres, particularly if Stearns decides to cut his losses on Semien. Without that scenario, however, it doesn't appear likely that there is a way for the Mets to add Torres and have enough roster space to address the holes they need to build a more complete lineup.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/mets/onsi as Analyzing Why Gleyber Torres Doesn't Make Sense for the Mets .
