During my vacation the past few weeks, a plugged-in agent told me it was his sense that the Mets were not playing at the top of the starting pitching market for Corbin Burnes and Max Fried.
Those starry starters remain available in free agency, so there is still a wait-and-see on what the Mets’ full intentions are, especially because they likely need to add three rotation pieces and Steve Cohen’s largesse always means they can play in any market.
But with a two-year, $34 million agreement with Frankie Montas, the David Stearns Mets are forming a pattern on how they view free-agent starters — think short-term deals with upside — which is why they have inquired on Walker Buehler, among others.
When Yoshinobu Yamamoto was available last offseason — the first in which Stearns led the Mets baseball operations department — Cohen and Co. matched the 10-year, $325 million bid that ultimately won for the Dodgers. There also was a $50.2 million posting fee beyond that and short- and long-term luxury-tax implications.
