For the Mets and the other teams still in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, their offseason will be shaped in large part by the team Soto chooses.
If he signs with the Mets, their search for starting-level outfielders will almost certainly be done.
If he picks another team, the Mets — with Brandon Nimmo entrenched in left field and Tyrone Taylor and Jose Siri expected to split time in center field — will have to find a right fielder.
When it comes to that potential search, two players you won’t find on this list are Anthony Santander and Teoscar Hernandez. Santander has a career OBP of .307, is coming off a huge year that feels like an outlier, and will likely be vastly overpaid. Meanwhile, Hernandez seems destined to return to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Here’s who the Mets’ top five free agent outfielder targets should be…
It’s possible the Mets might just be keeping an outfield spot warm for a bit, with Drew Gilbert an option to make his big league debut during the first half of the 2025 season — either in his natural center field or in right field.
And if the Mets envision Gilbert arriving quickly, signing someone like Grichuk — who was a part-time player in 2024 and can adequately handle all three outfield spots — could make sense.
Grichuk hit .291/.348/.528 in 279 plate appearances over 106 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks last season, mashing lefties (.914 OPS) while also more than holding his own against righties (.801 OPS).
The Mets reportedly expressed interest in Conforto around the trade deadline last season, and a reunion with the homegrown left-handed hitter could make sense for 2025.
Conforto was solid last season for the San Francisco Giants, hitting .237/.309/.450 with a 116 OPS+, which was a solid improvement over his literal league average offensive performance in 2023 (100 OPS+).
He knows the market, is familiar with a handful of the Mets’ players from his time in Queens, and could seamlessly slide into right field.
O’Neill could be a high-risk, high-reward option if the Mets don’t land Soto.
Since establishing himself as a regular in 2021, O’Neill has had two seasons (2021 and 2024) where his offensive production has been at an All-Star level and two others (2022 and 2023) where it’s been below average.
He has enormous power, having smacked 31 homers for the Boston Red Sox last season in just 113 games while slashing .241/.336/.511. But with all that power comes a ton of strikeouts, as he fanned a whopping 159 times in those 113 games.
Winker was a huge vibes guy after he was acquired last summer, and had some enormous hits for the Mets in the regular season and the postseason.
His overall regular season numbers in New York were underwhelming, as he hit just .243/.318/.365 with three home runs and five doubles in 129 plate appearances over 44 games.
However, Winker seemed to fit in well in the clubhouse, has been a strong hitter during his eight-year career (118 OPS+) and can almost certainly be had on a relatively inexpensive one-year deal.
Soto is not only the best player on the free agent market, but one of the best players to ever hit the free agent market.
Add to the above that he just turned 26 years old, is coming off a monster season, and is a proven playoff masher and you get someone whose deal could eclipse 14 years and $600 million.
Fortunately for the Mets, they are in an incredibly strong position when it comes to their ability to make that kind of offer to Soto and not have any issue building a dangerous team around him for years to come if he takes it.