Why the Mets chose not to extend Clay Holmes, Tobias Myers’ velocity issues and more

Just one week after the trade deadline, the New York Mets’ roster looks completely different. After trading away seven major leaguers, the final 42 games of the regular season for the Mets (53-67) are focused on evaluating their remaining talent before the offseason. Below, Tim Britton and Will Sammon answered your questions about the Mets’ roster right now and in the future.

Which player in the Mets’ farm system who has yet to make their MLB debut will have the biggest impact on the big-league roster in 2027? — Douglas B. 

Sammon: Infielder Mitch Voit, the Mets’ first-round pick in 2025, is making a strong case. After a slow start in High A, Voit picked things up, earned a promotion to Double A and just kept hitting. Playing mostly shortstop with some time at second base, Voit’s numbers with Binghamton through his first 50 plate appearances are stunning: .550 batting average, 6 stolen bases, 1.483 OPS. Marcus Semien, under contract through the 2028 season, is the Mets’ regular second baseman, but the 35-year-old’s poor production raises questions about his future at the position. Others to watch in 2027 include infielders Jefferson Rojas (acquired from the Chicago Cubs in the Clay Holmes deal) and Émilien Pitre (acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in the Freddy Peralta deal).

Will Voit get Triple-A at-bats this year if he keeps it up? — Douglas B. 

Sammon: There’s a chance Voit reaches Triple A, but I’m not sure how likely that is. If he continues to excel in Double A, there’s no point in holding him down just to hold him down. Last year, Carson Benge saw time at High A, Double A and Triple A. The Mets promoted Benge to Triple A after just 32 games. Voit is up to 11 games with Binghamton. There is time before this becomes more of a discussion.

Why didn’t Stearns target remaking the starting rotation instead of the starting lineup over the offseason? — Matt M.

Britton: Because Pete Alonso’s free agency forced the club to make a decision on the future of the lineup. Stearns could have re-signed Alonso, believed in the underlying metrics of last year’s offense, and had a better offense in 2026 than the Mets wound up with. He’d also have Alonso and Brandon Nimmo under contract through 2030, and he did not like the idea of having four long-term deals running at least through the end of the decade, with three of them at defensive corners.

The team planned to address the starting rotation this winter, when the Mets anticipated that three key starters would become free agents: Peralta, Holmes and David Peterson. They’re all elsewhere now, but the emergence of some younger arms means New York shouldn’t need to remake its rotation as much as we might have thought back in spring.

So, Stearns decided last winter to move on from Alonso and to trade Nimmo when the opportunity arose. That decision has obviously not worked out so far. Alonso and Nimmo are playing up to expectations — Alonso, perhaps, is exceeding them, because he’s improved so much defensively. (It’s fair to wonder why that didn’t happen in Queens.) These were both five-year decisions made by Stearns, and we’ll be tracking them over that time the same way we tracked the outcomes of the Edwin Díaz trade for so long.

I do think it’s possible to hold two competing thoughts in our heads about the Mets’ offseason: First, that Stearns was right to move on from Alonso and Nimmo at the time (as it was shown he was right in moving on from Jeff McNeil for little in return). Second, that Stearns’ mistake was in how he replaced those players — that Jorge Polanco was not the right guy to replace Alonso and that Semien was showing too many signs of decline to believe he’d bounce back in New York. Had Stearns traded for, say, Willson Contreras to play first base and simply released Semien to sign an additional infielder (or played Brett Baty every day on the infield), we might look at this offseason differently. To me, that’s where Stearns’ failure really resides.

What do the Mets believe happened to Tobias Myers? — Doug B.

Sammon: Myers is starting games in Triple A. With each outing, he is increasing his pitch count. He is still, however, not pitching well. While there’s still time — and opportunity, probably — for Myers to start games for the Mets this season, his year hasn’t gone the way the club envisioned. When they acquired him from the Milwaukee Brewers along with Peralta for Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, two top-100 prospects at the time, Myers said that the front office told him that they wouldn’t have made the deal without his inclusion. After a good start this season, Myers spiraled. His velocity is down, and, worse, his fastball velocity is inconsistent and varies from inning to inning. Figuring out his fastball won’t cure everything, but it’d be a start.

Where is the Mets’ No. 1 from this year’s draft, Carson Wiggins? — Dennis M. 

Sammon: The Mets’ goal for Wiggins is for him to work as a starter in 2027. His outlook for the rest of this season remains unclear. Like all the Mets’ draftees, Wiggins is in Florida going through the club’s onboarding process, which includes fielding drills and strength and conditioning training.

Raley, Holmes, Taylor, Minter, Peterson, Tauchman — who, if any, will be wearing Orange and Blue again, come Spring? — Douglas B.

Britton: My guess is none, though I’d give Raley and Holmes some chance of returning.

The Mets never discussed an extension with Clay Holmes even though he publicly stated he was interested. Isn’t that an indictment of David Stearns? — Darren L.

Sammon: I would’ve approached Holmes’ agency about an extension and learned more about the situation. The other side of the argument is, if you know the market value and believe the return from a trade is more important, then what’s the point of retaining him? If the Mets were interested in extending Holmes, there would’ve been more reporting on the subject. We learned a few weeks ago that a trade was more likely. It’s likely the club was wary of making a decision on a 33-year-old pitcher for next year and beyond in July. The old adage is that a player who looks good on next year’s team in July might not look so good for next year’s team by September. I would’ve extended Holmes because of his success as a starter, his experience in New York, the relatively low number of innings on his arm and the desire to keep him as a presence in the clubhouse. However, Rojas, the player they received in the deal, became the organization’s top prospect.

Who is looking like a potential non-tender or cut next offseason? Who is likely to be added to the 40-man? — Ben T.

Britton: The Mets’ arbitration players are slated to be Francisco Alvarez, Tylor Megill, Reed Garrett, Austin Warren, Cionel Pérez, Mark Vientos, Dedniel Núñez and Baty. From that group, Pérez and Vientos stand out as potential non-tender candidates. (Pérez’s strikeout-to-walk rate with the Mets, however, would make me want to hold on to him.)

The Mets have an unusually large number of decent prospects who need to be added to the 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 draft. (Yes, the Rule 5 draft was canceled during the last lockout in 2021. However, teams won’t know if it will be canceled again before they have to add players to the 40-man ahead of the draft, so it would be extremely risky to bank on the Rule 5 draft’s cancellation.)

That prospects list is topped by Rojas and also includes Ryan Clifford, Jack Wenninger, Jacob Reimer, Gary Gill Hill, Chris Suero and Zach Franklin.

Over the rest of the season, we’ll see real auditions for bullpen positioning — as much for staying on the 40-man roster throughout the winter as for starting the competition next spring. When Stearns was hired in 2023, the Mets nearly emptied the 40-man of depth relievers — but they held on to Garrett, a decision that paid off over the next few seasons. This winter, they’ll have to decide again which arms to keep on the 40-man.