Mets Face Challenging 40-Man Roster Crunch This Winter

The New York Mets made a lot of big changes over the past year, including deals that sent out a lot of veterans at the trade deadline. While the likes of Freddy Peralta, Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver (among others) are gone, the Mets did add a lot of new young players to their 40-man roster in the form of prospects, players looking to get through the final six weeks of the season or relievers auditioning for the 2027 bullpen.

It is fair to assume the Mets will want to add a few new players to the roster in the offseason, including potential options for the rotation and setup corps, as well as more bats to help at first or second base. While all of the moves should have created plenty of space on the 40-man roster, the Mets actually have a more difficult path to clear space than you would think.

Let's take a look down the current 40-man roster and figure out who should be on it entering the offseason to see how much space the Mets are potentially working with. For the purpose of this exercise, we will assume that Bo Bichette opts into his current contract and the Mets decline their $20 million option on Luis Robert Jr, although they could consider re-signing him at a lower rate.

Mets' 40-man roster breakdown

Catcher

The Mets currently have four catchers on their 40-man roster: Francisco Alvarez, Luis Torrens, Hayden Senger and Shawn Ross, who they added off waivers earlier this season. Most teams carry three catchers on their 40-man, so Alvarez and Torrens figure to be locks to go through to next season.

The addition of Ross figured to be a safety move in case the Mets moved on from either of their existing catchers at the deadline. Both Ross and Senger have options remaining so the Mets may just pick whichever one they like best and designate the other for assignment to clear 40-man roster space.

Infield

If we assume Bichette opts into his contract for 2027, the Mets will have him and Francisco Lindor as the anchors of their infield. Jared Young has played well enough to factor into the team's 2027 plans, even as a platoon option at first base, while the Mets are unlikely to move on from Marcus Semien after just one year since he and Brett Baty could platoon at second base until Mitch Voit is ready.

That leaves four infielders on the 40-man bubble: Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio, Eric Wagaman and the recently promoted Christopher Morel. Vientos and Mauricio are out of options, so it is unlikely they stick around past this season. Wagaman, Morel and Vientos also all fit the same archetype of a platoon power bat against lefties, so keeping all of them is redundant. If Jorge Polanco, who is also a roster lock due to his contract, can play some first base next year the Mets could conceivably move on from all of them if they so choose.

Outfield

Removing Robert from the mix means the Mets have a set group of four outfielders on the 40-man roster: Juan Soto, A.J. Ewing, Carson Benge and Nick Morabito. Christian Pache is the only other outfielder on the 40-man roster besides them and Robert but is out of minor league options so the Mets will likely let him go and find a similar veteran type to fill his role.

Starting pitching

Four members of the Mets' current rotation figure to be sticking around for 2027: Sean Manaea, Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Zac Thornton. Tobias Myers, who is stretching back out in the minors, figures to be around next season as well while prospect Jonah Tong is also on the 40.

One name to add to the mix figures to be Tylor Megill, who the Mets tendered a contract to despite the fact he will miss the entire season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Megill, who is on the 60-day IL, doesn't currently count against the 40-man roster because of that designation but will need to be added back in the winter if the Mets tender him another deal to be a part of their rotation depth.

The bubble options on the 40 figure to be Robert Stock, who is currently holding the fifth rotation spot, and Justin Hagenman, who has missed the entire season with a rib injury. Hagenman has minor league options remaining but needs to be added back to the 40 due to his 60-day IL status while Stock is out of options.

Bullpen

This area of the roster could be quite interesting to explore as relievers currently occupy up to 14 spots on the 40-man roster. Devin Williams is a lock as the prospective closer entering next season while Kodai Senga's recent resurgence as a reliever gives him a great shot to stick around.

The rest of the unit has a bunch of optionable arms, and players who are pitching well would have a leg up on sticking around, including Daniel Duarte, Nate Lavender, Jonathan Pintaro and Jefry Yan. Reed Garrett is in a similar boat to Megill as he is on the 60-day IL coming off of Tommy John surgery and the Mets will likely want him around next year to bolster their middle relief group.

That leaves seven more pitchers as bubble candidates: Xzavion Curry, Dedniel Núñez, Chayce McDermott, Cionel Pérez, Dylan Ross, Austin Warren and Jack Weisenburger. Warren and Núñez are the most notable of this group, but Warren is out of minor league options while Núñez has only one remaining while demonstrating shaky form in his return from Tommy John surgery.

Prospects

An area of roster building that most fans tend to forget is the fact that prospects with enough tenure in the minors need to be protected from the Rule 5 draft by being added to the 40-man roster. The Mets have a large number of potential Rule 5 candidates, headlined by new top prospect Jefferson Rojas.

The Mets figure to keep Rojas safe from the Rule 5 along with other intriguing prospects like Jacob Reimer, Jack Wenninger and Gary Gill Hill, who they just added in the Peralta trade. Ryan Clifford is also Rule 5 eligible but his complete lack of progress at Triple-A Syracuse this season as a 23-year-old could mean the Mets opt not to protect him from Rule 5.

The most intriguing name in this bucket could be Chris Suero, a catcher with speed at Double-A Binghamton who can also play first and third. If the Mets think Suero can help soon as a third catcher, they could add him to the 40-man while DFAing both Senger and Ross.

How does the 40-Man roster look at this point?

Going through the exercise would put the Mets with 31 spots on their 2027 40-man roster accounted for with up to 15 bubble candidates. That count of 31 includes four minor league additions, which is of note since the Rule 5 Draft was notably skipped during the last MLB work stoppage.

Banking on another Rule 5 cancellation would be bad business so those minor leaguers need to be included. Nine spots doesn't seem like a lot to play with given how much work the Mets need to do to address their needs, but this would be the baseline before any trades or free agent additions are factored in. The math may be tricky, but Stearns should have enough room to maneuver and get what he needs to do to fix the Mets done.

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