Should the Mets Verdu-go? Or Verdu-stop?
Signing another corner outfielder probably shouldn’t be a top priority for the Mets these days, as they’ve committed $900 million to Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo, and Starling Marte at those positions. Tyrone Taylor and Jose Siri are on the roster to provide some defensive backup, and Jeff McNeil arguably does his best defensive work these days as a corner outfielder.
And yet—for whatever reason—the Mets have recently been linked to free-agent outfielder Alex Verdugo, a solid player with a down 2024 who’s pretty good at many things but not great at any one thing. What exactly is the point?
Perhaps the point is to take the report with a heavy grain of salt, because a potential Verdugo inclusion necessitates the expulsion of an outfielder from the major league roster. Who would that be?
Soto and Nimmo are basically no-touchy from their roster spots, as is McNeil (though there’s a small chance he would play primarily on the infield in 2025). Marte’s contract makes him very difficult to move, while the Mets have already finished arbitration with Siri and Taylor.
Those two are the most realistic replacement options for someone like Verdugo, so let’s play a game of “Who would you rather have?”
Taylor vs. Verdugo
Taylor was worth more than Verudgo in both Baseball-Reference WAR (2.0 vs 0.8) and FanGraphs WAR (1.2 vs 0.6) in 2025, and likely comes much cheaper than Verdugo for his stay in Queens. Both have put up essentially average offensive production throughout their careers, while Taylor’s defense easily outshines Verdugo’s inconsistent metrics.
Verdugo has a couple of advantages over Taylor, however. He’s nearly two years younger but also has more MLB games under his belt, debuting as a 21-year-old for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also doesn’t strike out very much, though Taylor showed a bit more pop when he did make contact in 2024.
Considering that Taylor is already in the organization after a successful 2024 campaign, it doesn’t make sense that the Mets would choose Verdugo’s limited upside over Taylor’s assured defensive strengths. Taylor is the better choice, here.
Siri vs. Verdugo
This one is a more interesting comparison since Siri is a “really good at one thing, really bad at another thing” type of player and Verdugo is a “fair-to-good at most things” type.
That one thing that Siri is good at is defense—as in “one of the best defensive centerfielders in the league” good—which almost exactly balances out his “arguably the worst hitter in the league” offensive approach.
In the aggregate, perhaps Verdugo could put up a similar level of production as Siri, but Siri’s power provides a much higher upside than Verdugo can, making his signing look like a low-risk, high-reward proposition for the Mets. Verdugo’s potential signing, on the other hand, leans more “high-floor, low ceiling.”
And like Taylor, Siri is already in the building, making a Verdugo signing a strange fit.
There is the possibility the Mets could trade Marte, Taylor, or Siri for a set of minor leaguers, freeing up a spot for a free-agent outfielder like Verdugo to slide in. But for a player coming off a season with an 83 wRC+ in 621 plate appearances, that seems like a bit much.