The Mets are “in the mix” for star free agent designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Passan notes that the Red Sox and Reds are among the other teams involved, while the incumbent Phillies remain the favorite to sign him.
With Pete Alonso a free agent and Brandon Nimmo having recently been traded to the Rangers for Marcus Semien, the Mets are in need of legitimate bats to bolster the middle of a lineup led by Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor.
And New York is lacking power, which Schwarber would provide.
Schwarber, who turns 33 years old in March, belted a career-high 56 homers last season for Philadelphia while slashing .240/.365/.563 as he played all 162 regular season games.
He has hit 46 home runs or more three times in the last four seasons.
In a world where the Mets sign Schwarber, they would essentially be closing off designated hitter opportunities to any other player for the foreseeable future — something that is easier to do now that Nimmo (whose outfield defense had been regressing) is in Texas.
Signing Schwarber could also theoretically signal the end of Alonso’s time in Queens and make a trade of Mark Vientos more likely.
If there’s a big concern with Schwarber, it’s his propensity to strike out. The slugger has fanned 197 times each of the last two seasons after striking out 215 times in 2023 and 200 times in 2022.
But while Schwarber swings and misses a lot, he is an absolute menace at the plate when it comes to basically every other metric.
He was in the 97th percentile or better last season when it came to batting run value, xwOBA, xSLG, average exit velocity, barrel percentage, hard hit percentage, bat speed, and walk rate.
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