Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez latest: Mets considered favorites to land a star southpaw

The New York Mets have yet to make any legitimate additions to a starting rotation that disintegrated over the final three and a half months of the 2025 season, but one big reinforcement could be on the way.

ESPN’s Buster Olney and Jesse Rogers reported on Tuesday that it is “inevitable” that New York lands one of Framber Valdez or Ranger Suarez, the free-agent market’s top left-handed pitchers available.

Suarez hit the free agent market at the best possible time, as he was coming off a career season with the Philadelphia Phillies behind a 12-8 record and 3.20 ERA. He isn’t as proven over an extended stretch as Valdez, though; the soon-to-be former Astro has a 3.20 ERA and averaged 180.2 innings pitched with 175 strikeouts over the last five seasons.

Valdez is also a two-time All-Star and a World Series champion who has toed the rubber on the game’s largest stages.

The pedigree would likely be seen on the price tags of each starting pitcher, though Suarez is two years younger than the 32-year-old Valdez. There is something to be said, at least at this point, about Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns spending this offseason as more of a bargain hunter rather than making a big splash in free agency. His largest move in free agency was signing Jorge Polanco to a two-year, $40 million deal.

However, the Mets’ starting rotation requires significant investment due to its uncertainty. Nolan McLean is projected to develop into an ace, and Clay Holmes performed well as a middle-of-the-rotation option in his first year moving from closer to starter. But Sean Manaea was derailed by a spring-training oblique injury while Kodai Senga’s June hamstring pull was the flashpoint at the start of the Mets’ collapse. Upon his return, his mechanics were never the same, and he was unable to find them during his demotion to Triple-A.

David Peterson went from an All-Star in the first half of the season to looking like the young southpaw who could not put it all together in years past.

For more on the Mets and Framber Valdez, visit AMNY.com