🔄 Mets wanted to swap Starling Marte for Hunter Harvey

Hello fellow Mets fans! Welcome to this week’s edition of Almost A Met.

We’re going to stay more recent today since you all seemed to enjoy the last recent Almost A Met I did.

With former Met OF Starling Marte signing with the Royals earlier this month, I thought it would be fun to look at one of the very few leaks to have come out of the David Stearns-era: How the Mets were looking to swap Marte for RP Hunter Harvey.

Before diving in, I’m gonna be that guy and ask you to hit that like button if you enjoyed today’s newsletter. I know everyone asks, but it really does help.

Anyway, let’s get into it!

Andrew Wyrich

Before we get into specifics about how the Mets were looking into acquiring Harvey, we need some context: Specifically, OF Starling Marte.

The 2025 Mets were billed as a big-spender. They had just spent a record number of dollars to sign OF Juan Soto, and already had numerous large contracts on the books.

So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that in December 2024, the Mets reportedly floated the idea of paying down the salary of Marte in order to get something in return.

Marte was under contract for the final year of the four-year deal he signed ahead of the 2022 season and was scheduled to make $20.75 million, according to the Athletic.

With Soto in right field, OF Brandon Nimmo in left field, and a combo of OF Tyrone Tracy and newcomer OF Jose Siri slated to handle center field, it made Marte expendable. He was at best a DH option and at worst a very expensive fifth outfielder. The signing of DH Jessie Winker only exacerbated things as the offseason went on.

Marte had a very good first season with the Mets in 2022. He had 3.8 WAR, hit 16 HRs, drove in 63 RBIs, and played in 118 games. From there, the results were less than ideal. The second season of his deal he had -0.7 WAR and only played in 86 games. In his third season, he got his WAR up to 0.7.

Given that kind of production, it should be obvious why he was shaping up to be the Amazin’s fifth outfielder.

While no trade ever materialized, despite the Mets being willing to eat some of the outfielder’s salary, some discussions came to light during the offseason.

About a month later, Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated reported the Mets discussed a deal with the Kansas City Royals that would have netted the team Harvey. Joel Sherman of the New York Post would confirm the team’s interest in Harvey in March of that year.

The two teams talked about the deal around the Winter Meetings that offseason, and the Mets were willing to pay down a portion of Marte’s salary in order to facilitate a deal.

The deal felt like a potential swap of distressed assets. Harvey didn’t have a great stint in Kansas City after being dealt there from the Washington Nationals at the 2024 trade deadline.

After being traded to the Royals, Harvey had a 6.35 ERA across 6 games. He didn’t pitch in the postseason for the team.

However, prior to that, he had a decent run of success. From 2022-2023 he accumulated 2.9 WAR, had a 2.70 ERA and struck out 112 batters over 100 innings for the Nats. The Mets clearly were hoping to tap back into that to help their bullpen.

Meanwhile, the Royals were looking for an outfield bat after having their offers to free agent OFs Anthony Santander and Jurickson Profar denied.

The deal made sense on paper, but ultimately never came to fruition.

Both players stayed with their respective clubs.

In 2025, Harvey got hurt but was pitching well before that — with a 0.00 ERA over 12 games.

Meanwhile, Marte would finish his last season in New York with 1.0 WAR, hitting 9 HRs, 34 RBIs, and batting .270 over 98 games. His role expanded after Winker was injured.

While there was some speculation online that the Mets could try and sign Harvey this offseason after having previous interest, it never came to be.

Harvey signed a one-year $6 million contract with the Chicago Cubs in December 2025 that will allow him to make an additional $1.5 million in incentives, according to the New York Post’s Jon Heyman.

Meanwhile, the Royals finally ended up getting their guy.

Earlier this month, Marte signed with the Royals for a one-year $1 million. Bonuses can raise that to $3 million, according to Anne Rogers of MLB.com.

With hindsight being 20/20, it’s probably for the best the Mets never made the Harvey for Marte swap, but I see the logic behind the idea at the time. As for Marte, he gets another shot in the majors with a team that already expressed interest in him.

Since he is one of my wife’s favorite Mets players over the past few years, I wish him well.

Refer a friend

Would you have traded Starling Marte for Hunter Harvey? (Without knowing how the season would have played out).

Next newsletter we’ll share the results of the poll! So stay tuned.

Last newsletter’s answers: 56% of Almost A Met readers would not have hired Mark DeRosa to succeed Terry Collins, while 44% said they would have.

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