The dream of a “fire and ice” bullpen in Queens lasted about as long as a New York minute. Just days after the Mets secured Devin Williams to stabilize the ninth inning, the Atlanta Braves swooped in and snatched Robert Suarez off the board with a three-year, $45 million contract. It is a tough sequence of events that not only leaves the Mets searching for a setup man but also directly fortifies the primary obstacle standing between them and the division title.
David Stearns had a clear opportunity to build a super-bullpen by pairing Williams’ finesse with Suarez’s 100 mph heat, but the price tag ultimately proved too steep.
With Edwin Díaz securing a three-year, $69 million deal from the Dodgers, the Mets would have had to commit roughly $96 million combined to Williams and Suarez to lock down the late innings. Stearns clearly decided that investing nearly $100 million into two relievers was bad business, but watching Suarez take his talents to Truist Park suggests the Braves had no such reservations about paying for dominance.
A Mathematical Downgrade in the Late Innings
There is a very real argument to be made that the Mets have significantly downgraded their relief corps on paper compared to the Díaz era. Replacing the singular dominance of Díaz with Williams is a lateral move at best, but failing to secure the high-velocity partner needed to shorten games leaves the bridge to the ninth inning looking shaky.
Suarez would have been the perfect foil to Williams’ “Airbender” changeup, creating a velocity differential that gives hitters nightmares, but now Mets hitters will be the ones trying to catch up to Suarez’s fastball in the eighth inning.
The optimist will point out that the money saved by not signing Suarez—roughly $15 million annually—can now be redeployed to fix the rotation or find a bat to replace Pete Alonso. That financial flexibility is valuable, provided Stearns actually uses it to acquire impact talent rather than spreading it across mid-tier depth pieces. But in the immediate aftermath, it feels like the Mets got halfway to a championship-caliber bullpen and then decided to pull the emergency brake.
The NL East Arms Race Just Tilted South
The loss of Suarez is compounded by the fact that he didn’t just go to a random team; he went to the one team the Mets measure themselves against. The Braves just reminded everyone that they are still the aggressors in this relationship, willing to pay premium prices to ensure their bullpen is a weapon rather than a liability. While the Mets were doing the math on value per inning, Atlanta was writing the check that solidified their backend for the next three years.
The Mets have their closer in Williams, but the road to the ninth inning just got a lot bumpier, and the guy who should have been paving it is now wearing an Atlanta cap. David Stearns has a lot of work left to do to prove that this calculated restraint was the right move. For now, the scoreboard says the Braves won this round, and Mets fans are left wondering if “financial flexibility” can strike out the side in the eighth inning.