The New York Mets are getting ready to trade for Tarik Skubal, the ace of the Detroit Tigers, who had a 2.21 ERA and 241 strikeouts this season. This could be one of the biggest moves in the offseason trade market. The Mets see an opportunity to fix their pitching problems that kept them out of the playoffs in 2025 because contract talks between Skubal and Detroit have stalled over a gap of almost $250 million.

Mark Gooden reports that the Mets are getting ready to make an opening offer for the two-time Cy Young candidate. The offer will include Justin Hagenman, Kevin Herget, Alex Carrillo, and Brandon Waddell. This proposal shows how important it is for New York to strengthen its rotation after injuries to Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga forced it to rely on rookies Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat, and Jonah Tong. These young pitchers had a lot of potential, but their lack of experience hurt the Mets during the most important part of the season, which kept them out of the playoffs even though they got Juan Soto.

Skubal’s abilities make him worth the effort. This season, the left-handed pitcher went 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA and 241 strikeouts in 31 games. His postseason reliability is even more impressive: he has a 2.04 ERA over six October games in two years, which shows that he can perform when the stakes are highest. Skubal’s durability is still very important; he keeps pitching innings while still performing at an elite level. Garrett Crochet of Boston may be a contender for this year’s Cy Young, but Skubal’s consistent excellence makes him the best player for teams that want to win.

Trade talks picked up speed after Jon Heyman reported that there was a “close to $250 million” gap in contract talks between Skubal and the Tigers. This huge gap in money makes it look like Detroit would rather trade its best player before he becomes a free agent after the 2026 season. As Skubal’s 29th birthday approaches, the Tigers have a tough choice to make: spend a lot of money on him or get the most value out of him in a trade right now. The Mets, on the other hand, think that these four players are a good place to start for bringing championship-level pitching to Queens.

The Mets’ plan to bounce back from their disappointing 2025 season includes aggressively going after Skubal. The organization has already started to change things from the inside out to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes as last season.

Mets rebuild coaching staff after season collapse

The front office is still trying to get Skubal, but the organization has already taken big steps to fix what went wrong in 2025. On Wednesday, the New York Mets said that Carlos Mendoza’s coaching staff would be getting two important new members: Kai Correa as bench coach and Jeff Albert as director of major league hitting.

These changes aren’t small. On October 3rd, the Mets got rid of all of their staff. Jeremy Hefner, the pitching coach, and Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez, the hitting coaches, were all fired. Mike Sarbaugh, the third base coach, was also let go. John Gibbons, the bench coach, chose to leave on his own terms. Glenn Sherlock, the catching coach, retired. The organization also let go of bullpen coach Jose Rosado and assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel so they could look for other jobs.

Correa has a new point of view at 37 years old. He ran the whole field operation for Cleveland last season, including defense, baserunning, and game strategy. Given that Albert has been developing hitters in the Mets’ farm system for three years, his promotion makes sense. He deserves this chance in the big leagues at 44.

The big changes are in response to a season that started out great and ended up being a nightmare. The Mets were in charge early on, and on June 12th, they had the best record in baseball at 45-24 and a 5½-game lead in the NL East. By the time of the All-Star break, that edge was gone. Then things got really bad: they went 28-37 after the break, which left them at 83-79 and watching October from home.