Luis Severino eyeing multiyear contract after rejecting Mets qualifying offer
Luis Severino stayed healthy, but do the Mets trust what they saw last season enough to extend the relationship for potentially the next four or five years?The right-hander on Tuesday rejected the club’s qualifying offer worth $21.05 million for next season, crystalizing that any return to Queens for Severino will come on a multiyear deal.Pete Alonso and Sean Manaea also rejected qualifying offers from the Mets, who will receive draft-pick compensation for each, if any, of the players that sign elsewhere.Alonso and Manaea were near guarantees from the start to reject the qualifying offer, but there may have been less certainty with the 30-year-old Severino, given the possibility he could have accepted a higher than market value 2025 salary and looked to parlay that into a multiyear deal next offseason.Even so, it’s likely Severino — who is viewed within the industry as a No.
2 or 3 starter for a playoff-caliber team — will receive at least four years with his next contract and the risk in accepting the qualifying offer would have been an injury-plagued season diminishing his free-agent value next winter.The top end of this market for starting pitchers includes Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell and Max Fried.The next tier includes Manaea and Severino, who combined to give the Mets a formidable 1-2 punch last season.Severino, who arrived on a one-year contract worth $13 million, pitched to a 3.91 ERA in 31 starts for the Mets in which he recorded 161 strikeouts in 182 innings.
It marked the first time since 2018 with the Yankees that Severino was healthy enough to start at least 30 games.“I have to give a lot of credit to the Mets, the trainers, strength coach and everybody here helping,” Severino said last month.“I feel that even though I was healthy this year, I can still improve.”Severino averaged 95.9 mph with his fastball velocity, which ranked in MLB’s 79th percentile, according to Statcast.
His numbers were also strong on average exit velocity, ba...