Free agency notes: Mets, Richards, Red Sox, Profar, Bench Bat

the Food made a piece for Garrett richards before veteran right-hander signs with Red Sox, notes Jon Heymanvia Twitter). The Mets have made their rotation a project this offseason. However, they are apparently well placed, even without Richards. Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco, and Marcus Stroman make a very strong top three, and hopes remain high that David Peterson will maintain a place behind them. Noah syndergaard plans to join this group at some point, and although Seth Lugo returns to the survey pen, the Mets have no shortage of depth options – the most important of which could be the Joey lucchesi. Beyond the ex-Padre, Steven matz, Robert gsellman, Franklyn Kilome, Corey Oswalt, and Jerad eickhoff surely have eyes for spinning. In other news …

• the Red Sox themselves were finalists in an attempt to sign Jurickson Profar, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Boston, of course, ended up with Kike Hernandez on a similar contract, but shorter. It is unclear whether the Red Sox preferred Profar over Hernandez, although Hernández’s signing just hours after Profar’s resumption with San Diego is notable. Yet one does not necessarily follow the other. All we can say for sure is that Profar’s return to San Diego has cleared up the Boston market for general-purpose utility types. The fact that the Red Sox have entered into parallel negotiations with similar players does not really reflect their priorities when it comes to these players.
• After all, they could very well have been interested in signing both players, as Boston remains on the hunt for a left bench stick. In a perfect world, the Red Sox would find someone who could complement Bobby dalbec at the start, by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). Cotillo floats Marwin gonzalez, Brad miller, and Mitch moreland like some players who might do the trick. The Boston bench is currently leaning sharply to the right, with Jonathan arauz as one of the very few organizational options as a left bat on the bench unless Jarren duran gets the team out of spring training.