With the Mets having limited money to spend, they seemingly have two options: (1) improve a strength; or (2) address a weakness. With the Mets have holes at both middle infield spots and centerfield, depending on your point of view, the Mets may be looking to improve a strength:

Sounds like Mets like O’Day too, which is obvious. But easy to see his market heating up and being out of reach.

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) November 6, 2015

Without making a move, the Mets already have a good bullpen. Why improve it with all the other holes?  Why address the bullpen when the Mets are losing Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes?  The reason is you can’t bring back both. Therefore, no matter what happens you’re going to be playing in tight games next year. The best way to handle those games is with great pitching. 

The Mets have great starting pitching, but only a good bullpen. The addition of Darren O’Day would make the bullpen great. In six of the eight years he’s pitched, he has had an ERA of 2.28 and below. For his career, righties hit .193/.261/.279. Lefties hit him better to the tune of .235/.294/.409. As you would expect, lefties hit the submarining O’Day better than righties, but they don’t exactly hit him well. Furthermore, O’Day has been improving against them while he’s been in Baltimore:

• 2014: .189/.264/.368
• 2015: .210/.293/.333

O’Day has become a terrific set-up man. Combining him with Jeurys Familia would make every game a seven inning game with the Mets. With their starting pitcher, that’s a dangerous proposition for the Mets opponents. 

It may also be what the Mets need with what promises to be a diminished Mets offense.