NEW YORK -- The Mets may not be pursuing the very top pitchers available on the free-agent market, but they are still collecting arms at an exceptional rate.

The team agreed to terms with two more pitchers, Anthony Gose and Luis Ortiz, on Minor League deals this week, according to sources. Both will be in big league Spring Training, though only Gose has a chance to make the team, as Ortiz will miss most or all of next season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Those two additions bring the total number of pitchers acquired so far this offseason by the Mets to 18. A few, like Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes, are surefire bets to be on the Opening Day roster. But most, like Gose, will compete for jobs in camp. President of baseball operations David Stearns clearly values having a large number of pitchers available at the upper levels of the organization -- especially those with upside.

Gose is a prime example. A 34-year-old former top outfield prospect who converted to pitching midway through his career, Gose has yet to thrive in a big league bullpen, with a 4.78 ERA over 31 appearances for the Guardians the past four seasons. But he features excellent raw tools, including a fastball that reaches the upper 90s and a slider that resulted in a 66.7% whiff rate in 2022 -- second highest among 435 pitchers who threw at least 100 sliders that year.

At Cleveland¡¯s Triple-A Columbus affiliate this past season, Gose struck out 11.9 batters per nine innings while producing a 3.22 ERA over 41 appearances. He did demonstrate control issues, walking 5.4 batters per nine innings, but Gose¡¯s swing-and-miss ability was apparent.

Ortiz, a first-round pick of the Rangers in 2014, has spent parts of five seasons in the Majors in Baltimore, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Ortiz underwent Tommy John surgery in July, which will keep him sidelined in 2025. But he should be ready to return by Opening Day 2026.

In addition to those two, the Mets will have relievers G¨¦nesis Cabrera, Dylan Covey, Chris Devenski, Rico Garcia, Justin Hagenman, Kevin Herget, and Oliver Ortega in Major League Spring Training. None of them were in the organization at the start of the offseason. The team also has plenty of incumbents prepared to compete for jobs, including Jos¨¦ Butt¨®, Dedniel N¨²?ez, Huascar Brazob¨¢n, Reed Garrett, Max Kranick, Sean Reid-Foley, Danny Young and Tyler Zuber.

If none of those names jump off the page, it¡¯s because few of them have long track records of Major League success. The Mets are nonetheless betting on several of them becoming factors in their 2025 bullpen.