Frankie Montas signing with Mets on two-year, $34 million contract in MLB free agency

The Mets have identified their next starting pitching project.

After a year in which Sean Manaea and Luis Severino were added for relatively low prices and enjoyed bounce-back seasons, it will be Frankie Montas who attempts to revive his career in Queens.

The Mets and the 31-year-old have agreed to a two-year deal worth $17 million per season with a player opt-out after the first year, The Post’s Jon Heyman reported Sunday. The deal is pending a physical.

Montas, who at his best is a strikeout artist who finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting in 2021, had a combined 4.84 ERA over 30 starts with the Reds and Brewers this past season.

The season represented a step forward for a righty who pitched in one game in 2023, when his season with the Yankees was nearly completely wiped out after right shoulder surgery. Montas’ results did not improve with his health, though, pitching to a 1.367 WHIP and walking 3.9 hitters per nine innings. He showed better signs at the end of the season, striking out 70 hitters in 57 ¹/₃ innings after the deadline trade to the Brewers.

Montas becomes part of a still-unwhole Mets rotation that right now is led by Kodai Senga and includes David Peterson, with Tylor Megill, Jose Butto and Paul Blackburn depth options. Manaea and Severino, who were coming off similarly disappointing 2023 seasons before joining the Mets last winter and then helped carry the club to the NLCS, are free agents.