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Paul Blackburn Clears Release Waivers

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Right-hander Paul Blackburn has cleared release waivers and is now free to sign with any club, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The Mets designated him for assignment on Saturday and it was later reported that he had been placed on release waivers.

It’s not a shock that Blackburn has gone unclaimed. He is making $4.05MM this year, leaving close to $900K still to be paid out. That’s more than some pitchers get for a full season, so it would be a notable amount for the final few weeks of the campaign. Blackburn has also been largely injured this year, only pitching in seven games with a 6.85 earned run average.

Now that he has cleared waivers, it’s possible clubs give him a call. The Mets will remain on the hook for the majority of what remains of his salary. A club could sign Blackburn and only pay him the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for any time spent on the roster, which would be less than $4K per day. Any amount paid by another club would be subtracted from what the Mets pay.

Blackburn hasn’t been in amazing form this year. He started the season on the injured list due to inflammation in his right knee. He was activated in June but a shoulder impingement put him back on the shelf. As mentioned, he has posted a 6.85 ERA around those IL stints.

However, he is stretched out and was in good form during his rehab assignment, which could appeal to clubs needing innings. He started a rehab assignment in July and his final four rehab outings were Triple-A games where he went five innings or more. He had a 2.42 ERA, 18.3% strikeout rate and 4.3% walk rate in those. He was then reinstated from the IL and tossed five innings of long relief against Atlanta on August 13th, allowing two earned runs. He was designated for assignment shortly thereafter.

While it’s not been a great season overall, Blackburn has some major league success. From 2022 to 2024, he tossed a combined 290 1/3 innings with a 4.43 ERA, 20.2% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 44.8% ground ball rate. It’s been a challenging year but he is stretched out and has been putting up decent numbers over the past month. Since he is basically free, it’s possible some club takes a chance on him, especially with the inherent difficulties of adding impact talent after the trade deadline.

Photo courtesy of Jason Parkhurst, Imagn Images

Francisco Alvarez Could Play Through Thumb Injury But Will Require Surgery Eventually

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The Mets placed catcher Francisco Alvarez on the 10-day injured list earlier today with a right thumb UCL sprain, announcing that he will be evaluated again in 10 to 14 days. Manager Carlos Mendoza later provided more information to reporters, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Alvarez will require surgery at some point but the Mets are going to see if he can play through it before going under the knife. If he can’t play through it a few weeks from now, he could be done for the year.

It seems that the Mets and Alvarez are in a weird limbo area due to the calendar. Andy Martino of SNY relays that the typical recovery time for this thumb surgery is six to seven weeks. If he were to have it done now, it would essentially end his season.

The Mets are battling for a playoff spot and will instead see if Alvarez can be a factor for them later in the year. It might not work out but it doesn’t appear there’s a serious downside. Even if the surgery is delayed until the offseason, Alvarez should have time to recover for a normal offseason and be ready for spring training.

Alvarez struggled earlier this year and got optioned down to the minors for a spell. Since coming back up, he has been on a tear. His recent hot streak has brought his season-long line up to .265/.349/.438, which translates to a 126 wRC+.

As Alvarez has been hot, the club has been cold. The Mets have been sliding in the standings and their 66-58 record has them barely hanging onto a playoff spot, just one game up on the Reds. If there’s a chance of getting Alvarez back in the lineup for a few weeks, it’s understandable that they would try, especially when considering the alternatives. Luis Torrens is hitting .214/.280/.301 this year while Hayden Senger has a .174/.208/.196 line.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Mets Place Francisco Alvarez On Injured List

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2:45pm: Alvarez is now officially on the IL due to a right thumb sprain with Senger recalled. The Mets say Alvarez will be further evaluated in 10-14 days.

11:13am: The Mets will place catcher Francisco Alvarez on the injured list today due to his right thumb injury, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. An exact diagnosis isn’t clear just yet, but Alvarez exited Sunday’s game early after injuring his hand on a slide into second base. Manager Carlos Mendoza noted that night that Alvarez was headed for an MRI to evaluate the extent of the injury (link via The Athletic’s Tim Britton).

Losing Alvarez for any period of time is a crushing blow to a flailing Mets club that has come out of the All-Star break with an 11-16 record — including just a 4-11 mark in August. The 23-year-old backstop has been the team’s hottest hitter after a monthlong reset in Triple-A. He’s come to the plate 71 times since being recalled on July 21 and turned in a brilliant .323/.406/.645 batting line (193 wRC+) with four homers, six doubles and a triple.

With Alvarez out for at least the next nine days — his stint can be backdated to Monday — the Mets will have to lean on backup Luis Torrens and rookie Hayden Senger behind the dish. It’s a notable offensive downgrade, with Torrens hitting just .214/.280/.301 in 225 plate appearances this season and Senger carrying a .174/.208/.196 slash in 49 plate appearances as a 28-year-old rookie.

Alvarez missed significant time in 2023 with a thumb injury, though that was due to a ligament tear in his other (left) thumb. He’s also missed time due to a fractured hamate in his left wrist. While it’s perhaps the smallest of silver linings that this latest injury didn’t occur in the same hand that’s already caused him to miss significant action on two separate occasions, his absence will be prominently felt.

Poll: Can The Mets Hang On To A Playoff Spot?

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It’s been a rough few weeks for the Mets. While they managed to take two of three in their series against the Mariners this weekend, it was their first series win since they swept the Giants all the way back on the weekend of July 25. Since then, New York has gone just 4-14 and not only fallen five games back of the Phillies in the NL East, but is getting challenged by the insurgent Reds for the final NL Wild Card spot. Despite that brutal stretch of play in recent weeks, this isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. While the club was at one point up 5.5 games in the division, that was nearly two months ago at this point. They’ve gone 21-34 since then, good for a .318 winning percentage that falls between the full-season figures posted by the White Sox (.355) and Rockies (.282).

That makes the final six weeks of the regular season more important for the Mets than their fans could’ve imagined during their strong first half. The question for the Mets is less about the possibility of an NL East title and a bye through the Wild Card round at this point, and more about if they’ll be able to squeak into the postseason at all. The club attempted to break into what, at the time, looked to be a fairly wide-open race for a bye to the NLDS when they made a number of aggressive, buy-side trades in the run-up to the trade deadline.

Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers, and Gregory Soto joined Edwin Diaz at the back of what was expected to become the most fearsome bullpen in the league, and Cedric Mullins was brought in to plug the one hole on the team’s roster. The results of those trades have been mixed to this point, Soto (8 1/3 scoreless innings) and Rogers (1.93 ERA in 9 1/3 innings) have both excelled to this point, but Helsley has struggled to an ugly 7.11 ERA in eight appearances for the Mets so far, with four additional unearned runs allowed as well. Meanwhile, Mullins has a paltry .255 on-base percentage with a 29.1% strikeout rate since arriving in the Big Apple.

Perhaps the failings of Helsley and Mullins in their first few games with the team could be overlooked if the rest of the team was performing better, but the club’s internal core hasn’t exactly impressed lately either. Only six teams in baseball have scored fewer runs than the Mets since June 13, and while the offense has picked things up in recent weeks (124 wRC+ in August) their run prevention has taken a nosedive. Only four teams (Marlins, Pirates, Nationals, and Rockies) have allowed more runs to score than the Mets since the start of August, and the decision not to bring in a starter at the deadline is looking particularly disastrous given the club’s rotation has put together a brutal 6.23 ERA in the weeks following the end of trade season.

Bleak as things have looked in recent weeks, however, that shouldn’t be taken to mean there’s no reason for optimism. After all, the Mets are still in playoff position even after all of those struggles. Only Cincinnati has a record above .500 among NL clubs not currently in playoff position, meaning the Mets are in a much more comfortable spot than they would be if they were in the AL, where teams like the Royals and Guardians are sticking around the periphery of the Wild Card race with solid records. While the Reds (36-30 since the start of June) have looked good lately thanks to a fantastic rotation, their offense hasn’t looked especially threatening at any point in the year. Mets superstars Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor are both firing on all cylinders offensively in recent weeks, by contrast, and that could help stave off Cincinnati unless the Reds’ bats get going.

Even if the Reds stick around in the race long-term, it’s at least possible that another team in the NL playoff picture could start to struggle. The Cubs have scored the fewest runs in baseball since July 1 after starting the year as an offensive juggernaut. With pitchers like Cade Horton and Matthew Boyd reaching uncharted territory in terms of workload and a big series against Milwaukee this week, their currently stable position in the NL playoff picture could look much less secure in a hurry. The Phillies, meanwhile, lost Zack Wheeler for an uncertain amount of time over the weekend. While Aaron Nola returned from the shelf to replace him in the rotation, his first start back (six earned runs surrendered in 2 1/3 innings to the lowly Nationals) didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

How do MLBTR readers view the Mets’ hopes of making a second consecutive postseason appearance this year? Will they be able to hold on despite their recent struggles, or will the rest of the NL playoff field manage to push them out? Have your say in the poll below:

Mets Place Paul Blackburn On Release Waivers

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The Mets have requested unconditional release waivers on right-hander Paul Blackburn, according to Mike Puma of The New York Post. Blackburn was designated for assignment on Saturday when the Mets called up Nolan McLean.

A release was a likely outcome once Blackburn was bumped from the 40-man roster. With the deadline having passed, a trade was not a possibility. The Mets could have opted for outright waivers but Blackburn has five-plus years of service time, meaning he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while retaining his remaining salary commitments. The Mets have skipped that formality and put Blackburn on release waivers instead.

It doesn’t seem especially likely that any club would claim him. Blackburn is making $4.05MM this year, which leaves about $900K still to be paid out. That’s not a massive sum relative to season-long MLB payrolls but would be a decent amount for just a few weeks of work. Blackburn has spent most of this season on the injured list and has a 6.85 earned run average in the seven appearances he has made, which should tamp down the interest.

If he clears waivers, the Mets will remain on the hook for the money. Any other club could sign Blackburn and would only have to pay him the prorated version of the $760K league minimum salary. That would be about $150K or so if Blackburn gets a spot somewhere quick and holds it for the rest of the year, far less than the amount required to claim him off waivers. Any amount paid by another club would be subtracted from what the Mets pay.

As mentioned, Blackburn has been injured and not terribly effective this year, but the sample size is small. Injury absences are nothing new for him, as he’s actually never even thrown 112 innings in a big league season. However, the results have occasionally been decent. From 2022 to 2024, he tossed a combined 290 1/3 innings with a 4.43 ERA, 20.2% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 44.8% ground ball rate.

His 2025 hasn’t been at that level but team may overlook that. Adding to a roster is tough now that the trade deadline has passed, yet teams always need arms as injuries pop up. Blackburn has some decent results on his track record and will be essentially free.

Photo courtesy of Jason Parkhurst, Imagn Images

Mets To Designate Paul Blackburn For Assignment

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The Mets are going to designate right-hander Paul Blackburn for assignment, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. That will be the corresponding move for the promotion of Nolan McLean, a move that was previously reported.

Blackburn was acquired by the Mets at last year’s trade deadline. At the time, the Mets had lost both Kodai Senga and Christian Scott to the injured list and suddenly needed a bit of rotation depth. He made five starts for the Mets before he himself required a stint on the injured list. He hit the IL due to a right hand contusion. While on the IL, it was reported that he was dealing with a spinal fluid leak in his back. He didn’t make it back off the IL. He underwent a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak repair procedure in October.

Despite the rough landing in Queens, the Mets tendered him a contract for 2025, his final arb season before reaching free agency. The Mets seemed interested in stockpiling rotation depth. They signed Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes, Frankie Montas and Griffin Canning, adding to a rotation mix which already included Senga, David Peterson, Tylor Megill and Blackburn. The Mets and Blackburn avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $4.05MM salary for this year.

Unfortunately, it has turned into another season marred by injuries and the Mets seemingly never had much interest in putting him back into the rotation. He likely would have been off the roster long ago if not for other injuries, both to himself and others.

Blackburn started the season on the IL due to inflammation in his right knee. He was rehabbing throughout May, before being reinstated from the injured list in early June. By the middle of June, there was reporting that the Mets were fielding trade interest in Blackburn. At the time, they had a rotation of Senga, Peterson, Holmes, Canning and Megill, with both Montas and Manaea on rehab assignments. Blackburn appeared to be surplus to requirements. But moments after that report came out, Senga got injured and landed on the IL. Megill went on the shelf not long after.

That opened a window for Blackburn to stick around, but then he himself hit the IL again in early July due to a right shoulder impingement. He began a rehab assignment in the middle of July and got up to five innings by his second outing. But the Mets didn’t have a rotation spot for him behind Senga, Manaea, Holmes, Peterson and Montas. They let Blackburn throw a few more rehab starts, perhaps because they just wanted to keep him around in case someone else got injured.

In recent days, Montas was moved to the bullpen to open a rotation spot for McLean. Blackburn was reinstated from the IL and put in the bullpen as well. He tossed five innings of long relief on Wednesday after Peterson couldn’t get through the fourth inning. Now, he’s been bumped off the 40-man entirely.

This move ends a strange Mets tenure for Blackburn. He was technically with the club for over a year but only made 12 appearances in orange and blue. It often seemed like the Mets were on the verge of nudging him out the door before it finally happened.

He now heads into DFA limbo. With the trade deadline having passed, he will have to be placed on waivers. There is just under $1MM left to be paid out on his salary. His frequent injuries likely hurt his chances of being claimed, though he has had some decent results when healthy. With the Athletics in 2022 and 2023, he tossed a combined 215 innings with a 4.35 earned run average. His 20.7% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 44.5% ground ball rate were all fairly close to league averages.

Those cromulent results surely attracted the Mets in the first place but he wasn’t spared the injury bug even in those campaigns. Issues with his right middle finger prevented him from surpassing 115 innings in either of those seasons.

Still, decent starting pitching is hard to find after the deadline, so perhaps Blackburn will find some interest. If he clears waivers, the Mets will remain on the hook for the rest of his salary. At that point, another club could sign him and pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Mets pay.

Photo courtesy of Jason Parkhurst, Imagn Images

Rafael Ortega Opts Out Of Mets Deal

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Veteran outfielder Rafael Ortega triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Mets and was granted his release, MLBTR has learned. He’s a free agent who can sign with any club.

The 34-year-old Ortega signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason, kicking off his second stint with the team. He also spent the 2023 campaign with the Mets, hitting .219/.341/.272 in 136 big league plate appearances and .230/.379/.398 in 140 Triple-A plate appearances.

Ortega has picked up more than three years of major league service time and played in parts of eight big league seasons. He’s a career .245/.322/.349 hitter in 1301 plate appearances as a big leaguer, highlighted by a 2021-22 run with the Cubs that saw him slash .265/.344/.408 (110 wRC+) in semi-regular action (701 plate appearances over 221 games).

Ortega has spent the majority of the current season on the injured list due to a significant hamstring strain. He went on a low-level rehab stint in late July and was activated on the Triple-A roster earlier this month. He started only four of the nine games for the Mets’ Triple-A Syracuse club since his reinstatement, however, and received 18 total plate appearances in that time. Top outfield prospect Carson Benge’s recent promotion to Syracuse would surely further reduce Ortega’s playing opportunities, so he’ll return to the open market in search of a new landing spot.

In parts of 10 seasons at the Triple-A level, Ortega is a .286/.370/.446 hitter. He’s a left-handed bat who can handle all three outfield positions. He’ll be an option for any club looking for some experienced outfield depth.

MLBTR Podcast: Walk-Year Performances, Roman Anthony’s Extension, And More!

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Should Tigers fans be nervous? Is the club worse off going into next year? Should they trade Tarik Skubal this winter? (38:55)
  • The Mets didn’t trade Mark Vientos at the deadline and Pete Alonso is trending towards opting out. Will the Mets move on from Alonso this time? (51:05)
  • The teams that are considering six-man rotations, should they piggyback two of them in one game? (57:20)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images

Mets To Promote Nolan McLean

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The Mets will call up top pitching prospect Nolan McLean to make his MLB debut this Saturday, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. He’ll step into the rotation spot vacated by Frankie Montas’ move to the bullpen. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported earlier this morning that righty Paul Blackburn was also headed to the bullpen when he’s ready to be reinstated from the injured list, setting the stage for either McLean or fellow prospect Brandon Sproat to make his debut.

As we noted yesterday when the Mets moved Montas to the ’pen, the Saturday start aligns far better with McLean’s turn in the Triple-A rotation than with that of Sproat. McLean has also simply outpitched Sproat this season, though both well-regarded prospects have excelled recently.

The timing of the move likely isn’t a coincidence. Saturday marks the first day on the calendar where there’s not enough time remaining for players to accrue enough service to exhaust their rookie eligibility. By waiting until Saturday to promote McLean, the Mets have ensured that he’ll still qualify as a rookie next season and therefore still be able to earn the Mets potential future draft picks via the league’s Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) program. In all likelihood, McLean is just one of several top prospects around the league who’ll be promoted after Aug. 15.

McLean, 24, was the Mets’ third-round pick in 2023. He’s rated as one of the system’s more promising young arms since that selection, but his stock has exploded in 2025 as he’s ripped through Double-A and Triple-A lineups. McLean has pitched a combined 113 2/3 innings between those two levels and compiled a tidy 2.45 ERA while punching out 27.2% of his opponents. His 10.7% walk rate is still too high, but his huge 54.7% ground-ball rate can help to erase a few of those free passes by way of the double-play ball.

This year’s terrific run has not only vaulted McLean toward the top of the Mets’ in-house prospect lists — it’s made him a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport. He sits 37th among all big league prospects at MLB.com, 40th at Baseball America and 53rd at FanGraphs on each outlet’s post-deadline reranking of the sport’s top young talents.

The 6’2″, 215-pound McLean is an Oklahoma State product whose athleticism draws plenty of praise. He was a two-sport star in high school, playing both baseball and football, and he was a two-way player at OSU, where he was a third baseman and outfielder in addition to his work on the mound. He’s since dialed in only on pitching and experienced an uptick in velocity, now sitting 95 mph with a four-seamer that can climb to 98 mph when he needs to reach back for a bit extra. MLB.com’s report on McLean calls his sweeper a “monster” of a pitch with “elite” spin rate. He’s sitting 85.5 mph with that pitch and also mixing in a sinker, cutter and seldom-used changeup.

Because McLean will retain rookie eligibility going into next year, he could earn the Mets a draft pick down the line. If McLean were to win National League Rookie of the Year or finish top-three in NL MVP voting next season, the Mets would gain that pick. Even if McLean doesn’t hit either of those goals, the fact that he’ll be a top-100 prospect who accrued a full year of service as a rookie opens a three-year window for him to net the Mets a compensatory pick based on award voting. If McLean were to land any top-three finish in Cy Young or MVP voting before reaching arbitration, the Mets would still gain a pick. Players can only net their team one pick under the league’s PPI program, but the timing of his promotion means McLean could do so at any point from 2026-28.

Setting aside the PPI aspect of the promotion, McLean’s promotion comes at a time when he cannot accrue a year of service this season. He’ll be controllable for at least six full years beyond the current campaign — potentially more than that, depending on whether he’s optioned at any point in the future. The earliest he could become a free agent would be after the 2031 season, and the earliest McLean could qualify for arbitration would be following the 2028 season.

Mets Move Frankie Montas To Bullpen

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The Mets will move struggling right-hander Frankie Montas from the rotation to the bullpen, manager Carlos Mendoza announced Tuesday (link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). The team has not yet announced who will start in place of Montas on Saturday. The Mets have righty Paul Blackburn on a minor league rehab assignment, but Mendoza indicated that Blackburn will make at least one more rehab appearance and is not an option to step into Montas’ rotation spot this weekend.

Notably, Saturday is the first day that prospects can be promoted to the major leagues but still fall shy of the requisite 45 days on the active roster that exhausts a player’s rookie status. In other words, beginning Saturday, the Mets will be able to turn to a top prospect like Nolan McLean or Brandon Sproat without burning either pitcher’s rookie eligibility. That’s key for teams with top-100 prospects, as promoting those prospects early in the 2026 season can then net the teams a compensatory draft pick, based on Rookie of the Year voting.

It’s been a miserable season for the veteran Montas, who inked a surprisingly strong two-year, $34MM contract with an opt-out provision over the winter. That opt-out is a moot point by now, with the 32-year-old righty being relegated to bullpen work after logging a 6.38 ERA in his first eight appearances of the year (36 2/3 innings).

Montas began the season on the injured list due to a lat strain and didn’t pitch in the majors until late June. He’s allowed four or more earned runs in four of seven starts and has yet to complete six innings in an outing. Setting aside a solid season debut in which he tossed five shutout frames, Montas has been clobbered for a 7.39 ERA and yielded an average of 2.27 homers per nine innings pitched in six starts and one three-inning relief appearance (his most recent outing).

It appears that Montas won’t get the opportunity to improve on that rotation performance anytime soon. It’s difficult to fathom a scenario where he’d turn down the $17MM player option he’s facing at season’s end, so it’s in the Mets’ best interest to get him back on track, but their recent play doesn’t afford them the luxury of keeping a struggling veteran in the rotation while he tries to sort things out.

The freefalling Mets, who’ve lost seven in a row, currently have Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes and David Peterson in the rotation. Sproat and McLean stand as the two most logical replacements. (Fellow top prospect Jonah Tong was only just promoted to Triple-A and has yet to throw a pitch there.) Sproat last pitched Aug. 7 and would be on eight days’ rest, whereas McLean pitched on the 10th. Based on their current schedules, McLean seems like the more straightforward option, and he’s pitched more effectively this season anyhow.

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