The Mets announced Friday that they’ve agreed to terms with right-hander Ervin Santana on a minor league contract. The deal is still pending a physical. Assuming he passes that test, he’d head to Port St. Lucie to begin building his arm strength back up.
Santana, 36, missed nearly all of the 2018 season after undergoing surgery to repair a tendon in his right middle finger just prior to Spring Training, and the Twins declined a $14MM option on him last November. He signed a minor league pact with the White Sox this offseason but was released after just three unsuccessful starts with the team.
Despite the poor showing in 2018-19, Santana was a consistently and perhaps quietly effective mainstay in the Twins’ rotation in the preceding three seasons. From 2015-17, he pitched to a 3.47 ERA with 7.2 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 and even was named to the American League All-Star team in 2017. That year, he racked up 211 1/3 innings, tossed five complete games (three shutouts) and finished out the season with a strong 3.28 earned run average.
The Mets’ rotation hasn’t performed as well as hoped in 2019, and while no one would reasonably expect Santana to return to his 2017 levels, he could eventually push Jason Vargas for the fifth spot in the rotation. He’s gone more than a month without pitching since being cut loose by the ChiSox, so he’ll need some time to build up, though. If nothing else, he’ll eventually serve as a depth option in the event of an injury at the big league level. New York has been using Wilmer Font in that role but has received just 10 1/3 innings of 7.84 ERA ball in three starts since trading a low-level minor leaguer for him.
And the season is saved!
This has been all Omar Minaya.
At he beginning of the season I would have said solid signing…. but that was months ago and I was so young
Indeed
legit lol
Lmao
What’s the big deal? Every team has reclamation projects in the minors. Although he’s got mileage and an injury history so they are not the same, Wakefield gettingv released by Pittsburgh comes to mind. Look what the Sox ended up with. In this case, the team is risking very little, hoping for a second half that will have 29 other teams kicking themselves. If not, he could get released in three weeks.
Haters gotta hate
He was decent in the past before the finger injury. Good depth signing.
That’s pretty much where all careers end, no?
Yeah, ask Conforto, Alonso, McNeil, Syndergaard, Matz, and DeGrom
You named home grown rookies, I think you missed his point
I’ve got Jeremy Burnitz and Bobby Bonilla on the phone, they said hi.
And Carlos Gomez…
Speaking of Bobby Bonilla, isn’t he still getting paid from the Mets?
Yup, $1.2 M per year until 2035. Nice little annuity
Oy vey…Where have I seen these moves before…
Depth move. Or, if the Mets fall out of contention, he can eat innings after Wheeler, and maybe Thor and/or Matz, get traded…
A Low A ball pitcher could also “eat innings.”
Santana’s fastball is 6-7mph slower than 2017 and he’s getting shelled. It’s why the Twins weren’t interested. It’s why all of MLB essentially ignored him over this off season. It’s why the White Sox DFA’d him.
If Ervin didn’t want to embarrass himself, he should have retired prior to this year.
very little chance they’d be out of a 2nd wild card at the trading deadline.
even if they were, they’d get more for Matz and Thor in the offseason.
if Wheeler is pitching well to gain interest, it is extremely unlikely the Mets are out of contention unless Thor and deGrom both suffer season ending injuries.
Leave it to the Mets to yet again and again and again sign HAS BEENS ! What the heck? WIth that ownership, we will NEVER win another championship. Cheap idiots. Surprised they haven’t signed Bartolo Colon yet. Sickening to follow them and I’m a fan for over 50 years.
Colon would have been a much better signing than Santana.
Colon would not have accepted a minor league deal. big difference.
Colon would get some more butts in the seats which leads to more revenue to not spend on the team.
Yeah. It would be like a team trading for some minor leaguer like Luke Voit or signing a minor leaguer like Gio Urshela, Oops.
it’s a minor league deal. he’s not even on the 40 man roster.
it’s just a depth move and there is very little chance he would ever be called to the big leagues.
teams do this stuff all the time.
Should have been Bartolo.
Big if true
They know this isnt Johan right?
Wow people like to complain. These type of minor-league signings occurred for decades. Pre-Internet nobody knew about them unless they bought one of the baseball newspapers or you lived in a city where the minor-league team was located. Similar to Matt Kemp who also just signed, nobody in Mets management hopes they ever make it to the majors. Midseason when you sign extra players there are no stars sitting Around unsigned. OK maybe there are two specific pitchers this year but they come with giving up a draft pick.
Sorry Mets Fans
Time to stop wasting $$$$ on these has been players…bring in Joe Giradai to manage team…..get a new GM that knows sometime about talent in MLB……get some new owners and then maybe…JUST MAYBE the Mets could put people in the stands