The Mets have selected right-hander Hunter Strickland and optioned fellow righty Drew Smith, Tim Healey of Newsday was among those to report. Meanwhile, outfielder Juan Lagares has rejected an outright assignment and elected free agency.
The hard-throwing, 31-year-old Strickland is returning to the Mets exactly four weeks after they outrighted him off their roster Aug. 3. The move came after Strickland posted 2 1/3 disastrous innings across three appearances, during which he yielded four runs (three earned) on five hits. But Smith hasn’t been any better of late, as he has surrendered six runs (five earned) on six hits over 4 1/3 frames this month. Smith suffered a loss against the Yankees on Sunday when Gary Sanchez hit an eighth-inning grand slam off him.
Lagares was in his second stint with the Mets, but the club designated him for assignment Aug. 28 after he made two appearances and didn’t record an at-bat. The light-hitting, well-regarded defender, 31, will now return to the open market.
Pounding the table for the Yankees to sign Lagares. After Hicks went down they clearly need depth at CF. I love Gardner but his CF days are behind him
Lagares can’t even make the Mets roster so that’s pretty bad when they are using Dom Smith in LF because Wilpons have a fetish using infielders in Of(Murphy,Duda)
Lagares may not be Dom but look at his numbers over all and his line drive and hard hit % bely his batting average which are more than enough to hit righties. Plus his injuries that hurt his hitting were from giving his body up to play A+ defense. Who says Mets fans know anything.
So Rojas said he didn’t feel comfortable using Smith up five runs because he hasn’t pitched in a while so instead he put him in an impossible spot in game two- what a dumbass
I would consider myself much easier on Rojas than most Mets fans, but that was inexcusable. I don’t think he gets how to use Diaz either.
The way to use diaz is…1. Not use him at all ,2 ship him out of here before his trade value is total garbage…. 3, See 1 and 2
If lagares opted out, he might have an offer somewhere else?
I don’t think so. He was a complete waste of a roster space for the entire 2019 season and only got resigned once the Mets became desperate for OF depth due to injury. They called him up, he went 0 for 2 & they cut him loose. He’s back on the scrap heap
No, he was used as pinch-runner and defensive replacement. I don’t believe he came up to the plate.
No, once he finally got regular PT from 8/13-9/12 he put up a .844 OPS. Can’t produce if he doesn’t play. This year was 0/0.
Strickland sucks.. This move will bite the Mets in the ass. Again.