The Mets announced Friday that they’ve signed right-hander Sam McWilliams to a one-year, Major League contract. The 25-year-old has yet to make his MLB debut and spent the 2020 season in the Rays’ 60-man player pool. The contract comes with a $750K salary, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, which is considerably north of the league minimum — an unusually high commitment for a minor league free agent on a Major League deal. McWilliams is represented by Brian Grieper of Paragon Sports International.
An eighth-round pick by the Phillies back in 2014, McWilliams was traded to the D-backs a year after being selected in the deal that brought righty Jeremy Hellickson to Philadelphia. Arizona then shipped him to Tampa Bay alongside southpaw Colin Poche to complete their acquisition of Steven Souza Jr. in 2018.
The 6’7″ McWilliams has just 44 innings of Triple-A work under his belt, and they didn’t go particularly well (8.18 ERA), but he fared well prior to reaching the top minor league level. In a total of 535 innings since being drafted, he owns a 3.85 ERA with 7.0 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and 1.4 HR/9. He’ll step into one of the three vacancies the Mets had on their 40-man roster, bringing their total to 37 players.
sign lindor not him
Lindor’s not a free agent genius
Well, hate to break it to ya but Linder lives in the USA, which, last I checked, is a free country. Therefore everyone in this country is a free agent, no matter what the contract says. So yes, let’s, sign Lindor right now, please. I mean c’mon, it’s comma sense!
That doesn’t make you sound stupid at all.
Comma sense… right.
Truly, am laughing out loud. Thank you all!
what?
Am i free to sell newpony13 a bridge that connects Manhattan with Brooklyn? Or at least the naming rights to that bridge?
And people wonder why I come to the Mets board for comedy relief? See newpony13
I’d love to see comment from MetsFan22 about this.
Thanks newpony13. I was wondering what a moron’s thoughts would be on this topic and you have answered my question.
hey he makes sense. He’s not tied to McDonads for life. He can go work for BK or Taco Bell if they want to sign him
Ok this is my finest joke/troll job and I have decided to retire from trolling. I will only be serious from now on, thank you all <3
Sure this was a troll job. It was not you making a major blunder and saying it was a troll job after you realized how foolish it was.
Welcome to “serious” talk.
Lol you’re the best troll on this website so I’m surprised this obvious joke flew over your head. Check my history m8. Also was cool to see the Marlins make the postseason. I immediately thought of you, their only fan. Who do you hope they sign for next year’s run?
Thanks. I hope they sign a closer; a veteran, defensive-minded catcher to mentor Alfaro; a veteran innings eater; a utility middle infielder, and a couple of veteran bullpen pieces from each side.
Oh, and I wish the league would decide immediately whether we are DHing or not. It makes a difference for every NL team, especially us as we get to free agency and the non-tender deadline.
Yeah I agree on the DH rule being decided quickly. It’s a shame it’s taken this long.
I can easily see the Marlins filling all those spots. You think they’ll surprise the league by making one splash for a big free agent?
I don’t see them trying to go crazy with a big splash except for maybe two former Marlins or one Dodger and maybe one of the big closers, but that would mean that they have given up on players at RF and/or Catcher, while not trusting any of their young bullpen arms to win out the Closer role – Ozuna or Joc Pederson for RF (which they’d hurt us defensively) or JT Realmuto for Catcher.
If there is a splash move or two, I’d look at Realmuto and/or a choice of Hendriks or former Marlin, Brad Hand, due to more likely of a need long term. With Realmuto, the only reason the Marlins traded him was because he didn’t want to sign a long term extension and asked for a trade to not be part of another rebuild. Things ended on fairly good terms. I would not be all that surprised if the Marlins approach him again with a similar contract offer that they did before. Now if this happens, that means that the Marlins have given up on Alfaro (part of the Realmuto trade) going forward. With the two Closers, Hand and Hendriks, they fill a need for a few years until one of the young arms can win the job.
For RF, Joc Pederson or Marcel Ozuna are possibilities, but not likely because of the Marlins surplus of young OFs. They most likely let Harold Ramirez, Lewis Brinson, Magneuris Sierra, Monte Harris and Jesus Sanchez battle it out.
In fact, a lot of spots are like the RF situation, in which multiple young players are ready to be up and win jobs – 2B/SS with Isan Diaz and Jazz Chisholm; SPs with Daniel Castano, Edward Cabrera, Trevor Rogers, Robert Dugger, Jordan Yammamoto, Nick Neidert, etc. all battle to win a 5th spot behind Sandy Alcantara, Sixto Sanchez, Pablo Lopez and Eliezer Hernandez, and then the bullpen.
The Marlins have to keep the positions open for the best young players to win out, so this is a factor in them not going for big splashes as well.
And the DH is key because that helps us know what to focus on with Garrett Cooper and Jesus Aguilar.
I think the wrong McWilliams is linked.
Also who would make this signing in their organization? They haven’t replaced BVW yet have they?
Sandy
My assumption would be that Alderson and John Ricco (who AFAIK is still in the FO) are running things right now.
Well, certainly things are changing with the Mets having an owner that “can spend like a team in NY.”
Uh…baseball reference has Sam McWilliams as a 2B/OF…? Are there 2 of them..?
Huh — unbeknownst to me, yes there are. Ha. Usually with common names I check to make sure our auto-linking script picked up the right one. With Sam McWilliams, I did not expect there to be two of them.
I updated to link to the proper one. Thanks for pointing it out.
good pickup. i think he could be a useful player.
Yes, his MLB career proves how useful he is.
25 years old. A lot of pitchers figure it out about that age. Less than a million.
Far more pitchers don’t figure it out. If everyone could do it, everyone would be in MLB.
Seems like a valuable use of a 40 man roster spot.
Wait Major League contract? Don’t we have better guys to give roster spots to? I’m fine with a minor league deal but man
I mean he is probably better than gsellman
Yes, his MLB career has proven he’s better than Gsellman.
By your comments the Rays should trade Wander Franco for JD Davis.
He looks like a RH Larry McWilliams, but they don’t seem to be related.
A ML contract for this guy seems like quite an investment (I mean I know it’s not much $ or anything) but giving him a 40-man roster spot and putting him on the active roster usually doesn’t happen for guys who haven’t really had all that much success in the minors. And he doesn’t appear to really be a big strikeout pitcher so I wonder what the Mets see in him… maybe he’ll surprise us and has something the Mets think they can unlock. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
kinda odd the Rays didnt trade him if there was any likelihood that he’d get a ML contract. bad read i guess.
McWilliams was actually taken in Rule 5 last year by the Royals, and then returned to the Rays. Strikes me as the kind of guy who has the tools, but for whatever reason they don’t translate onto the field.
Maybe the Mets see something, but I’d agree that a minor league deal (he was a MiLB free agent) would’ve worked. But he must have had interest from other teams.
This guy just needs to develop just a little more. This guy is going to be an ace someday. Watch Out! This guy is going to be the future Gerrit Cole and Clayton Kershaw. He’s already better than most of the people on the Met’s roster already. Makes a whole lot of sense to control this guy. Great Move!
I hope your scouting report pans out.
Obviously the IMPACT MOVE Cohen talked about making.
Can’t wait to see what other moves are made to compliment this move.
Perhaps the MLB contract so that in the event of no or reduced MiLB season due to COVID they can continue to develop him?
Cohen’s league