The Mets announced they’ve claimed right-hander Nick Tropeano off waivers from the Giants. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. Reliever Tommy Hunter was transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list to open 40-man roster space. The Giants designated Tropeano for assignment last week.
This marks the second time in nine months the Mets have snagged Tropeano off the waiver wire. New York claimed him from the Pirates after the conclusion of last season. Ultimately, they decided not to carry him over the winter, non-tendering him a little more than a month later. Tropeano then signed a minor league deal with the Giants and was selected to the major league roster on May 21.
The 30-year-old wound up appearing in four games with San Francisco, tossing six innings of relief. He only allowed one earned run in that time, but Tropeano also managed just a pair of strikeouts. While he didn’t punch many batters in his limited work in San Francisco, he flashed some bat-missing ability with Pittsburgh last season. Tropeano struck out a strong 28.8% of opposing hitters in 15 2/3 innings with the Pirates, allowing just a pair of runs in that time. He generated swings and misses on a strong 14.9% of his offerings in 2020, and that bat-missing ability and recent run of strong run prevention clearly holds some appeal to the Mets front office.
While Tropeano has only worked in relief at the major league level the past two seasons, he could serve as either rotation or bullpen depth for New York. He was a decent back-of-the-rotation arm for the Astros and Angels earlier in his career, and he’d started all three of his appearances with the Giants Triple-A affiliate this season (albeit without ever working into the sixth inning).
By claiming Tropeano, the Mets assume the remaining balance of his $1.1MM contract. He remains under team control via arbitration through 2022, so he could be a multi-year piece for New York if he performs well enough for the club to tender him a contract. Tropeano is in his final minor league option year, so he can be shuttled back and forth between Queens and Syracuse for the rest of this season if he sticks on the 40-man roster.
Hunter was placed on the IL on May 19 with the rather nebulous diagnosis of lower back pain. It’s not precisely clear when the team expects him to return this season, but he’ll now be out of action until at least late July. He has made four scoreless appearances in 2021.
Giants should not have cut bait so quickly, dude has actually looked pretty solid over the past few years.
Guys that replaced him, Sammy Long and Connor Menez, looked even nastier. Have a feeling Farhan and Harris know what they’re doing, he just didn’t have a spot in SF.
Actually Tropeano was DFA’d so Scott Kazmir could be activated. That move did not work out very well….
Correct. Was Farhan doing kazmir a solid by my best guess.
..and Kazmir was replaced by Long. End of the day, Long is now in the swing man role. Point still stands.
Long is going to be a lot more than a swing man.
Great year for fishing, everyone is getting rewards off of others cast offs. It’s a desperate year.
@baseball 1600
JUNE 5, 5:25 PM: Kazmir has officially been DFA’d by the Giants. Camilo Doval has been recalled to claim his roster spot, per Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com (via Twitter). Doval owns a 7.59 ERA/7.54 FIP in 13 appearances covering 10 2/3 innings on the year.
I would think Trop is better than 7.59 ERA
Good claim. Was solid in his brief time here and showed good stuff in Spring Training. There are worse major league options being employed right now.
Next move: Peterson gets sent down & Tropeano gets called up & becomes the #4 starter.
To bad we don’t have much options after pederson rn. He should be in AAA
I didn’t watch much MLB last season so I first heard of David Peterson during the off-season when he was mentioned often and optimistically as a promising rotation piece. I thought, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” And I’m still waiting to see it.
You would have seen if you watched last season. This season, not so much. Going into the year with a rotation of DeGrom, Carrasco, Stroman, Walker, & Peterson was looking good. Some things work out, some things don’t.
David Peterson jumped from AA to the majors missing AAA out of desperation so he deserves his AAA time before they close the book on him
@rodcannon: he was lucky in a small sample size last year. I’m a Mets fan and would always push back when I saw people penciling in Peterson as a definite rotation member and expecting something from him. He might eventually become a solid starter, but he sure isn’t one right now.
It was similar when Matz hit the scene. Very good early performance led to overoptimistic expectations. It may be better for a pitcher’s psyche to debut in mediocre fashion and improve from there.
RCT:
I will admit i am one that penciled him in. Not as an ace but definitely atleast a 4 or 5 pitcher especially with Matz gone and his only real competition being Lucchessi.
I think he will end up being another Steve Matz when all is said and done … a couple of good outings one or two mediocres and some really bad outings
And then go to another team and do well.
like murphy and turner and robles (for a while) and soooooo many more.
Giant fans. Please give me an honest opinion about him. Good or bad.
Angels fan here. Tropeano was underwhelming in Anaheim.
Well I can tell you how he looked with the Pirates. He was pretty solid. He’s not a closer, but if you want a guy who can come in and give you 2-3 very good innings of relief, he’s your guy.
Another Angel fan here. I thought he was pretty solid until he got hurt, tried to pitch through the shoulder and then the dreaded TJ…
Born and raised in NY; live and work out in Angel “Honk” Land.
Root for the Mets and Angels since it really doesn’t conflict; I would be happy if it ever did.
Got to see Ohtani pitch and hit the other day at the stadium.
I like the pickup from the Mets side; nothing given up but some cash and better than other Met options at the back end right now; he was inconsistent as a starter for the Angels but injuries played most of that.
Angels fan – I was impressed by Tropeano’s mound composure as a rookie and he pitched very well until injuries required TJ surgery. I was hoping for the Angels to snag him off waivers.
@MetsFan22
I’m sure you expect Tropeano to become an ace now that he’s wearing the Mets jersey.
BTW, what’s the Mets Magic Number? I’m sure you’ve already calculated that. Are you already looking for playoff tickets and memorabilia?
Good Long Island boy. Shown promise in the past so worth a flyer. Mets need bodies at this point.
Victim of available roster spots. Mets got a good deal, and will control him next year. I have a pretty good opinion of the Giants front office, but wonder about this move. Has to be the numbers game.
Giants should have dfa’d Wisler instead of Tropeano when they brought Kazmir back to pitch a couple of innings.
He needs to punch more batters if he’s going to fill the Mets’ enforcer role
Tropeano has some talent but it teeters on AAAA- level
Some teams are looking for relief help. The fact that Zaidi couldn’t get anyone for Tropeano in trade, where he could for Wisler, and 10 teams passed on him, seems to me the rest of MLB doesn’t think that highly of Tropeano.
He walked Shohei Ohtani in the 9th inning of a 6-1 game (that turned out to be his last Giants’ game), got booed by the his own team’s crowd, then got DFA’d a day later
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like Tommy Hunter has spent more days on the IL than active in his career. The guy is effective when healthy, but that’s not very often.
I suggested this move a few days back as a “give him a look” replacement for Peterson/Lucchesi and was told I don’t even watch my own team. Guess Alderson and Scott don’t, either.
Another possible multi inning guy with very few innings on it since 2019.
Confused about the $1..1m contract mentioned in the article. According to the player profile, it’s only $100k, which would make sense since it’s a minor league contract. I could see the higher amount being the major league salary if he gets called up.
It is $1.1M according to Cot’s. You’re right. The $100K was his MiL deal. and the $1.1M was his ML salary. Apparently BB Ref never updated their info when he got called up.
Interesting. So it becomes the major league salary for the rest of the year once he’s called up, even if he’s sent back down?