The Mets announced a number of non-roster Spring Training invitations this evening. Among those included was corner outfielder DJ Stewart, indicating he’s signed a minor league contract with the club.
Stewart joins the second organization of his career. A first-round selection of the Orioles in 2015, he hit well in the minors and reached the big leagues roughly three years after being drafted. Stewart appeared in parts of five seasons with the O’s, working mostly as a role playing left-handed bat in the outfield rotation. He played in 100 games and tallied 318 plate appearances in 2021 but otherwise didn’t top 44 MLB contests in any season.
Altogether, Stewart has taken 622 trips to the dish at the big league level. In a bit more than one season’s worth of playing time, he’s hit 26 home runs and walked at an excellent 13.2% clip. That’s been largely offset by a higher than average 26.8% strikeout percentage and a modest .256 batting average on balls in play. Overall, he owns a .213/.327/.400 line against MLB pitching. He has rated as a below-average defender in both left and right field.
Baltimore outrighted the 29-year-old off their 40-man roster last April after he’d tallied just three big league plate appearances on the season. He was on and off the minor league injured list throughout the remainder of the year, only getting into 29 games for Triple-A Norfolk. He hit .256/.390/.488 in limited action for the Tides, bringing his career Triple-A mark up to .255/.358/.449 in a little under 900 plate appearances.
Stewart brings a patient plate approach and some power upside to the Mets’ organization. He joins Tim Locastro, Abraham Almonte and former Reds’ farmhand Lorenzo Cedrola among non-roster outfielders who’ll be in big league camp. If Stewart gets to the 40-man roster at any point, the Mets could bounce him between Flushing and Triple-A Syracuse for the rest of the season by virtue of his remaining minor league option year.
Never heard of a DJ called Stewart. What type of music does he play?
Dude actually has numbers. Can punch the long ball, his BA is low but his OBP is over 100 points higher. He does under perform as an outfielder, but he could be a sneaky Pete.
But can he Rave?
No, but he can rant
Geez, this is close to muting worthy schtik. Terrible
As an Os fan I felt they gave up on him a little early. The biggest thing against him is the really poor defense. The bat still holds a lot of potential but unless he learns 1st base he’s limited to DH
No way. He was never consistent. He was clearly the odd OF man out last year entering the season. Much prefer Stowers. When DJ connects, it’s a bomb. But he just doesn’t do that enough.
Man Dj is 29 years old. How long can you give a guy?
I’m happy DJ is gone.
Great point
Some on here have disagreed with your comment, but I tend to agree with you.
Most people will just look at his age, and say yeah they must have given him PLENTY OF CHANCES!! Well, that’s what happens when you just assume things without doing any research.
So, Stewart’s first season in AAA was 2018, which was pretty good since I believe his first FULL professional season was back in 2016 at the age of 22.
Stewart did struggle some in his first taste against AAA pitching, but come 2019, his age 25 season, he was able to put up some much better numbers. Also, Stewart was only really able to play a half a seasons worth of games that year, but he was definitely starting to trend upward.
Then, 2020 hits and 2021 and Stewart’s development was extremely hurt. This is when he really needed consistent at-bats, and it was a pivotal time for his development. Even so, Stewart only managed to receive 350 at-bats combined in those two seasons.
This now has Stewart two years removed from the cusp of making it to the show, but he’s struggled with a lack of opportunities and any consistent playing time.
Add in last season, and Stewart has only had 450 at-bats in the past THREE seasons combined.
Due to some unfortunate timing with COVID, some injuries, and just not being able to find any rhythm at the plate he’s basically had his last three years wasted.
Personally, I would have tried to give Stewart maybe two more years. Next season, send him to AAA, let him rediscover his groove that once had him looking like a very promising player. If he was able to bounceback, then I’d try him at the ML level the following season, or possibly towards the latter part of the season to go ahead and see how he’d respond.
Honestly, it couldn’t have hurt anything, but if they already knew Stewart wasn’t in their plans, regardless of his abilities and untapped potential, then you really cannot blame them for just letting him find another opportunity elsewhere.
Some of it was just really bad timing, but I wouldn’t act like they gave him countless chances and Stewart just failed miserably each year, or like he just couldn’t hit AAA pitching or something.
Agree on everything. I think it came down to defense. If he played even a mediocre 2nd base or outfield they would find another 500 at bats for him. Since he’s limited to DH he became a victim of roster crunch
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Ideally, he would have come up and taken his lumps at the plate. I think the Orioles would have been more than happy to do that as long as he was providing them with some average’ish defense at 2B.
Well, at the very least, they’d be alot more patient with continuing to let him work out the kinks, especially in a team that knew they weren’t quite at their competitive window just yet.
This move clinches the division for sure…
Can’t have enough of this “In case of emergency, break glass” depth.
Battle of the Stewart’s: DJ Vs. Christin. Who strikes out more?
Locastro seems like the likely one to make the roster out of that group. Can play CF and provides speed of the bench.
LeMahieu a much much better DJ.
Jazzy Jeff is better
Jazzy Jeff is best
Excellent signing, this guy killed the Mets in the past. Much better player than Vogelfat
Vogelbach put up an .830 OPS as a Met last season. So I feel like your statement is unfounded.
Vogelbach is way better has way more power, surprised your comment isn’t deleted
good depth signing and good value considering he has an option but if he’s getting regular ABs for any extended length something went very wrong
Or he just plays great. Former 1st rounder, let’s roll the dice, nothing to lose.
Poverty franchise.
The Mendoza line needs updating. Career .215 hitter famous for being associated with hitting .200, but now that it is 2023, with Mendoza having a career OPS+ of 41, maybe the new Mendoza line is an OPs+ of 40.
A guy like Stewart would best serve himself and his team best by trying on a first baseman’s glove, increasing his versatility…
Hard not to keep the replay of a flyball hitting his head as he mightily misjudged it one night resulting in a concussion.
(At least it wasn’t a Conseco HR.) Still, hope he puts together some consistency as he does have pop. Glad that Buck is giving him another opportunity to show he’s more than an AAAA player. I agree that I wonder why he never really gave 1B a shot that I recall. Wish him all the best.
OF depth in case Lee gets suspended.