The Mets have made a series of roster moves today, announcing they’ve designated right-hander Dennis Santana for assignment, and placed Stephen Nogosek on the IL. Jose Butto and Jimmy Yacobonis are on the way up from Triple-A.
Santana had struggled to a 7.04 ERA 7 2/3 innings for the Mets this season, striking out an impressive 28.6% of batters but walking 14.3% after being claimed off waivers from the Twins in March. Once a top prospect in the Dodgers system, Santana has bounced around the league via the waiver wire since his debut 2018, suiting up for three teams (and being claimed by two more but never appearing for them) and compiling a 5.22 ERA through 146 2/3 innings. He’d lost a couple of mph on his fastball this season too, as he saw that sit around 94mph having touched 96-97 as recently as last season.
Nogosek goes on the IL after suffering a bone bruise on his right elbow. He exited the Mets’ game against Oakland on Friday after being hit by a comebacker. Nogosek had looked solid through 6 1/3 innings of relief for New York this year, striking out eight batters, walking three and giving up two earned runs. He’s operated as depth bullpen piece for the Mets since making his debut in 2019, pitching 38 innings over four seasons and working to a 4.26 ERA. He his walk and strikeout rates have been a tick better than the league average, but he’s also been a little prone to the long ball.
With two vacant spots on the active roster, the Mets first recalled Butto from Triple-A. His only taste of the big leagues was a spot start for the team last year in which he was tagged for seven earned runs on four innings of work. The 25-year-old has put up strong numbers at the highest level of the minors though, working to a 2.33 ERA over 46 1/3 innings at that level over the past two seasons.
Yacabonis has bounced around the league since making his debut for Orioles back in 2017. The 31-year-old has suited up for Baltimore, the Rays, Mariners and Marlins, working to a 6.03 ERA in 118 big league innings. He’s never had much success in the majors, but has put up nice numbers in Triple-A. At that level in 2022 he worked to a much more palatable 3.21 ERA for multiple teams.
Commenter derp
Butto to get a spot start tomorrow?
Sounds like it
Maybe Tuesday?
@10cent:
Good call!
Thank god hes gone. Now get rid Drew Smith and Nogosek, they mess up/almost mess up every game
Yeah get rid of Drew Smith, one of the better relievers they have. Brilliant assessment
One of the better relievers they have? I can maybe count on 5 fingers how many times hes had an inning where he didnt walk or give up a hit in his whole career. He stinks. His ERA only looks nice because he comes in with guys already on and he allows all the runners to score but the runs dont get counted towards him or he will normally load the bases up, and then the manager will remove him and the next reliever comes in to save his ass. Drew Smith gives up bullets to major league hitters. He belongs on the Long Island Ducks. The only pitch he throws for a strike are his fastballs right down the middle, in which the opposing team normally
clobbers
Congrats on not knowing whats going on
Exactly who would you replace Smith with? What would be better? If they get rid of Smith, then what?
I’d rather have Dylan Bundy over Drew Smith come out of relief. The Mets can also, I don’t know?, maybe TRADE for a RELIABLE reliever. That would make sense, right? They aren’t gonna win many games with Drew Smith pitching
so since you looking for no hit no walk innings lets trade the A’s for familia again? he already had a couple of those this year and strings of those last season. Im sure that 8+ ERA means nothing because we need guys that can no hit no walk innings.
If you are looking to get rid of relievers with non-clean innings you should be cutting Raley. The only “clean” appearance he has he hit a batter and he many times gets less than an inning of work. Also one of the 2 runs against Smith was given up by Raley. The other one is the rare time Smith comes in the middle of an inning and smith inherited a runner from Scherzer and gave up a hit and letting 2 in. . Otherwise Smith starts 6th or 7th inning.
@Roll Well this might be news to you but I don’t like Raley either. Hes basically their new version of Joely Rodriguez. I wanted them to get Josh Hader at last years trade deadline, he would have made this bullpen viable. Second off, I don’t want Familia on the Mets either, never mentioned him in any of my statements. There are guys like David Bednar, Hunter Harvey, Brad Hand, etc. that I want on my team. Ottavino’s and Robertson’s arms are going to fall off at this rate. Their the only reliable relievers they have
Not news, since you don’t like anyone
So he has a whip of 1? That’s good.
He’s incapable of not complaining about the Mets. He’s a goof.
@toof
im still hoping we can trade LFG to like the marlins or the pirates for a commenter to be named later. Just wants this to be mlb the show where you can trade a lifetime AAA player like Cesar Puello for Ohtani and force the accept trade.button.
Bro stop talking
Raley was very good with the Rays last year, and you decided you don’t like him less than three weeks into the season?
Roll the only reason I don’t mute him is because I love seeing people rag on him. He is a putz though. Every single post he’s hating on the Mets.
@Hammerin’ Hank Raley has had one good season out of 6. Hes not a good pitcher. If he was 25 years old I would give him a chance but hes in his mid 30s. Theres a reason no one else wanted him. This bullpen is a bottom 5 relief staff in all of baseball. How you can spend 400 million and rely on Drew Smith to be your 7th inning guy is beyond me. That falls on our awful GM’s lap
@toofpick78 Sorry that I’m the only fan that wants my team to get better. The Rays have spent less than a 6th of what the Mets have spent this year. The guy running the show, Billy Eppler, has no idea of what he is doing. Theres a reason why the Angel always did poorly with Trout and Ohtani on the team, it is because Eppler does not know how to contruct a good team. Eppler got this team already loaded to him with an open checkbook. Has he really made the team better? I like his Scherzer, Ottavino, Canha, and Tommy Pham signings, thats it. Now heres his bad moves: Wasted 80 million on a 40 year old pitcher in Verlander who was obviously going to get hurt, wasted 30 million on Quintana who was awful on the Angels and Eppler was the one who signed him to the Angels, had one of the worst deadlines in MLB history with his trades for Vogelbach, Naquin, Givens, and Ruf. Eppler also took on Carrasco’s option of 13 million dollars which was the worst idea I’ve ever seen, hes been horrible for the Mets, even last season Carrasco was getting destroyed by any team .500 or over, hes awful. I don’t like Eppler’s moves to fortify the bullpen, which includes Joely Rodriguez, Brooks Raley, Curtiss, Robertson (not a bad reliever but he was way overpaid for a 38 year old coming off of one good season), and he keeps guys like Drew Smith, Nogosek, and Adonis Medina on this roster too long. As for the players he way overpaid for not counting the players already mentioned, Nimmo is not worth 162 million, Diaz is not worth 120 million, Escobar was not worth 30 million, Senga (who I like) is not worth 80 million. The Rays have around a 60 million dollar payroll, Verlander and Senga make just about as much as the Rays entire payroll for the whole year, yet one team has better results than the other. This goes to show no matter how much money you spend, if you have a incompetent GM, you won’t be able to go anywhere. You give me or the other 29/30 GM’s 400 million dollars to spend with an already stacked team, and we would all get this Mets team around 120 wins. Eppler is clearly the worst GM in all of sports
The rays are consistently great for way more reasons than the GM position. Their talent evaluation team is second to none.
paragraphing might helpful as probably 3/4 of the commenters skipped over that brick wall but atleast get facts straight
Quintana never played for the angels. Quintana was supposed to be a 5th spot on the rotation and even those guys are making 10+ mil nowadays even the middling ones. He was signed to eat innings and and try to keep you in games but basically save your pen some workload. He averages roughly 30 games a season usually starts except the year he was reliever with the giants.
Nimmo played the market beautifully as there was judge and then there was nimmo. Everyone else was way in the rearview in majority of rankings. Conforto was in the top 5 and he hadnt played in a year and was not ok at best in the prior season he played. So it was either pay him or have a major hole in the OF if you didnt sign nimmo. Especially since you had no of prospects in the pipeline at all. Especially for all the teams that lost out on judge like the Giants.
Agree 100% on trade deadline although i cant completely hate him on Givens as he was having a good run with the cubs at the time. and relievers are very volatile.
Diaz was by far the best reliever for last couple of years and was the anchor of the bullpen I dont think any reliever should get that kind of money but he was the best and should be paid the best. Especially since your entire bullpen at the time was literally smith and nogosek. Thats also not including just what he brings in advertising to the team. So that was going to cost.
Robertson had one good year? So all those years as closer and outside of 2 bad years around covid time.dont count?. Him and ottavino would have been solid 7 and 8 pairing or even occasional closer for when diaz needed a rest. Curtiss was a wild card and getting paid a pittance on the chance he becomes the next trevor williams swing man.
Carrasco was literally so the team didnt have to replace basically the entire rotation. I thought he would be the 5 instead of quintana and give Peterson or Megill a chance at 4 but i also understand there was no depth behind them. Not a fan but understand it.
You have to be realistic, yes we all want the team to be better but Hader or Bednar is costing you at the minimum Baty and/or alvarez. You dont like escobar but now say you got either of those pitchers and baty is gone what do you do? Are you going to tear him apart just like people were doing after the PCA trade because he traded away Baty for a reliever? Even last season after the deadline the team had to start Yolmer Sanchez and Devon Marerro and pretty much any one off the street due to all the injuries for 3rd baseman.
This is not MLB the show where you can say here take my crap for your all stars (especially in the pirates case as Bednar is still pre arb and they always want the moon). Or force someone like Aaron Judge to play for 1M dollars on a team that was not in his choices to sign with. No one has been able to replicate the Rays where people have literally picked apart their front office and staff and got destroyed on other teams. Look at Bloom over in Boston. Even Maddon did horrible after he left.
I doubt you could count to 5.
Roll
@Roll Quintana played for the Angels in 2021, he made 24 appearances and pitched lousy, you are incorrect. As for Escobar, I think they should keep him in place of Guillorme. Guillorme can’t hit, he should be off this team. Nimmo was easily replaceable, as Bellinger and Andrew Benitendi were available for the taking. Michael Taylor was also a guy they could of traded for as well to play CF
You have to be the fat met guy at barstool.
So if he played for the Angels in 2021 and Eppler was fired at the end of 2020 how did they cross paths then? I guess he must have been hey i know i have been a crappy gm and and never won a playoff and you are firing me for being a poor gm but hey you should sign this guy because i said so?
espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29988288/los-angeles-angel…
So what your saying is Quintana had a bad halfish season with the angels 2 years ago is unacceptable but 2 bad recent seasons for Bellinger that was a fan favorite and could have been kept via arbitration by his homegrown team that brought him up or even resigned cheaper as they needed another of. But hey Jason Heyward was the better option than keeping bellinger? By your own admission you want the team to be best so you sign someone who is a lesser player?
@Camden453 your guys Stephen Nogosek and Drew Smith have been blowing every game, safe to assume that I was right and you were wrong? It takes a big man to admit when you are wrong, hope you aren’t small
So it’s Butto not Lucchesi to give Senga a start off
Why does Senganeed a start off? He’s only pitched 3 games
Innings management policy to keep the arm fresh. Probably will do it for all the starters throughout the season
It’s for Scherzer, being skipped
He may pitch Wednesday.
Lucchesi just pitched on the 13th. He wouldn’t be ready to pitch again until 3-4 days from now. But he is pitching well so far this year at Syracuse.
I wish Jeremy Hefner could teach Jimmy Yacabonis to have the discipline Jacob DeGrom had about replicating his mechanics. I would love to see a local kid do well, and he has shown a live arm, but he really is all over the place delivering pitch after pitch and thus leaves too many pitches over the plate. That’s why he is homer prone.
On the other hand, and it probably too soon in the kid’s career, but I would love to see Grant Hartwig up before year’s end. He is climbing the minors ladder quickly, but adjusting well and performing well at each level.
Don’t think this has anything to do with Senga. Senga just pitched yesterday and the Mets have a day off between now and his next start. If the purpose were to give Senga a day off, they would not have called up Butto now and have him take up a roster spot for five days. They would call him up at the point where they need him.
i agree i think this was more they need arms and potentially a long inning reliever since they used up so many pitchers yesterday because of all the breaks..They also had Carrasco going today and this season does not have a good track record. So butto is probably there in case they need someone to go 2, 3, or maybe 4 innings just in case.
Sherzer getting extra rest.
Watch ’em keep Nogosek….bring up Hiroshim….and fall out of the Eastern race.
This could be good for Santana. It will give him more time to cover his remaining free skin in tattoos.
Now bring up Baty.
FYI – Baty accumulated most of his spring training offense in the first week, the rest came in week 2. While everyone was blinded by that, he actually stunk it up the last two weeks of spring when major leaguers were getting more time on the mound: 2-for-15, 4 walks., and seven strikeouts in 20 plate appearances.
Even if we ignore that bleak reality and look at his entire spring as one body of work, he still struck out 29% of the time, and had only 2 extra-base hits in 49 PA’s. Some pretty fair indicators that he might not be ready to face a steady diet of major league pitching.
He’s tearing it up at AAA and Escobar stinks.
I guess you are not watching him at Syracuse. He is getting ready. A little more fielding practice might be needed, but you can’t go by what he did in his first taste of the big leagues in a pennant race in New York. Look at Michael Jack Schmidt’s first taste of the big leagues, 1972. Yeah, it’s wishful thinking that Baty will be the next Mike Schmidt, but they are the same age and carried the same expectations.
Your guess is good. I am Not watching him. I am watching Escobar. He stinks.
@Halo: I think EasternLeagueVeteran was replying to geofft. In other words, you’re both on the same page.
And throw me in there as well. Baty might only have 15 games at AAA between this year and last year but he is on fire in Syracuse and with Escobar’s struggles, I would bring up Baty. It was Escobar’s job to lose, and imo, he’s lost it. Escobar’s OPS (.394) is actually lower than Baty’s batting average (.400) at AAA. It’s time.
rct and Halos11fan: i was replying to geofft. And you are both thinking the same as I am. It was Escobar’s job to lose, and Baty’s time. That said, Buck is scared of trusting rookies and doesn’t want to lose because of “rookie mistakes”. Still, I think their bigger need is a decent second catcher. Francisco Alvarez definitely needs more time at AAA. He is missing pitches by a mile and chasing too much out of the strike zone.
Baty will be a great player.
Mets are being a little casual with relievers. Letting Zach Greene go now waiving Santana. Im not sure replacing Santana with Yacabonis and then possibly losing Santana to waivers is the best way to go
Then what? There’s not much depth in the minor leagues
Its not casual, its just part of the business of baseball. You’re speaking as if these arms are actually of some real value. But they’re not. Greene was awful and there was no way to keep him on the roster. The fact that no one claimed him on waivers before he was returned to the Yankees just confirms that.
As for Santana, he was out of options. The only choices are to keep him, or DFA him.
Santana was just roster filler. If he gets claimed or declares free agency, they’ll just sign another similar scrub to a minor league contract for depth. Every team does this all season long. Its just part of the cost of doing business, so to speak.
lmao, gain a clue how to manage. You can’t just replace a decent arm like Santana’s that easily
It’s exactly that type of attitude you are mentioning, thinking you can easily interchange pitchers, that is the cause of this mismanagement
That isn’t the “business of baseball”, it’s lazy and bad GM’ing. It’s exactly how the Mets lost Paul Sewald. The attitude “eh Sewald is just a scrub just DFA him for the next scrub on the heap”
You can’t just sign another Santana to a minor league contract because there aren’t any available
People need to learn how to manage things more efficiently
Exchanging Santana for Yacobonis and then possibly losing Santana to waivers is poor roster management
Zach Greene was a good arm that they just let walk. They’re regressing to worse waiver wire claims with these moves
I’m not saying Santana and Greene are that great, but they’re better than what they’re being replaced with
They went from Zach Greene, to Santana, to Yacobonis
Greene was by far the better pitcher of the group. And after Yacobonis it’ll probably be Seth Elledge
Santana is a better arm than what his replacement will be. How much sense does that make?
The problem is they can’t evaluate what is good pitching very well
The Braves wouldn’t even be rostering bums like Santana and Yacabonis.
Cats may have 9 lives, but they’ve got nothing in Jimmy Yacabonis.
Thankfully, there are no cats in Jimmy Yacabonis. That would be both gross and illegal.
That depends on which Chinese restaurant you choose.
Carrasco has hit 3 A’s.
He should get punched in the face.
He his walk
Either that or he his run.
Just sign Ottavino already
You might be a little late to the party
Got my former Yankees relievers mixed up. Meant Britton
I would say Britton should atleast be on the radar at this point. Maybe a split with incentives and opt out in june or july if not on the major league club?