The Mets reinstated right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis from the injured list and designated him for assignment, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
Yacabonis, 31, was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason. He was selected to the club’s roster in the middle of April and made five appearances with an ERA of 9.00 before landing on the injured list with a quad strain. He began a rehab assignment a couple of weeks ago but the club evidently couldn’t find room for him on the roster now that he’s healthy. Since he’s out of options, that left them little choice but to designate him for assignment.
That brief stint means that his career now consists of time with five clubs, as he has previously played for the Orioles, Mariners, Marlins and Rays. Going back to 2017, he has 127 career innings over 76 appearances with a 6.24 ERA. He has a 17.6% strikeout rate in that time along with a 12.4% walk rate and 39.5% ground ball rate.
The Mets will now have one week to trade the righty or pass him through waivers. In the latter case, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, due to having been previously outrighted in his career.
Good now dump Nogosek and Hunter too
@davidk1979 and they should designate Drew “Homerun” Smith, the least clutch reliever in baseball. If its a winable game, Drew always finds a way to blow it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him throw a 1,2,3 inning. Always walks someone or gives up a bullet for a hit. He doesn’t fool anyone
If Drew Smith is homerun and Jeff Brigham who you love has double the homeruns in low leverage/mopup situations what does that make him? Jeff Big Bomb Giver Brigham?
Smith’s been rough his last four games. Before that he gave up 8 hits in 14.1 innings…let him work it out. Not like there’s much else out there!
I’d have dumped Homer Nogosek before Yacabonis. But as long as he goes. But they’ll keep giving him chances to keep fanning the flames of his self made dumpster fire.
Yacabonis is way worse than Nogosek, but yeah. No go should be next go.
Would you say that he’s a bonus for the other team?
I would say that, but not out loud
Yac wasn’t that bad for the Mets. I think that ERA was from a couple bad innings but he did have a few clean innings. He’s a AAAA guy and will probably land somewhere with a need for pitching depth, if he doesn’t accept the outright.
@86mets Its kinda funny how I’ve been saying on this site for the past 2 years plus that Drew Smith and Nogosek aren’t major league pitchers. I was called “crazy” and “doesn’t know anything”. People brought up all these fancy stats saying how good they were. All you got to do is watch the game with your own eyes. The Mets have Robertson, Ottavino, and Brigham as their only reliable relievers. Raley has been average, I thought he would be worse than what I thought, I still don’t trust him in big games but hes surprised me. Everyone else has been awful. Hunter was a great pitcher till he got back surgery 3 years ago. Nogosek, Drew Smith, and Leone should be the next dominos to fall. Honestly I don’t know how the Mets organization is so poor at developing relievers. In the past 10 years, they have only developed around 3 decent relievers, Seth Lugo, Jenry Mejia (steriods), and Familia. Other guys that were in their farm system that became good relievers else were like Rafael Montero, Colin McHugh, or Paul Sewald don’t count. Sewald really surprised me, he was one of the worst relievers I had ever seen. It looks like he practiced and trained extremely hard + had an amazing pitching coach/trainer that fixed up his mechanics. Who ever is in charge of bullpen decisions needs to be fired, this has been going on for the past 15 years
I never thought you were crazy, you were right about a few things actually.
Relievers are so volatile year to year. I don’t think the Mets are significantly worse at it than anyone else. Most teams build their pen on a combination of FA relievers and homegrown talent. The Mets have hit the jackpot with Diaz and Robertson.
It’s not funny at all. Smith has been solid and reliable. Who would take his place? Just cut the whole bullpen? Maybe leave the starters in longer?
@toofpick78 there are major league relievers out there that they can trade for and would not have to give up much to get. Not every reliever needs to come from the waiver wire, thats loser mentality, aka dumpster diving
@VonPurpleHayes relievers are violatile but Drew Smith and Nogosuck have been blowing games for the Mets for multiple years, enough is enough already
@von
Agree but seems most homegrown good relievers are usually top prospects that couldnt cut it as starters and end up relievers to me. The problem is majority of the top prospect starters the mets have had have been decent starters or got traded or injuries piled up keeping them as starters when they should have been in the bullpen. Gsellman reminds me of this but they kept flipping him back and forth between closer starter reliever.
@LFGMets Nuh uh.
Jimmy holds grudges!
@LFGMets
Maybe you and Camden should be running the Mets? The two of you know so much more than anyone else. Then you can trade Drew Smith for Jankowski.
@mookie1 I’d rather have Jankowski over Drew Smith on my team. With that being said, I’d pull off a trade with the Rockies for Brad Hand and Justin Lawrence, both are solid that can take Drew Smith and Nogoseks spots. These guys shouldn’t cost much. There are other guys out there on losing teams that are available as well like Bednar and Alexis Diaz that they can trade for but would have to give up big prospects. You got to give to get. Theres not enough room on this team for all these prospects, should trade for someone you really need
The Mets farm system is currently devoid of good pitching prospects that are major league ready and you can’t trade for other teams decent players with years of control unless you have something to give up. Just because a team is down doesn’t mean they will hand over their good players to you because you ask for them. You arm-chair General Managers need to get a dose of reality. You want Diaz from the Reds? Try offering Alvarez, and they’ll listen.
All this other stuff is just noise.
So at the moment, the Mets have grant Hartwig and Nate Lavender in Syracuse. Great minor league track records as relief pitchers up until this year, when they are hitting some rough and roughed up patches. Will they ultimately figure it out? Maybe. Have other AAA hitters now figured them out? Maybe. It will come down to adjustments. Will they become the next Steven Nogosek or the next Roger McDowell. It will be up to them and hopefully the coaches give them the best chance to do so.
That has yet to stop them from assuming anything they offer the other team will accept. I wouldnt be surprised if they offer Nido for Ohtani and be shocked the Angels wouldnt accept it TBH.
Lawrence has multiple years of team control left and has great underlying numbers going back to the beginning of the 2022 season; Hand is a lefty reliever with closing experience who’s striking out 33.7% of the guys he faces and hasn’t allowed a single HR this year despite playing in Coors. Acting like they could be acquired for minimal assets is crazy – recent trade history suggests both guys would be extremely expensive to acquire.
David Robertson in 2022 was a veteran with significant closing experience like Brad Hand – except he was older and was a pending UFA, while Hand has a team option for next year. Still, Robertson pulled back Ben Brown in a trade – a 22 year old SP who’s now the #6 prospect in the Cubs’ system. The NYM equivalent would be giving up someone like Dominic Hamel or Calvin Ziegler.
Harder to find a comp for a guy like Lawrence, but Jorge Lopez comes close as a guy who scuffled earlier before breaking out in their late-20s. Minnesota gave up 4 prospects, including Cade Povich & Yennier Cano, for 2+ years of control for Lopez. Povich’s currently the #11 prospect in Baltimore’s stacked system, and Cano has been lights out for the Orioles. Not sure what the comp would be for a Mets package, but suffice to say it would take a LOT.
@DanzigInTheDark I disagree with you on what “A lot” would look like. If I have to give up Vientos and lets just say Jose Butto, I’d do it
Whatever about nogosek, but to say much negative about smith is pretty silly to me. He has been an above average arm for three years now. I don’t know who else you would want that is better and able to be obtained at the moment too. Smith would easily be a top four/five arm in any bullpen in baseball. He is for the Mets in that exact role, and except Diaz is hurt which then moves him to the 3/4 arm. Is he amazing, no. At moments yea but no. Is he supposed to be, no. He definitely isn’t a AAAA arm as I saw suggested here.
Yeah getting rid of Smith would be a bad move for sure. I don’t see it happening.
@findingnimmo you think Drew Smith is good because in some of the years hes pitched, his ERA looks good. You need to think about leverage situations. Smith in blowouts pitches well, in close games he gets obliterated. This has been going on for years. He can’t handle any pressure. Anyone can come in for mop up duty. He pitches scoreless innings when the Mets are down by 10 runs, that doesn’t help at all. Theres a reason why he only has one career save, its because hes no good when the game is on the line. I don’t want someone like that on my team
Actually it’s from me watching the games. And he has one save because he isn’t needed for that role, since they had/have Diaz, lugo, Robertson, Otto. Not sure why he would be needed to get saves. And if you’re looking at saves as your stat of choice, you may want to look beyond that.
DFA the whole bullpen
@LFGMets…too bad drew smith couldn’t get the big out today and blew a close game like you said he always does. Oh, wait. That didn’t happen and he got the out as needed for the save? Wow! Shocked!