The Mets have placed six players on outright waivers, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. They are left-hander Anthony Kay, right-hander Vinny Nittoli, catcher Michael Pérez, outfielder Rafael Ortega, and infielders Danny Mendick and Jonathan Araúz. This will open six spots on the club’s 40-man roster. As noted by DiComo, each player will have the right to elect free agency if they pass through waivers unclaimed.
Kay, 28, was only with the Mets a short time, coming over from the Cubs in mid-September via a waiver claim. Between the two clubs, he tossed 14 2/3 innings with a 6.14 earned run average. He was much better in the minors, with a 3.76 ERA in 40 2/3 Triple-A innings this year. He will be out of options next year.
Nittoli, 33 next month, was also a midseason acquisition from the Cubs. He opted out of his minor league deal and was flipped to the Mets for cash in early June. He spent most of the rest of the season on optional assignment, only making three appearances at the major league level. He tossed 42 2/3 Triple-A innings between the two organizations with an ERA of 4.64 in that time. He will also be out of options next year.
Pérez, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason and was added to the roster in May. He got into three games in the big leagues this year, spending most of his time on optional assignment. He hit .204/.309/.352 in 70 Triple-A games, leading to a wRC+ of 66. He, too, will be out of options next year.
Mendick, 30, had an encouraging performance with the White Sox in 2022, hitting .289/.343/.443 for a wRC+ of 125. But that came in just 31 games since he tore the ACL in his left knee in June of that year. The Sox non-tendered him and the Mets decided to take a chance, signing him to a $1MM guarantee. He hit well in the minors this year, slashing .282/.369/.424 in Triple-A, but his 35 major league games resulted in a paltry line of .185/.232/.277.
Araúz, 25, was selected from the Orioles in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. He was selected to the major league roster in August and got into 27 games but hit just .136/.203/.288 in those. His 100 games at the Triple-A level resulted in more palatable line of .239/.340/.415.
Ortega, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in June and was added to the roster at the start of August. He hit .219/.341/.272 in 47 games as the season was winding down for a wRC+ of 83. He had a strong season with the Cubs in 2021, hitting .291/.360/.463, but his career line of .247/.324/.352 translates to a wRC+ of 89.
Most of these players were added to the club late in the year, after they traded away various players at the deadline and needed some fresh bodies to play out the string. None of them were key parts of the long-term plans and they have been removed from the roster in order to give the club some greater flexibility with the offseason set to begin shortly. If they clear waivers, they will become free agents and look to find minor league deals this winter.
What about Dan Vogelbach lol?
Vogelbach is going be your starting DH lol
Mets don’t have to make a decision on him until spring training. Than can basically non tender him up to a certain point in spring training
That’s incorrect. They only have until November 17th to non-tender him. I thought that they are able to release him in spring training and not have to pay his entire salary, but I could not find anyting to back that up.. He is arbitration eliglble, so if they did not come to a contract agreement, that’s where it would go.
If they release him after the tender deadline, they owe him 30 days of pay. If they released after a specific day in spring training, they owe him 45 days of pay. If they release him on opening day or later, he gets his entire contract. Source: registration.mlbpa.org/pdf/MLB%20Basic%20Agreement…
Brewers 1B DH Rowdy Tellez is built like Vogelbach and hits like Vogelbach, maybe Stearns likes portly LH 1B DH types and will keep him
baseball-reference.com/players/t/tellero01.shtml
baseball-reference.com/players/v/vogelda01.shtml
WampumWalloper: 1b: Tellez; 2b, SS: the versatile Vogelbach (come on, we’d all like to see him buy a glove and solidify the IF); C: Kirk, with Alvarez backing him up; SP: Lynn; RF: Stewart
Really, you also need Bartolo Colon and Reyes Moronta in the bullpen to tip the scales in your favor.
When fatboy 1B/DH guys lose their power, they are pretty much useless. I don’t know what happened to Tellez this season. Vogy just likes to walk, ok bench bats nothing more.
Lucas Duda’s on the phone.
Even w/ a 20% pay cut Tellez will make around $4m compared to Vogel’s estimate of $2.6m. Hardly worth it for the downgrade in OBP, and his collapse in 2023 compared to DV’s mediocrity.
If the Mets can’t do better at DH than give a majority of the PA there to a fat, slow, 31 yo platoonist like DV on the downslope of his career, whose upside is league average hitter with a decent OBP (which is sabotaged by his inability to run), they’re not serious.
And if they can’t figure out how to do better at DH and aim for at least 85 wins in 2024 without sacrificing the future, Stearns is not the slightly above average President of Baseball Operations I’ve been taking him for.
The 2024 Mets have, what, about $216 million (incl dead contracts) committed to a projection of about 20 WAR, meaning roughly 69 wins thus far. They need at least 16 more wins and since they need pitching, pitching, and more pitching, a lot of those wins can be gotten through the 3 starting pitchers and 5 bullpen arms they’ll need to add in any case, plus a dedicate DH who has a realistic shot at producing 2+ WAR..
Will they get it right? Who knows. Cohen is the negative wildcard in all this. He doesn’t appear to understand anything about the game beyond what a limited if serious fan understands, and he may have gotten it in his head to not even want Stearns to take a shot in 2024. It’s impossible to know wrt the guy who dealt Andres Giminez for the privilege of paying Mr. Smile $363 million for nearly identical performance.
The Mets were keeping Vogelbach around to replicate Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man’s walk through the Canyon of Heroes from Ghostbusters after their 2023 World Championship.
I guess that didn’t work out.
Vogelfat is interviewing for a job at the hot dog stand
The Mets are opening roster spots for free agents and Rule 5 players they plan to protect. This is what the Cardinals need to do soon.
Taking out the trash, sprucing up the place.
Met fans, move along, nothing to see here.
Nobody cares about any of these guys that aren’t really MLB quality. Throw the fans a huge bone here.
Give us Vogelbach’s head!
On a friggin’ platter! With an apple in his mouth!
Dude, is he really worth this much hysteria?
@texasguscc Surely not, but he’s an obvious stand-in for the Mets’ abundant failures in 2023, and his own collapse while it mattered, and that Eppler dealt real talent for DV and Ruf makes him a solid target for helpless resentment.
JackStrawb & Brooklyn62,
Dan Vogelbach is one of the worst unathletic ballplayers I have ever watched and I remember watching the Stork aka George Theodore try to play CF. Vogey is the poster boy for the Mets 2023 debacle and Eppler’s ineptitude at the 2022 trading deadline and Steve Cohen’s tone deafness as his fans who know baseball deserve better.
I just reviewed George Theodore’s stats and he made 2 GS in CF in 1973 and I caught 1 of them on Holy Thursday DH vs. the Cubs. He played the 2nd Game while Willie Mays played CF in the first Game.
I had a great time that day sitting in the Press Level watching the Mets and the great Cubs players.
baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN197304191.shtm…
baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN197304192.shtm…
The Stork will ever be the beloved Poet Laureate of the Mets.
He was a rookie in 1973 and was injured most of the Season ( OF collision with Don Hahn ) but he made the postseason roster somehow and had 2 hitless ABs in the WS.
He then was demoted in 1974 to the minors never to be heard from again.
A legend was born.
he was interviewed when the Mets played the A’s this past season. still looked basically the same.
He looked like Lerch from the Addams Family and he played like him too.
Very scary watching him play CF that Holy Thursday attempting to field fly balls. He collided with Don Hahn that July and damaged his hip. I remember I watched that in real time on TV.
They were Buck’s favorites
Stearns time.
Ortega and Arauz were agonizing to watch in August/September. Both were absolutely worthless with RISP. Glad the house cleaning has begun.
@brooklyn62 They were never more than placeholders, AAA / AAAA guys who were the best the inept FO could do. It was incredible that the Mets farm had absolutely no one they could plug into LF, the easiest spot on the diamond to fill, who had some small shot of being at least the 5th OFer on the next good Mets team.
Absolutely incredible.
Oh I know…felt sick in my stomach watching them and knowing that these 2 were the “best” options to put on the field. Everytime these 2 came up to the plate I would mutter, “WTF are the Mets doing?”.
@brooklyn62 I hear that comrade. I hear that!
“He, too, will be out of options next year” is such an awkward way of writing when you could just say “also.” Plus, you don’t need those commas. Just say “he too will be out of options next year.”
style.mla.org/comma-before-too/
This is something up with which I will not put.