The Mets have claimed catcher Tyler Heineman off waivers from the Blue Jays, with Anthony DiComo of MLB.com among those who relayed the news. There wasn’t any public reporting about Heineman being removed from Toronto’s roster, but they evidently tried to pass him through waivers with the Mets preventing them from succeeding. The Jays’ 40-man roster is now at 37 whereas the Mets are at 33.
Heineman, 33 in June, has played in 104 major league games, scattered over four separate seasons dating back to 2019. He has produced a batting line of .218/.297/282 in his 283 plate appearances, suiting up for the Marlins, Giants, Blue Jays and Pirates. He’s considered an above-average defender overall, grading out positively on Statcast’s blocking and throwing leaderboards. He’s also received positive marks for his pitch framing from both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus.
For the Mets, Heineman figures to improve their depth behind the plate. He still has one option year remaining and is a switch-hitter, giving him flexibility to fit into the club’s plans as the season goes along. Francisco Álvarez and Omar Narváez should be the catching duo in the majors but Heineman and Cooper Hummel, another waiver claim from today, are available if an injury arises. Heineman is still shy of arbitration, meaning he can be retained beyond the upcoming season if the Mets like his work in 2024.
The Mets have been busy bolstering their depth all over the roster in recent days. They have signed one-year deals with Luis Severino, Joey Wendle and Austin Adams, brought Kyle Crick aboard via a minor league deal and now a couple of waiver claims. For the Jays, Heineman was third on the catching depth chart behind Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk. They have freed up a roster spot for future additions, perhaps in next week’s Rule 5 draft, and will likely look to sign a veteran catcher on a non-roster deal to replace Heineman.
Stearns has clearly crushed the hopes, dreams and ambitions of the guys who call WFAN @ 3 AM
Meh
pitching market is overloaded this offseason.
Calculated gamble signing and moving off the 2 veteran arms.
They can sign two edgardo rodriguez types this offseason and in a vacuum still come out ahead.
Secret waivers happening today.
Most likely due to the upcoming Rule 5 draft next week at the Winter Meetings. Have to have open spots to select players. Teams like the nationals and Rockies who have full 40 man rosters probably have secretly placed players on waivers as well.
Interesting NYM adding at C. Narvaez coming off injury season and poor performance + considerable 2024 salary. Probably would have to eat that and/or package with another player to move him
He has one option year remaining. Doesn’t mean Mets will move on from Omar, who is a free agent after the year. Getting potential back up catcher for 2025 early
Mets are clearly stacking all these players hoping to retain them all when the rosters are full and nobody has room to claim them.
‘many thanks Tyler, speak well of us…
~ Toronto
Mets aiming for 2035 with moves like this.
Some of the ages of these guys though, will make them Mets coaches in that year.
I wonder if Tyler is related to Ed Heinemann the late aeronautical engineer who designed the Douglas SBD Dauntless, A-20 Havoc, A-26 Invader, A-1 Skyraider, A-3 Whale and A-4 Skyhawk
Maybe Jamie Heinemann, vaunted buster of myths.
One thing you can say about Stearns is that he stays busy, at least. Mostly depth moves but he’s doing something.
He had a decent year for catcher metrics in 2022.
I’ve never seen someone calling for a manager to be fired before they even start. What did he do to get on your bad side?
You are one sick racist troll.
Many Mets fans had visions of larger dealings when owner Steve Cohen finally landed Stearns after years of coveting the former Milwaukee baseball operations leader and have instead voiced frustration at depth moves such as this one. However, the offseason is a marathon and the majority of the major names on the free agent and trade markets alike remain available.
For u. (LFGM)
@lfg
you realize to promote him they would have to fire Steinbrenner and Cashman love child Aaron Boone right? Short of Boone going on a murderous rampage or drop in profits due to him he is not going anywhere. Unless they have a new roles of co-managers on a team Boone is gonna be manager there.
Also who are you offering for Soto … based on your offers im guessing it would be something like the mets will just pay half the contract and take him off your hands or maybe they send them Nido and SRF thats a good deal for Soto or is it too much … they do need a catcher .. ok fine Nido straight up for Soto.
lol thanks for that
@LFG
So let me get this straight you dont care about prospects but complained that they didnt get enough prospects on the trades they made to send verlander and scherzer elsewhere which also includes one of the prospects above.
Now you have Soto for one year during a rebuild year where you have to replace atleast 8 pitchers on the main roster plus depth and this trade alone would probably put them at the 300M (which you complained about their spending during the season). Is one year of above average batting and if i remember right below average fielding during a rebuild season worth more than 15 years of cheap average to potential above average production during actual compete season?
So with the clean out of the farm what do you do in 2025 when both Alonso and Soto are free agents? Or are you dropping 500 million plus whatever taxes to be paid as both are boras clients and if they play like they have been they will easily make that as we know there are no discounts from boras and soto already turned down 300+.
@LFGMets (Metsin7) #FireCarlosMendoza&DrewSmith
If you want Cohen to not listen to his wife or for his wife to say anything to him or for something to end that situation, the Marlins can trade Avi Garcia to the Mets. He’s the perfect guy for the situation. If you doubt it, ask Prince Fielder and Miggy Cabrera.
@Marlin above
I remember something about Mrs Fielder, and Garcia, though nothing with Mrs Cabrera…
Perhaps – if so adept – Garcia would have been nicknamed Biggy Miggy rather than Little Miggy…. Miguel Cabrera ensured he didn’t miss out elsewhere either.
@LFG
1 they both had full no trade clause so Scherzer and Verlander decided where they would accept a trade to or not.
2 If a player decides they only want to go to 1 place how much wiggle room do you think a team has? The astros could have said well we will give you a hot dog and you pay verlander his entire contract. The mets have the choice to keep him or take the deal What would you have done … held on to him or stomp your feet saying that he is worth more and if you dont give me more im going to stamp my feet more? This isnk mlb2k where you can force a trade of Vientos straight up for 1.5 years for Hader.
3 your going to trade 3 out of 5 of your top prospect that are all top 100 rated prospects that will be up in the majors within the next year plus more for 1 year of Soto during a year that will probably be mediocre at best due to pitching most likely lacking unless they go over last years payroll against 2 world series favorites?
That offer is more than the nationals got when they traded him away for 2.5 years and a lesser salary and you also included a player that was pretty damn good in Bell at the time. Your trade sounds like an Eppler move.
@A’sfaninLondonUK
Miggy got involved because he took Avi under his wing when Avi first came up, and defended him at times. So when Miggy heard what Avi did with with Fielder’s wife, he was upset because of the times he supported Avi, and the whole lack of character it takes to mess with someone’s wife and further with it being a teammate’s wife. Miggy went to confront Avi about it, and a confrontation occurred that landed Miggy back on the IL when he reinjured a previous injury he was coming back from. Within a short time, Avi was booted from the organization; it was determined that Prince and his family needed a change of scenery; and Miggy landed back on the IL.
So, if you want to disrupt the influence that Steve Cohen’s wife has on him, just push for the Mets to get Avi Garcia and let him do his work. He’s the perfect guy for the job. Just make sure to have a private conversation with all the key players to let them know to not get involved by confronting Avi. They don’t need any key players going on the IL. And explain to them how Avi doing what he does with Cohen’s wife will be for the good of the team.
Meh, decent defensively, will take a walk, but no power whatsoever. (2 HR at any level since 2019). Looks like he had pretty good numbers until 2019, then he got on the AAAA train (bouncing back and forth to MLB), which has not served him well.
He will be back on waivers soon enough.
You can do a lot worse for catcher depth. He can’t hit a lick but he’s just good enough defensively to be at worse your AAA injury call-up guy.
I would have liked the Mets to have kept Tomas Nido as a back up, very hard worker.
This is an obvious depth move for both catchers they picked up as they are by the looks of it better than Nido that pretty much cost you nothing but a potential roster spot when you have like 10 open spots.
Now you have some catcher depth to open some possibilities of trading Parada who while it would be nice if he made it to the show with the mets, it is hard to find a split between two good catchers unless you dh one of them. You can now trade him and potentially upgrade pitching. A top catcher prospect (im pretty sure he is top 100 overall) that is only about a year away should fetch a pretty good pitcher. I would think.
This is the 5th inept fool that cohen hired to make personnel decisions. And we thought Sandy was bad….then we had porter, Scott, ineptler and now the biggest fraud of all. I never got why anyone wanted Stearns anywhere near this team. He’s doing the same thing he did in Milwaukee, building a replacement level roster and hoping for the best. Just like the NY Giants are rebuilding again after the Gettleman mess, now Mets are in the same boat. After 37 years, I’m inching closer and closer to tuning them out. All they cause is aggravation, embarrassment and utter failure.
One of the worst organizations in professional sports. Cohen knows stocks but nothing about baseball.
Is that picture of him from the one time he ran the bases? Aww cute!
Nice moves stocking the farm system with defensive catchers to work with the young staff, and a few veterans trying to reclaim their form.
Wow! Mets are putting in all their chips for a title run next season! I’m a Mets fan and I do remember them saying 24 was going to be another crap season for us, but come on already, quit pissing off the fan base with these bottom of the barrel signings
Stearns loading the boat with 210 hitters and plus 5 ERA arms. Eppler looks like a genius next to this guy.