The Mets have designated right-hander Michael Tonkin for assignment and optioned righty Grant Hartwig to Triple-A Syracuse, per a team announcement. It’s the second time they’ve designated Tonkin for assignment within the season’s first three and a half weeks. The Mets traded him to the Twins for cash last time, only to claim him back off waivers from Minnesota late last week when the Twins also designated him. The roster spots for Tonkin and Hartwig will go to right-hander Sean Reid-Foley and lefty Josh Walker. Reid-Foley is returning from the 15-day IL, while Walker is being recalled from Syracuse.
Tonkin’s second Mets stint last only two appearances and three innings. The 33-year-old righty pitched both Saturday and Sunday, allowing a pair of runs over three innings. He’s logged nine innings in the majors this season, yielding six earned runs (plus another six unearned) on 10 hits, four walks and four hit batters with 11 strikeouts.
Tonkin spent the 2023 season in the Braves’ bullpen, logging a 4.28 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in 80 innings. That set a new career-high MLB workload for the journeyman right-hander, who owns a career 4.44 ERA (4.54 FIP, 3.70 SIERA) with a 23.1% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 39.5% grounder rate in 235 1/3 big league innings between Minnesota, Atlanta and New York. Tonkin has also pitched in the D-backs and Brewers systems in addition to stints with the independent Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, the Mexican League’s Toros de Tijuana, and the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan.
As with Tonkin’s prior DFAs, he’ll either be traded, passed through outright waivers or released within the next week. He’d have the option to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A in the event that he goes unclaimed, though doing so would require forfeiting the remainder of the salary on the $1MM split major league contract he signed over the winter.
The Gulf of tonkin was a mistake
*Jesse Ventura voice*
I was a Navy SEAL I know I was in the Gulf of Tonkin! My government lied to me!
I see a DFA and want to Paint it Black…
Another ride on the bum shuttle
A lot of “bums” who have never come close to even sniffing a cup of coffee in MLB would trade places with him in a heartbeat.
Nobody who puts on a MLB uniform for even one day is a bum.
@Blue Baron
Even guys that play MiLB and/or any international league are not bums.
@MFB
Not even Nimmo is a bum?
@mookie
Nimmo is better than us, so no. Not in the context that this other poster is saying.
I’ll take it. That’s the most positive thing you’ve ever said about Nimmo. You usually say he just stands in the box and hopes the pitcher can’t throw strikes, and that he just holds up his glove and prays that the ball will find it’s way into it.
I would love to say I pitched for Atlanta, Mets, and Twins, even if I was released today
You only make bum comments. Are you obsessed with bums?
Not the Tonkin Truck! Gonna lose a lot of sponsorship revenue with this one. Lolmets
A flurry of up downs
There’s no place more lonely, than standing with a duffle, a parting doggie bag waiting for a ride while your (now former) teammates are loading into plush buses onto San Francisco.
Tonk, you’ve lived a dream that millions have had. Head up.
“There’s no place more lonely”…You need a really thick skin, serious perseverance, stamina and little ego to survive as a 24th-26th man on a Major League baseball roster. I always enjoy when that type of guy makes it in “the Show”.
Tonkin…this poor guy getting DFA’d, sold, DFA’d again, different uniforms to order, cancelling apartment leases within days. Gotta feel for him.
Hopefully he’s just staying in a hotel that he pays by the day.
@padam: Newsflash – Players don’t order or pay for their own uniforms. That hasn’t happened since before the MLBPA and CBA became things.
I don’t get no respect, I tell ya, no respect.
Back to the Twins. Hot potato!
Perhaps Tonkin is best served at AAA right now to find a footing and produce better numbers. After some solid innings he might be called up again.
Gruß,
BSHH
Or, conversely, you could quit screwing around and bet on your judgment, figuring that 60 innings from two guys putting up 4.50 ERAs for the 2024 season—who are more likely to give you that performance if they’re working with your major league staff all year— is going to be better than whatever you get from playing yo-yo through the end of September..
Everybody’s Tonkin at me
It’s gotta be rough living out of suitcase and hotel rooms, even more so if he has a wife and young kids at home
WTF is JackStrawb even saying here. Like who is he even talking to lol
Mute button is your friend
Josh Walker and SRF should be pitching in the Mexican League. These guys are some of the worst relievers out there. They essentially replaced trash with fresh trash. Clueless organization