The Mets announced a set of roster moves, including the news that right-hander Matt Festa and left-hander Tyler Jay have had their contracts selected from Triple-A Syracuse. The two pitchers will take the 26-man roster spots created when Tylor Megill and Danny Young were optioned to Triple-A yesterday. To create room on the 40-man roster, the Mets designated outfielder Duke Ellis for assignment, and moved left-hander Brooks Raley (who had Tommy John surgery last month) from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day IL.
Festa and Jay will provide the struggling Mets bullpen with a couple of fresh arms. Young had been pitching well before a downturn over the last week, as the southpaw has allowed two earned runs in each of his last three outings. This ballooned Young’s ERA to 5.11 over 12 1/3 innings, after he’d posted a sparkling 0.87 ERA in his first 10 1/3 frames.
Young threw 1 1/3 innings in New York’s 9-6 loss to the Astros yesterday, and Megill got the start and gave up four runs over 5 1/3 frames of work. Megill has a 5.08 ERA over 39 innings and eight starts, with all but one of those starts coming after a seven-week stint on the IL due to a shoulder strain.
With Megill struggling, his demotion was seen as a way for the Mets to bring some relief help up from Triple-A over the next four days. The Athletic’s Will Sammon figures that the Mets will call up one of Christian Scott or Jose Butto to take Megill’s place in the rotation, and the team could need to cycle several arms through the rotation and bullpen in order to get through a tough stretch of the schedule. Last Thursday marked the Mets’ last off-day until the All-Star break, as the club is two games into a string of 17 games in as many days.
For Festa, he’ll now be in line for his first big league action of the 2024 season, and the Brooklyn native will have the bonus of pitching close to home. The 31-year-old Festa signed a minor league contract with the Mets last month after he was released from his minor league deal with the Padres, as a 4.50 ERA in 16 innings with San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate didn’t catch the Friars’ attention. Festa has looked quite good in Syracuse, however, delivering a 1.76 ERA in 15 1/3 relief innings. A veteran of four MLB seasons with the Mariners, Festa has a 4.32 ERA over 93 2/3 career frames in the Show.
Jay is back in the majors for the second time this season, as New York designated him for assignment and then outrighted the southpaw to Triple-A after throwing four innings over two appearances with the Mets back in April. These two games marked Jay’s first taste of MLB action, as the sixth overall pick of the 2015 draft finally made it to the big leagues after a long journey marked by injuries and stints in independent ball.
Ellis also made his Major League debut this season, appearing in eight games for the White Sox (mostly as a defensive sub and pinch-runner) before Chicago designated him for assignment two weeks ago. The Mets claimed Ellis away on waivers, but he only played in two games with Double-A Binghampton before returning to the DFA wire. Ellis has hit only .241/.329/.333 over 965 career plate appearances in the minors, but he is known for his excellent baserunning, as he has 117 steals in 134 chances during his minor league career. This speed and his ability to play all three outfield spots makes him an interesting pickup for any other clubs that might be looking to the waiver wire for outfield depth.
Any relation to the Twins pitcher David Festa?
Even tho they’re from about an hour away from each other I don’t think there’s any relation
No
Online it shows for Matt
Personal: Son of Frank and Lynder Festa…has two siblings; Joseph and Nicholas.
Wait my bad that is probably the wrong Matt Festa. Who knew multiple people had that name.
Good to see the Mets calling up the best Triple-A bullpen arms available instead of just going with the guys on the 40 who haven’t looked as good (eg Sulser, Walker), so they can save a 40-man spot for Duke Ellis
Huh? They DFA’d Ellis.
Exactly… They DFA’d Ellis so they could add Festa/Jay to the bullpen instead of keeping Ellis and using Sulser/Walker, who were already on the 40-man roster but who are giving out free passes like candy down in Triple-A
Poor Ellis, he shouldn’t have been called up by the White Sox in the first place, now he risks being in DFA migratory claimatory and bouncing from this minor league city to that one
For the love of baseball, nobody claim this guy and let the Mets outright him back to AA so he can get some stability again!!
Jay wasn’t doing poorly when he was sent down, but he is a pitcher who pitches to contact, not a strikeout guy. He doesn’t blow people away, but he is somewhat a frustrating pitcher to hit against.
Festa seems like a good pickup for the Mets, and hopefully some home cooking works for him.
At least it is Not Phil Bickford!
dont say that outloud, the mets are known for picking up prior dfa’s this year.
Another Festa miracle!
I wonder when the Mets will actually go out and get a couple of decent bullpen arms to help carry the load, that can throw strikes. It’s frustrating to watch them lose games they should have won. I know it’s not fair to say this, but seems like the same old merry-go-round with different faces. Maybe things will turn around soon so they don’t have to go into sell mode.
If they wind up being buyers at the deadline, the pen is the biggest area that needs improvement. In its current state, the bullpen isn’t playoff caliber. Rotation isn’t great either, but you have Senga coming back which could improve that. Offense & bench, assuming everyone continues to click, is looking OK for now.