The Mets announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed left-hander Alex Young off waivers from the Giants and optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse. Fellow lefty Tyler Jay was designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
It’s a quick turnaround for Young, whom the Giants acquired just last week in the trade that sent outfielder Austin Slater and cash to the Reds. San Francisco seemingly hoped to pass Young through waivers and retain the southpaw as a depth option, but the Mets didn’t allow that to happen and will keep Young on their 40-man roster for the time being. The unusual sequence leaves the Giants with no return of which to speak for Slater, a 2014 eighth-rounder who’s been a solid role player for them over the years before struggling to career-worst results at the plate in 2024.
Young, 30, has pitched in parts of six big league seasons — including a brief two-inning stint with Cincinnati earlier this season. The former second-round pick has a career 4.40 earned run average in 264 big league innings and has fanned 19.5% of his opponents against an 8.5% walk rate. Though he debuted as a starter with the 2019 Diamondbacks, Young has worked primarily as a reliever since that time and hasn’t started a game since 2022.
Young didn’t allow a run in his two innings with the Reds this season, and he’s been excellent in 24 2/3 Triple-A frames as well, logging a tidy 2.19 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate between the affiliates for the Reds and Giants. The southpaw has a shaky 4.99 ERA in 209 1/3 career innings at the Triple-A level, although that’s skewed by a pair of dismal debut campaigns in Triple-A with the D-backs in 2018-19. He’s pitched well at the top minor league level in each of the past three seasons now.
This is Young’s final minor league option year. The Mets can shuttle him between Syracuse and Queens for the remainder of the season, but Young would need to stick on the big league roster in 2025 and beyond. He crossed four years of big league service time earlier this season while on the 60-day injured list with a back issue, meaning he can be controlled for another two seasons, through the 2026 campaign, if he makes a good impression on his new club.
For Jay, this will be the second time this season the Mets have designated him for assignment. He was also DFA’ed after making his big league debut back in April. He stuck with the organization after clearing outright waivers.
The 30-year-old Jay was the No. 6 overall draft pick out of Illinois back in 2015 and for years ranked as one of the more promising arms in the Twins’ system. He dealt with repeated shoulder and neck injuries throughout his time in Minnesota’s system, however, and eventually underwent thoracic outlet surgery. He was out of affiliated ball at one point, before parlaying a showing with the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League into a minor league look with the Mets.
Jay has only pitched 4 2/3 big league innings for the Mets this season. He’s surrendered four runs on seven hits and three walks with three strikeouts in that time. He’s spent the remainder of the season in Syracuse, working to a strong 2.40 ERA with a below-average 18.6% strikeout rate but a sensational 2.5% walk rate. The Mets will either trade Jay or place him on outright waivers in the next five days. Waivers would then be an additional 48-hour process. If he goes unclaimed, Jay will have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, as is the case for any player who’s been outrighted multiple times in his career.
L giants
Just gave away a bench player for nothing
Slater was not a bench player.
He lost that job. But now he’s a Reds bench player though. But not for long. 1 for 9.
They sent out a kid outfielder hitting .100 not long ago.
point?
Slater is 1-9 as a Red. He was out of options and he’s been terrible in 2024. Why keep him on the major league roster when guys like Heliot Ramos have shown promise?
Lolmets!
Wait a second….
Toronto needs to pick up Tyler Jay.
Nominative determinism and all that.
So, what’s wrong with Alex Young that the Reds dumped him for relatively nothing and now the Giants for absolutely nothing. His ERA isn’t that bad, but he must have a hitch in his git along to be passed around the league so quickly.
Who knows. He had a good year last and he’s dominated AAA this year. He has been injured however.
The Slater – Young trade was 2 teams with depth swapping players where Slater couldn’t be optioned and Young could at least in 2024
Young and Kolton Ingram were both optioned, Ingram making it through. The latter is younger, a slightly higher ceiling and another option year in 2025.
SF Giants are clearing 40 man space and for the pending returns of Robbie Ray and Alex Cobb.
Guys aren’t being dumped for nothing. Rather 60day IL players are close to activation and teams need 40 man / 26 MLB roster spots so players at the end of the bench or end of the 40 man list are getting squeezed off.
This can’t be. According to the in know Reds fans this was an important depth piece. He’s. Fungible. Or whatever the kids call it these days.
Yeah, dumb Reds fans like me. The Giants mishandling the Young transaction by trying to pass him through waivers so as to not keep him on the 40-man roster does not change Young’s value, just says they took a dumb gamble and lost. The Mets obviously liked his value and additional 2 years of control enough to claim him and add him to the 40 Man.
If I remember CB, you’re the one who said Rece Hinds was basically a strikeout machine who was in no way ready to play in the big leagues when I said he’d be a more sensible roster addition than Slater. We should all take lessons so we can be more in the know like you.
The Mets bullpen has imploded with injuries + poor performance. They’re on the fringes of contending and Wood is better than any LH RP they have or wish to put on their 40 man.
They’ve made multiple recent roster moves on the waiver wire to try and sort their pen out and in the end have 40/26 man spots where the other teams did not.
As for other moves, you do realize by bringing Hinds up, CIN has burned an option year on him. His SSS MLB debut not withstanding, his longer MiLB historical K rate% is not a good sign at any MLB success. Reds fans should hope he’s recently made a swing change that’s helped aid is his contact rate.
@sfjackcoke – Hinds was already on the Reds’ 40-man roster. He had been optioned to the minors all season. By bringing him up, the Reds did start his service clock. But they’d already burned his first option year.
Was that a change to options made in 2022 when they capped intra-year up and down to 5?
So there’s scouts all over MLB games for both the trade deadline as well as advanced scouts for teams upcoming opponents. It will be interesting to see how the league adjusts to him and if Hinds can counter that adjustment. .
The Reds are ahead of the Mets on the waiver claim list. If the Reds wanted Young back they could have claimed him when the Giants placed him on waivers.
I didn’t say dumb. Misinformed.
And Slater is still more of a known commodity that you take a chance on as it is more of a need than LH relief pitching. He’s a better roster addition than Martin or Benson at this point because they cancel themselves out as LH hitters who are not hitting.
But sure after he gets less than 10 AB it’s obvious he will not get any better and help.
I’m glad I was wrong on Hinds. With his numbers in AAA you would expect him after the Rockies series not to get one fastball. Happy to be wrong.
If he lays off the numerous breaking balls and change ups he’s going to be getting than he will be a great help.
Gotcha. Misinformed like you claiming in the chat that Young would be a free agent at the end of year back when the trade happened? Young has 2.5 years of team control which has some value, especially when 2/3 of the LHRP the Reds currently have could be FA after this year. I’m defensive about my opinion sure, but it’s ok to disagree without getting mocked. And by the way, you’re right about Martini, but Benson and his team friendly control is a WAY more valuable 40 Man roster spot than 2.5 months of Slater.
I’ll take a vodka martini……
Still a dumb move by Farhan. You pay cash and then the guy is gone in less than a week. The Farhan disaster continues.
Do we know how much cash? The Reds are still probably paying some of Slater’s contract. Financially and for salary cap purposes the Giants are likely better off now than if they had just DFA’d Slater and ate all the rest of his salary.
Lolgiants
6th overall pick to the mets dumpster, it’s official Jay is a bust.
I mean, he was pretty much cemented as a bust by the time he was slinging it in Joliet. It’s actually fairly impressive that he made it back for even a short cup of coffee.
How quickly is Young called up to make an appearance out of the bullpen in Flushing (or on the road) for the Mets? This wasn’t just a depth move, right?