3:50pm: Hagenman’s deal is a split contract, per Will Sammon of The Athletic on X. He’ll make $850K in the majors and $225K in the minors.
3:05pm: The Mets announced that they have signed right-hander Justin Hagenman to a major league contract. He had just elected minor league free agency earlier this month. The club’s 40-man roster count jumps to 34.
Hagenman, 28, cracks a major league roster for the first time. He was drafted by the Dodgers back in 2018 but when to the Red Sox as part of the 2023 deadline trade that sent Enrique Hernández to Los Angeles. The Sox never added Hagenman to their roster, so he qualified for minor league free agency after 2024 as a player with seven seasons of minor league experience. However, the Mets apparently saw enough to give him a 40-man spot today.
Over the past four years, Hagenman has thrown 302 2/3 innings on the farm with a 4.19 earned run average, 25.7% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. He has primarily been a reliever in his career but served more of a swingman role in 2024 without his rate stats changing much. He tossed 91 2/3 Triple-A innings this past year with a 4.91 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. The home run ball seemed to be an issue, as he allowed 21 this year, a rate of 21.4% per flyball.
The Mets need plenty of help on the pitching staff. Each of Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino, Ryne Stanek, Phil Maton, Joey Lucchesi and Drew Smith became free agents at the end of 2024, opening a few holes in both the rotation and bullpen. Hagenman gives the club some depth for both and can theoretically do so for quite some time. Since this is his first time on a big league roster, he still has a full slate of options and no big league service time.
At last some of the big names are starting to drop. Wait who?
lots of roster spots open. ERA ballooned up last season when BOS tried to move him back into a starter’s role. I can only imagine they want to move him back to the pen, where he had greater success. If it sticks, awesome… if not, no big deal. This isn’t an earth shaker, but I really like the way Stearns is active on the lower end of the market.
I agree. This is how he built out the bullpen last year, with early signings of backend arms. Let them compete and see who sticks.
Trust in Stearns. Unlikely to be any Wendles this year. Well, hopefully
Will Stearns ever learn that to build a competent bullpen, you need to sign real major league relievers? Its last year all over again. We had the worst bullpen in the first half of the season. It wasn’t until they traded for some major league relievers such as Maton (I didnt think he was that good honestly), Stanek, and Brazoban (he didnt do that well) that the bullpen actually started to be average. Guys like Jake Diekman, Cole Sulser, Andre Scrubb, Yoan Lopez, Alex Young, Danny Young, Reed Garrett, Zack Muckenhern, etc. are not going to win you a World Series. Look at the Dodgers bullpen, elite reliever after elite reliever. Stearns needs to go out there and make a trade for someone like Devin Williams, Ben Joyce or Camillo Doval and sign atleast one of Minter, Scott, or Estevez or else this team is going nowhere
Settle down, Beavis. There’s plenty of time for bigger moves.
Hoyer also always starts out with no depth in the pen and they start out bad. Yeah so he’s good at adding other teams cast offs and turning them into competent relievers. Unfortunately by then they’re ten games back.
Stearns never spent on the Milwaukee bullpen. He pretty much said spending big on the bullpen is unlikely.
Joyce isn’t going anywhere, so you can knock that nonsense right out of your head.
@kellin Angels are going nowhere. They won’t be competative for another 4 years. Joyce isn’t in their timeline. A package of Baty, Tidwell, and a lower level prospect like Parada easily gets the deal done
@lfg. Ben Joyce is 24. Four years from now he’s 28. He would require a king’s ransom to acquire him. meaning he’s going nowhere.
@rex Lots of delusional commentors on this site, aren’t there? He’s also in their plans for their “young core” for the next four years.
@kellin. I feel like half the time it’s the same person with different accounts. Joyce would be around a Mason Miller package, and his price was deemed too high. Like i said it will take a ridiculous offer that won’t happen. Also rangers won 60 games, and won a world series two years later. These predicted timelines are a joke.
Complains about guys signed, some helped get them within a couple games of the World Series. Then suggests they trade for Doval, freshly ousted from his closer role.
Reed Garrett was solid for most of the time he was up. It’s a crapshoot with relievers. Not every reliever is going to get closer money so you have to hope for the best.
@phenomenalajs I disagree. After the first month he was getting blown up, especually in close games. The playoffs exposed him. He can’t be used in any high leverage situation
Totally this is what you get with a small market GM. Trash heap and dumpster diving to build a bullpen. Then you wonder why the Mets couldn’t stop dodgers from scoring immediately after the Mets put up runs.
@icantstandyous,
No reason not to trust David Stearns who really knows his stuff.. He’s building depth while Mets are in early stages of putting together the 2025 team. Every contender needs depth. And sometimes gems emerge from that. Keep the gems, the rest either provide value worth keeping or are released when that time comes.
LFG – 13 pitchers per team X 30 teams is = 390 MLB quality arms does NOT exist !!! EVERY TEAM has at least three if not four bullpen arms that are questionable.
EVERY team has a bunch of pitchers recycle through their team (you can probably add another 100 or more arms on the DL any given year league wide). Having 13 All-star pichers on your team is unrealistic. If the own wants to spend $500 million per year on payroll, it could happens, but that is unrealistic!
Why isn’t this a split contract?
NM.
Not gonna lie, at first glance I thought his last name was Hangman…
Stearns must know something the rest of us don’t.
Nothing seems to ever happen in November
So many people act like these small ML deals or split contracts prevent a team from signing a more established player or are a sign they’re not going to give a big contract.
Relax folks, the Mets have plenty of money to do whatever they want. Plus, when was depth ever a bad thing?
It amuses me to no end when people whine about depth moves. They’re depth moves. They either pan out, or they don’t, they don’t generally move the needle
@kellin. Key word whine. It’s either because it’s minor league moves or they over spent a million over the projection. The projection is a guess the team probably knows the price.
And a joke is a joke. Learn to recognize them. Much like sarcasm. Weren’t you the guy who thought O’Hoppe was worth 5 top 100 prospects? Now that was a joke I thought. LOL Apologies if I’m wrong.
@UNCLEMIKE. it was three, and I said system. I didn’t know they had a good farm.Either way the angels won’t be trading any of the building blocks unless it’s ridiculous. That’s my point. Did you use a different account name how do you know that was a joke.
Nah you’re just like every other fan. You think your prospects are God like and everyone else’s aren’t worthy. Most fans are the same way. Facts are facts though. There are very few players in the whole of MLB that are even worth 2 prospects of any kind. They’re just not valued the way you think they are. The Cubs have 8 top 100 prospects. If even 2 of them see Wrigley Field I’ll be surprised because they’ll time out and become expendable. Cubs don’t have a lot of holes and these guys aren’t going to just sit by quietly. They’ll want to play. It’s just a fact.
@unclemike. I can’t name many cubs prospects that panned out either. Sounds like you know from experience. My point was they wouldn’t give o’hoppe away and it was bs. Apparently you lost the plot. O’hoppe isn’t a prospect anymore. Sounds like you would expect him for Hendricks straight up because he sucks, but he would look good in a cubs uniform.
I just said the Cubs should see what they wanted for him in an article on here. And you said 5 Top 100 picks which is just off the charts ridiculous. It’s not my fault the Cubs are set in the field for the next 3 years because Hoyer is an idiot. But there’s a limit to even his stupidity. 2 Years ago all the Cubs top prospects were P’s who are now either here or about to be here. so now they have a bunch of Hitters coming. They are just blocked by NMC’s and already good prospects. So when you have that then you can talk. Not about what is arguably the worst Minor league system in the last 50 years of futility. Have fun with dat. There are 28 other teams to talk to. With better players too.
@unclemike. It’s a bad problem to have your 1st rounds picks immediately starting. Why have prospects if they can’t crack the lineup. Either way i said 3. I don’t care what you think. The fact that he wasn’t suggests I was right. It could’ve been all 8. This happens all time especially when a team doesn’t want to trade a player. Just said the price was going to high. So I guess you got me on what again. Just like Joyce he’s not going anywhere
Robertson and Chapman, not all-stars at this point but still pretty solid. Then build around that.
Robertson and Chapman aren’t Closer material anymore. But if you use them right and give them rest they’ll be fine. You can’t use them like 4 days in a row anymore or they’ll end up on the IL.
2 decent FA bullpen names that should be on the radar for many teams, despite their age. But there are at least a half dozen FA relievers who should be ahead of them on the shopping list.