The Mets are in agreement with left-hander Brandon Waddell on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. While it was initially reported as an MLB deal, Murray subsequently issued a correction. The deal is pending a physical.
Waddell is the second former member of the Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears to agree to terms with the Mets today. New York added multi-positional bat Jared Young on an MLB split deal after he clubbed 10 homers in 38 games for the Bears late in the season. Waddell, a 30-year-old southpaw, spent parts of three years with the club between 2022-24.
That was a generally successful run. Waddell turned in 244 2/3 innings of 2.98 ERA ball in the KBO. That included a 3.12 mark in 75 frames this year. The UVA product fanned 23.8% of opposing hitters against a 3.5% walk rate. His season was unfortunately cut short by a rotator cuff injury in late June.
The Mets were evidently intrigued enough by Waddell’s form to give him a look as non-roster rotation or long relief depth. This will be his first stint in affiliated ball since 2022, which he spent in Triple-A in the St. Louis system. Waddell last pitched in the big leagues in 2021. He divided that season between four teams — the Twins, Pirates, Orioles and Cardinals — and allowed eight runs across 9 1/3 innings. He has 11 career MLB appearances and owns a 5.37 ERA over parts of four years at the Triple-A level.
Mets and Braves competing to sign as many players as possible to cheap one year deals, split contracts, and the like.
Someone tell Sterns he is working with deep pockets
*STEARNS
Sleepy*
Props for your self-awareness.
somebody tell West Virginia Steve that David Stearns knows more than him about baseball and how to improve pitching
This is now the 4th split contract for the Mets this offseason. Have they forgotten they have money or are they just out of it?
You know they’re not out of it.
You are currently learning how Mr Stearns builds a bullpen.
Which didnt work last year!
Polarbear99: It worked well enough.
@Lindor’s Bodyguard they had one of the worst bullpens in the game last year. If you have to rely on guys like Ty Adcock, Tyler Jay, and Alex Young for innings you arent going to win many games
actually by the end of the year he built a very good bullpen with limited payroll flexibility. a few of them ended up being real gems
Misleading. His bullpen lost nunez, raley, smith to name a few. He had to rebuild on the fly. So yes he did a great job
Minor league contract players don’t need to be added to the 40-man roster.
@yankees500 You sound like someone who has no idea teams in 2025 will use 60 players apiece on their MLB squads, and that they’ll look at something like 150 players in their organization to get to those 60.
Cue the rage of NYM fans in 3…2…1
who are these guys? maybe only the fans of the Memphis Redbirds would know.
One of those Asian league returnees who found his form there. Def worth a shot.
Wait….is this the same Waddell that tried to horn in on Tom Hardy’s bootleg business?
Murray’s Arson Judge moment.
The freakin balls on Stearns to scout the KBO and identify players that have found their form and could potentially helps roster edges. And worst of all, if they don’t work out at AAA, they can be stashed there or released. What nerve!
5-D chess, man.
Yeah I am a pretty open minded guy when it comes to a website needing to pay the bills. But thats ridiculous. You have a responsibility to not help them pedal that garbage.
BITA: You PEDAL your bike. People PEDDLE stuff.
oh my god did you learn nothing from last year? do you know nothing about building Bullpen depth? it takes a lot more than the guys you leave spring training with to get through a season. take a deep breath
They still won’t sign a real starting pitcher. They ain’t going anywhere with that staff.
Today is December 16th. Spring training is two months away.
You have no idea what they will do in that time.
the sky is falling!
The Mets have their first Rube since Walker in 1981. We can nickname him Rube, can’t we?
depletion: Whatever floats your boat.
This is why the bullpen sucked last year. Stearns is a small market GM who only knows how to shop in the bargain bin. Claims they are modeling after the dodgers but cohen prefers the Oakland As approach. Thinks he is a genius for poaching garbage from Korea. Can’t wait for this to bite him in the arseneck.
Waiting for them to get Pete signed; I know Stearns is a smart guy, but no more decent starters either? I know there is still a lot of time left, but would feel better if they would get the goods done.
If you “know Stearns is a smart guy” you also know if the Mets sign Alonso, the bloated, bad defensive 1Bman already in steep decline, it will be Cohen issuing that dictate, not Stearns deciding a 30 yo righty-righty 1Bman is worth Max Fried’s AAV and 3/4 of his years when the Mets need at the TOR is infinitely greater than adding at most a win by signing Alonso versus putting Vientos at 1B and handing Mauricio 3B in spring and ensuring the Mets’ backup IFer can handle 3B, thereby putting a floor under the position.
Above average GMs aren’t seduced by TEH HRZZZ! and don’t pay $150 million to a declining player to make trivial upgrades over what they already have on hand. Even Bregman at something like 8/200m would be a significantly better deal than 6/15om for Alonso.
The Mets could spend another $100m in FA and still have roster holes. If they’re not going to take advantage of having a useful young player in Mauricio to fill one of those holes, what’s the point of having a farm system? If you’re not going to use that farm, why didn’t Stearns just beat the price paid for Crochet?