The Mets announced that they have signed infielder Jared Young to a one-year major league contract. The club has multiple vacancies on its 40-man roster and won’t need to make a corresponding move for the Ball Players Agency client. Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that it’s a split deal with “seven-figure upside.” The Associated Press reports that Young will make a prorated $1.15MM salary while in the majors and be paid at a $425K rate for his time in the minor leagues.
Young, 29, has struggled with strikeouts in his very limited major league career but has performed well in the minors and in Korea. In 2022 and 2023, he got into 22 games for the Cubs and stepped to the plate 69 times. He struck out in 29% of those appearances but tallied a few extra base hits and some walks, leading to a .210/.290/.435 line and wRC+ of 98.
He was claimed off waivers by the Cardinals after the 2023 campaign and then outrighted off their roster going into 2024. In July, he signed with the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization. His stint in Korea seemed to go very well, as he hit 10 home runs in just 169 plate appearances over a 38-game stretch. He struck out 20.7% of the time while drawing walks at a 12.4% clip. That led to a .326/.420/.660 line and massive 172 wRC+.
His strong performance in Korea and his weak performance in the majors both come in fairly small sample sizes. His body of work in the minors is naturally larger and has been quite good. Over the past four years, he has 1,402 minor league plate appearances. In that time, he has an 11.3% walk rate, 21.5% strikeout rate, .274/.370/.488 batting line and 124 wRC+. Over the past two years, it has been a 13.7% walk rate, 20.7% strikeout rate, .299/.414/.547 line and 145 wRC+.
The Mets are apparently intrigued enough by those numbers to give Young a roster spot, though he still has options and can therefore be kept in Triple-A as a depth piece. Defensively, Young has lined up at all four infield spots, though his shortstop work consists of just nine innings at Low-A back in 2017. He’s also spent some time in the outfield corners, so perhaps there’s a path for Young to fill a utility role in Queens.
Pete Alonso is currently a free agent and could perhaps re-sign with the Mets. But under the current roster construction, Mark Vientos projects as the first baseman since he just had an offensive breakout but with poor glovework at third. Second base is also a bit of a question mark after an uneven season from Jeff McNeil. Guys like Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio or Luisangel Acuña could perhaps offers solutions at those spots but they’re not fully established majors leaguers yet. Young will give the Mets another option in that mix.
Young has less than a year of service time, which could mean the Mets can cheaply control him for years to come. However, players returning from stints overseas can often negotiate clauses in their contracts that allow them to return to the open market despite not having six years of service time. It’s unclear whether Young will definitely be a free agent again after 2025 or if the Mets can theoretically retain him as long as his service time clock is below six years.
Who?
Odd for a major league contract.
Why major there’s no way he stays on the roster past April
The Mariners haven’t even gotten anyone of his caliber yet.
Major Major Major?
I’ve always liked Young’s swing. He hits everywhere in the Minor Leagues but just can’t seem to do anything when he gets to the Majors. Wish him luck.
So what. He has a minor league option remaining. Also consider that after his success in Korea last year, he probably said that without a major league deal, he’ll go back there. Its more money, and a better resume builder than the minor leagues here.
Incoming “Mets need to do more – they sign Soto and then follow up with this guy?!” posts lol
Relax, they could cut Young without an issue if it comes to it
Slowest offseason ever
Boras four (or five or six with soler and jd Martinez)
Short memory? Last season most of the best FA were still available in January.
Not even close.
Bring back Iglesias!!!
And Alonso and Stanek and Winker!
Young is from one of the most beautiful places in Canada. Almost invested in a vineyard and BnB there a few years back until a Chinese investor came in and doubled our bid. Gorgeous place!
Know absolutely nothing about him as a player other than where he is from. From looking at his stats, seems to be more of an outfielder than infielder.
prince george is gorgeous but there’s maybe 90 days a year where it’s warm and dry enough to play baseball. wonder if he moved south as a kid
Sounds like a weird piercing I don’t want to know about.
Depth piece. Actually had decent AAA numbers past few years. Strange it was a major league contract.
because that’s why he agreed to the contract. it doesn’t mean he can’t be sent down
Nothing makes NYM fans rage out more than depth pieces
True of the fans of most teams.. just read the comments on all the depth signings..
I miss $2 beer nights let alone 10¢. People say I have a problem but what’s a hundred or so beers between friends?
Try bringing up Luis Castillo dropping the pop up.
Probably a split contract, where they’ll plan to pass him through waivers when they need the roster spot.
He got options. Depth move.
Probably not – split contracts are reported as minor league deals and don’t get the player a 40-man roster spot.
The Braves just signed Bryan De La Cruz to a split contract. It’s a reported as a major league deal. He’s now on their 40-man roster. They’ll need to pass him through waivers if they want to remove him from the 40-man to activate the minor league part of the contract.
.285/.411/.506 in 286 Triple-A PAs last season before going to the KBO and hitting .326/.420/.660 in 169 PAs with Doosan. Combined 13.6% walk rate and 19.3% strikeout rate between the two stops. Seems to be a corner guy (1B/3B/LF/RF) so probably just a DJ Stewart replacement. If I’m reading things right, he has an option year left too, so he’s a decent pickup on what’s probably a pretty cheap deal.
Ahhh he does have an option, didnt realize that. Solid depth signing, Im sure the contract will be peanuts (relative).
great handle btw
Soto is attracting all the stars to Flushing…
Replacing Pete Alonso, they spent all their money on a one dimensional generation talent Soto!
As opposed to Pete Alonso a non-generational one dimensional talent?
Options.
The Mets have options too, and this shouldn’t be one of them. Ahahahaha!
World Series here we come!
Stars and Scrubs strategy for the Mets.
Now sign Greg Bird and show the league you know talent
once again the mets outbid the yankees for a difference-maker. when will it end?
The commissioner needs to step in at some point this is getting ridiculous
I knew it. They blew their load. Have no more money to spend. Stearns back to all he knows gambling off the scrap heap. lol same old Muts. Even with Soto they won’t win crap. Especially with that pitching.
Gotta love trolls who oscillate between “these idiots overpay for everyone! When will the Mutts learn you can’t buy a WS” and “They have no more money! They’re tapped out!! I knew it! I is genius and should run team”.
I liked you better when you trolled as Johnny Utah, you seemed to put more effort into your trolling.
But he came up with that new “Mutts” term.
Why won’t Mets make a move for Corbin Burnes? They spent big on 40 year old pitchers the year before last. Burnes is a baby compared to Scherzer and Verlander. Mets better sign some starting pitchers before there’s none left. Are you listening, Uncle Steve and Cousin David?
“They spent big on 40 year old pitchers the year before last.”
On 2-3 year deals. Burnes will get 6+ years and way more total money.
The market is inflated. You either accept that or lose out. Burnes will be younger than both of those guys at the end of the contract.
It would be hilarious if the Mets signed Scherzer and Verlander.
I dont get this move even for depth they have 4 guys (McNeil, Acuna, Mauricio, Baty) fighting for 2 spots (hopefully 1 once alonso realizes he is not getting the big deal boras told him he would get). I get one will probably be traded but i think iglesias is the better pick up and if they get him then you still have 4 people for 1/2 spots with williams on the way.
Its called depth. What don’t you get? Acuna, Mauricio, and Baty have not proven they are major league ready. And all of them, including Young, has an option remaining. So there’ll be room for whoever wins a spot, and whoever doesn’t can go to Syracuse.
2- Even if those three win roster spots in spring, its still a guess as to whether or not they’ll play well enough to hold it. Not to mention injuries, and the possibility of trading away one of them and/or McNeil at some point.
Once again, its called depth.
there is depth which i understand fine but there is also something called stunting development because williams for example is set to go to AAA right now. If you sign alonso, vientos goes back to 3rd and now you are taking up all 3 spots in the AAA team and pushing williams back down to AA because there is no space for him to play in AAA. This now potentially pushes baez potentially back to high A and rodriguez to A. This is good for service time but 2 of your top 4 prospects are potentially stunted for said depth and 4 out of your top 6 are effected by this since they all are on the same position.
As you said no one has pulled ahead but it seems like this is a wasted depth spot that doesnt really add any value but potentially produces negative value especially with him on the 40 man taking up a spot. He is an older player that really hasnt proven anything at this point. Hence the reason i dont get it unless you are praying for another Eric Thames but even Thames showed something in the majors before going to Korea.
You’re overreacting to a non-problem. Right now, there are eight IFs on the 40-man roster. You need 6 for the big league team, and 6 for AAA, so 12 total. So even if they sign Alonso, there are still three openings – plenty of room for Jett Williams in AAA, even accounting for Menes and Luke Ritter. Plus, Williams, Acuna, Ritter, and Young can all play some OF.
The AA infield is short of legitimate AA-caliber players. There is nothing blocking Baez or anyone else the Mets might want to promote to that level.
And no one is being stunted. Opening day rosters aren’t fixed for the season, they are fluid. There is nothing stopping the team from rotating the prospects up and down as their development warrants, and nothing stopping them from cutting a quad-A caliber veteran if he’s in the way of anything.
Young got a major league contract because thats what was needed to sign him. The cost is negligible, be it in dollars, roster space, or commitment level from the Mets.
@F.lyby geofft nailed it. No offense intended, truly, but it’s worth memorizing that comment if you don’t know these things.
Baseball GM’ing is a very complicated game of musical chairs, where the players themselves are in continual flux.
You sign a Jared Young because even slight improvements are valuable and because in no way are you stuck with him when another slight improvement becomes available.
It’s a genuine relief as a Mets fan to see the team finally employ an above average GM who understands—in an era where he’ll use 60 players on the MLB squad—that minimizing the damage that your worst 20 players will do to the team is critical. Those 20 players inevitably cost you wins and create losses in the overall even on the best run teams, and had Stearns only been a little less good at his job the 89-73 Mets would have gone 88-74 in 2024 and missed the postseason and some fine, fine memories.
One of the pleasures of watching the 2024 Mets was watching an exec good at his craft continue to search and search for improvements around the edges, improvements that led to the great good luck of finding Jose Iglesias, or that led to a bullpen in the latter half that became increasingly respectable after Stearns’ admittedly weak offseason in that regard.
It was good luck as the residue of smart design. Contrast the 2024 team with the 2018 Mets, where Alderson was content to let truly awful players play, to the point where he couldn’t even reach .500 let alone make the postseason with a rotation of peak deGrom-Wheeler-Syndergaard.
The Mets worst 30 players cost them 13 wins in 2018. Had Alderson GM’ed the 2024 Mets they would have struggled to play .500 ball. Alderson in 2018 let Oswalt, Vargas, and Harvey start 45 games and combine for an ERA around 6.00. He also let Sewald, Swarzak, Tim Peterson, and AJ Ramos combine for 130 innings of relief despite all of them having ERAs over 6.00, and a combined ERA around 6.20.
That’s incredible malfeasance. Any remotely competent GM should be able to find any number of guys at the bottom of the roster with ERAs no worse than 4.50, maybe 4.75. You always catch some decent players having some bad years, but then it’s critical to recognize that and pull the plug and throw someone else into the breach who doesn’t cost you games.
Say what you like about Stearns but at least he didn’t sit on his hands, or do things like try to conceal the fact that he blew $2m on the awful Joey Wendle pickup by letting Wendle play any longer than he did, just 37 PA before he was gone, or Zack Short, just 12 PA before he too was let go.
As important as it is to find good players, it matters enormously that you limit the damage done by players having bad years.
This is some interesting writing. Why do you need to name his agency and who calls an at bat a “trip to the plate” ? You going for a Pulitzer?
Mets fans getting angry at “trip to the plate” because it sounds too fancy. Never change queens. Kek
That phrase has been around for many years. There’s nothing pompous about it.
2025’s Zack Short…
The Pitching Lab will fix him!
They need some depth in the minors. This guy looks like he could play all 4 infield positions. Best teams are the ones that can bring someone up in an emergency and they get hot for a week or two. Plus looks like he may have some power also. Not every signing is an All Star, look at Braves, Guardians, Royals…next man up mentality.
I’m guessing they don’t have confidence in Schwartz and Meneses . Clifford must be projected for 26 27 seasons.
No need to guess. Schwartz is not a real prospect, he’s just roster filler… a 1B who has little HR power. Meneses was nothing but depth. Now they’ve found someone who they think is better caliber depth. The Mets did this last off season and continued doing it into the regular season. Loaded up on candidates of every niche and cut some as they proved themselves less than capable.
And yeah, what made you think Clifford – who opened the 2024 season at high-A, was going to be ready for the majors in 2025?
Veteran depth guy for Syracuse who can come up for a couple of days if someone goes on the IL or paternity or bereavement leave. Probably has a verbal agreement that he can go back to Korea if a team there offers him $X.
Hey since this is a Mets post- who here remembers Lastings Milledge?
Talk about an overhyped prospect… Every once in a while his unique name pops into my head and I think about how he was supposed to be the Future of Baseball.
He came up and was fantastic for a bit until Billy Wagner shook him with his locker room bs