Mets, Adbert Alzolay Agree To Two-Year Minor League Deal

The Mets and right-hander Adbert Alzolay have agreed to a two-year minor league deal, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. The righty underwent Tommy John surgery in August and will likely miss the entire 2025 season.

Alzolay, 30 in March, is not too far removed from being the Cubs’ closer. He broke into the majors as a starter and occasionally flashed some promise but also dealt with notable injury concerns. After missing most of the 2022 season due to a shoulder strain, the Cubs started using him in a primary relief role, which yielded very positive results.

In 2023, Alzolay tossed 64 innings across 58 appearances, allowing 2.67 earned runs per nine innings. He struck out 26.5% of batters faced while only giving out walks 5.1% of the time. He took over the ninth inning duties for the Cubs, racking up 22 saves that year.

Unfortunately, the injury bug bit him again last year. He made 18 appearances in the first few weeks of 2024 with diminished results. His ERA was 4.67 and he only struck out 17.3% of opponents. The velocity was down on all of his pitches. He landed on the injured list in May due to a right forearm strain. He attempted a rehab assignment in July but that proved to be ill-fated, as he required Tommy John surgery in August.

The Cubs could have retained Alzolay for his recovery period. He was controllable via arbitration for two more seasons. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $2.3MM salary for Alzolay in 2025. Since he’s not going to pitch much this year, he would have been slated for a very similar salary in 2026. That meant that the Cubs could have kept Alzolay through 2026 for less than $5MM but they decided to non-tender him instead.

For the Mets, this is obviously a long play. Alzolay won’t help the team immediately. Given his August surgery and the rough 14-month timeline to return from Tommy John, he could perhaps act as a wild card late in the 2025 season. But even if that doesn’t come to pass, he could factor into the club’s 2026 plans.

Since he is on a minor league deal, his service time clock won’t be moving until he’s added to the roster. He’s currently at four years and 50 days at the moment. Even a late-season return would only allow him to add a few days to that. As such, he’ll finish the 2026 season between five and six years. That means the Mets could then retain him via arbitration for the 2027 season.

Such an outcome would depend on the righty returning to form after his injury absence. His numbers tailed off in the 2024 season but it’s possible that he was already feeling the effects of his injured elbow, even though surgery was still a few months away.