Mets outfielder Alexander Canario is not expected to break camp with the major league club, reports Mike Puma of The New York Post. The 24-year-old is out of minor league options, so he’ll likely be removed from the 40-man roster in the next day or two. Puma indicates the Mets expect to place Canario on waivers. Alternately, they’d have five days to explore trade possibilities if they first designate him for assignment. If they couldn’t find a trade partner, they’d need to waive him.
Canario’s out-of-options status could lead to him bouncing around the league. It facilitated his move to the Mets in the first place, as the Cubs designated him for assignment and traded him to New York for cash in February. That wasn’t a great landing spot for Canario. The Mets already had Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo, Jose Siri, Tyrone Taylor and Starling Marte essentially locked onto the MLB roster. Canario provided injury insurance during camp, and a potential fifth outfielder if the Mets lined up a late-offseason Marte trade.
Neither happened, so there wasn’t really a path for Canario no matter how well he played this spring. (Speedster José Azocar, who is also out of options, finds himself in a similar situation.) The righty-hitting Canario hit .306 in 17 exhibition contests. He connected on three home runs and drew seven walks, but he also punched out in 15 of his 43 plate appearances. It’s the same three true outcomes profile that he has displayed throughout his minor league career. Canario drilled 18 homers with a robust 11.3% walk rate in only 64 Triple-A games in the Cubs’ system last offseason, but his 30.4% strikeout rate meant the Cubs weren’t willing to carry him on the MLB roster.
Assuming he’s indeed waived (or traded for a nominal return) this week, Canario could attract interest from a team with less outfield depth. He owns a .252/.345/.521 line in parts of three Triple-A campaigns. He’s best suited in right field but can handle center in a pinch. Any claiming team would need to carry him on the MLB roster or again send him into DFA limbo, of course. If Canario goes unclaimed on waivers, the Mets would keep him in the organization without carrying him on the 40-man.
Perhaps going by just “Alex” can help.
Alexander The Great wouldn’t have conquered even the Balkans if he was just “Alex”
How is he in CF? Asking for Detroit.
Tolerable for a backup. He had a terrible injury in winter ball after 2023 and that has probably cut his range. But he’s best suited somewhere like San Diego where he can be a short-side platoon corner OF.
Could be a nice sneaky pickup for the Yankees!
He won’t make it down to the Yankees in waiver claim order. They also have their own similar problem soon with out-of-options Oswald Peraza.
Pushing who off the 40-man roster? Braden Shewmake? Oswald Peraza?
I think peraza is out of options so if he doesn’t make the 26 he’s as good as gone
With 4 bench players I’d figure the Yankees would be keeping Grisham escarra peraza and Pablo Reyes. So he’d be displacing peraza or Reyes, and I don’t think either has options I guess it could come down to whether they value a live bat over a steady glove on their bench.
Chicago media are saying the White Sox are set to get him.
I certainly hope, hes already our 2nd best hitter XD
Where in the Chicago media?
Alexander Canario is a topic in the Chicago media?
Nope lol
Bilbo Baggins: “I regret to announce…this is the end. I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell.”
There’s a reason why the Mets picked him up for just cash from the Cubs. Most likely he’ll just be a waiver claim by the White Sox. The Mets would be most fortunate to get a low level prospect for him in a trade.
“If Canario goes unclaimed on waivers, the Mets would keep him in the organization without carrying him on the 40-man.“
So he’d be sent down to aaa anyway? Some of these rules are tricky. A guy’s career is on the line, not his fault he’s outta options
What’s tricky about it? Every team will again have the opportunity to add him to the ml roster via claim or trade. If no one opts to he has a job a AAA. At the end of the season he’s a FA. Career continues until no one wants to pay you to play.
Think Brent Rooker.
Should adjust rule
Cubs used up all options
But new tm (mets) should get 1 option to use
Why? It doesn’t advantage a player like Canario who cannot refuse an assignment yet.
Trade Taylor for Espinal. Send Acuna back down. Make Nimmo earn some of his center fielder dollars that he was signed for in the first place and play there at least half the time with Siri. Canario back in play without eating Marte salary.
and if any of the infielders go down who plays the infield? We gonna throw marte at third? maybe siri at short?
Funny you mention nimmo but not marte even though he is making more (slightly) and is not dealing with lisfranc in his foot which can be very painful.
Espinal plays infield. Teams who win it all stop handling these ball players with kid gloves. Look what Freddie Freeman did with dodgers last year to help them win it all.
espinal is not worth it especially with mcneil probably back middle of next month and espinal being released / heading to the minors anyway. Taylor was actually league average with the bat and a solid defensive player. Espinal wasnt even replacement level and has been below average with the bat a couple of years.
but regarding your kids glove
how much has degrom done for the rangers?.
how about rushing senga back in july last season. Would having him back for the last month of the season and potentially the entire playoffs make more sense than having him try to come back a month or two early and not be full strength?
how about alonso for playing pretty much the entire summer with a bum wrist that sapped his power? Would it have been better to give him a few weeks to let it heal up and play better for the rest of the season? It helped the mets in the end because he had a decline because of it and no one ponied up for him.
Why are you talking about “lisfranc” ? There are no reports that Nimmo’s had a fracture.
Flyby:
I think you’re getting your foot injuries confused. Nimmo has dealt with plantar fasciitis, not a lisfranc injury.
so carry 7 outfielders (Soto, Winker, Siri, Marte, Taylor, Nimmo, Canario) and no backup infielder? Might as well put Senger in the minors and keep Azocar up in the majors too.
Why bother considering other positions especially when you have 2 defensively shakey infielders.
If they send Acuna down, they will be left with zero back-up infielders. And DJ Stewart is out of options. His last option was used last year.
Canario and Azocar had a rougher path to the Mets roster this Spring than Wayne Chrebet had to the Jets roster in 1995. In addition to the five listed above, there are five others who will be on the roster either from the start or shortly thereafter who can play OF if needed – Winker, Baty, Acuña, McNeil, and Vientos.
Winker has close to zero range. not sure how you include him but leave off Marte. As bad as Marte is, he’s actually better than Winker.
Baty and Vientos have only dabbled there a bit in the minors. Saying they can play OF is highly speculative, at best. The fact is they have four active OFs, plus Acuna. And that should be enough to get by until McNeil gets back.
Neither Winker or Marte should ever play another game in the OF. Marte’s actually the better of the two but was still only in the bottom 7th percentile by Fielding Runs and bottom 5th percentile by Outs Above Average.
With Nimmo’s various leg problems and McNeil’s broken wrist, Tyrone Taylor’s longstanding durabilty issues plus two new offseason surgeries and Siri’s potential for catastrophe at the plate, a more creative team cuts Marte and brings Canario on board.
Marte’s ST .657 OPS at 36 may well be as good as it gets.
Marte and Winker are both more than capable of playing the last 3-4 innings of a blow out to get Nimmo or Soto off their feet.
He just isn’t very good. It’s that simple.
@ chandlerbing Canario’s career is not on the line. His career is professional baseball player, not Major League baseball player, per se.
If unclaimed, he would continue to play at AAA, where the standard salaries are now $4000 to $8000 per month (some players can make more), the clubs now provide food and housing, and he also gets a $25 expense per diem every day of the season. And he’s just a phone call away from being back in the majors.
Being out of options means he’s had three years on 40-man rosters to establish himself as a major leaguer, and he has not done so yet. His performance is thee reason he is out of options. If you don’t want to lay blame, I get that. But it is his performance that has not [yet] reached the level necessary.
If performance was the issue, his 136 OPS+ in MLB would have him on a team, as would his .847 minor league OPS in 2253 PA and his .866 OPS in 528 AAA PA..
In fact performance is clearly not the issue, since at every level including the majors he’s been able to survive the strikeouts with plus power, a respectable batting eye, and a strangely patient profile given the K’s.
Clearly what he’s doing works.
4k-8k a month? With a $25 per diem?!
Minor leagues need to strike. That’s wild.
Get him for Pittsburgh we need OF can’t do a.y worse than what hot
White Sox would be the perfect opportunity for Canario. Make the call.
In order for an option year to be burned, the player has to be (a) optioned to the minor leagues and (b) stay in the minors for at least 20 days before being recalled. That’s why, for example, Taylor Ward of the Angels still has an option left even though he’s been optioned in three different years – one of those years he was recalled after only 18 days, so it didn’t burn an option year.
Not entirely accurate, socalball. You’re mixing two different sets of rules.
An option is good for an entire season, the player can be sent down and recalled multiple times in a season. As long as the TOTAL number of days is more than 20, that option counts, even if none of his stays reached 20 days.
There was a separate rule that says a player must spend 10 days in the minors before being recalled. In recent years, Manfred has talked about changing that to 20 in order to cut down on all the pitcher churn. Though I don’t recall if that ever git implemented. That said, the rule has a gaping loophole: said player can be recalled sooner than the 10 (or 20?) days if he is replacing an injured player.
for the record… we DO KNOW that stewart is NOT on the Mets this year… right?
Yes, and for the record, Banned is a supremely ignorant aggressive Mets fan. He has no understanding about the value of Tyrone Taylor to the Mets. None.
Young and with pop – would be great to find a way to retain him. But he wouldn’t be the first young player to wow in spring training, only to be revealed as 4A or at best a part time player. He was largely just another guy in NYM camp a la Azocar until his 2 dinger game last weekend.
White Sox you just got a starting outfielder
The “out of options” rule creates a misalignment between long-term development goals and immediate roster pressure, favoring players who are close to the finished product rather than allowing the time and space for raw talent to mature into major league contributors. Until this system is reevaluated and adjusted to better facilitate the gradual development of players at their own pace, MLB will continue to lose talented prospects prematurely, particularly players with flaws but high potential like Canario.