A.J. Minter Exits With Triceps Soreness, IL Stint Likely

Mets reliever A.J. Minter left tonight’s game against the Nationals partway through the eighth inning. After the game, manager Carlos Mendoza revealed that the left-hander exited due to soreness in his triceps. Mendoza told reporters (including Will Sammon of The Athletic) that Minter will go for imaging and that a stint on the injured list is likely.

Losing Minter for any amount of time would be a major loss for the Mets. When the southpaw signed a two-year, $22MM deal with the club this winter, some might have been surprised by the size of the contract he was able to secure. It tied him with Blake Treinen and Carlos Estévez for the third-largest contract of the offseason for a free agent reliever, and unlike Treinen’s and Estévez’s contracts, Minter’s came with an opt-out after year one. MLBTR was higher on Minter than almost any other source (we ranked him no. 34 on our Top 50 Free Agents list), and still, we only predicted he would ink a two-year, $16MM deal. Even Minter himself implied that he wasn’t exactly expecting the number he received, telling Anthony DiComo of MLB.com that he was originally planning to wait to sign until top free agent reliever Tanner Scott had set the market, but that the Mets made him an offer that was simply too good to refuse.

It’s not that Minter isn’t a talented reliever. From 2020-24, he pitched to a 2.85 ERA and 3.04 SIERA in 243 innings of work, striking out more than 30% of the batters he faced. However, he spent about half of the 2024 season on the injured list, including the final seven weeks of the season. It was a hip injury, not an arm injury, but even so, season-ending injuries are often bad news for impending free agents, especially pitchers on the wrong side of 30.

Yet, over the first four weeks of the 2025 campaign, Minter rewarded the Mets for their faith in him. His once-surprising contract quickly started to look like a bargain, and the chances of him opting out at the end of the season were growing every day. Through his first 12 games, Minter was sitting on a 1.69 ERA and a 2.69 SIERA. His strikeout and whiff rates were as impressive as ever, and his 48% groundball rate was his highest since 2020. He was a key cog in Mendoza’s bullpen, leading the team in eighth-inning appearances to help set things up for Edwin Díaz in the ninth. On Saturday, however, Minter only made it through nine pitches in the eighth, exiting in the middle of an inning for just the second time all year. It’s currently unclear how much time he’ll miss if he does indeed require an IL stint; presumably, the Mets will know more after he undergoes testing.

The Mets’ bullpen has played a critical role in their red-hot start to the season. The team is 19-8, although the offense has been surprisingly mediocre. Their starting pitching has been phenomenal (MLB-leading 2.28 ERA), but one reason their starters have been able to thrive is that they haven’t had to pitch deep into outings; Mets starters rank 18th in innings per game. That’s partly because Mendoza knows that when he pulls a great starter, he has a great crop of relievers to pick up where the starter left off. New York’s relief corps ranks third in MLB with a 2.46 ERA and second with a 3.28 Win Probability Added (per FanGraphs). Losing Minter would weaken a group that has been a huge strength early in the year. It would sting particularly badly against teams with tough left-handed batters in their lineups. Before he hurt his triceps, Minter was one of just two healthy left-handed relievers on the 40-man roster. The other, Danny Young, lacks Minter’s upside and his track record of big league success.