The Mets will recall right-hander Justin Hagenman to pitch in tomorrow’s series finale in Minnesota, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters (video via SNY). It’s still undecided whether he’ll start the game or work behind an opener, but he’ll make his major league debut. Hagenman is already on the 40-man roster after signing a major league free agent contract last offseason.
Griffin Canning was lined up for the start but came down with an illness. He’ll be pushed back by a couple days. The Mets will need to option out a pitcher to make room on the active roster. As Tim Britton of The Athletic observed this evening, they’ll likely use a roster technicality.
A pitcher who is optioned must spend at least 15 days in the minors unless he’s recalled as the corresponding move for another player going on the injured list. The Mets lost center fielder Jose Siri to a broken leg last night. They elected not to put him on the IL today because of the Canning situation. They can recall Hagenman while optioning a reliever — Max Kranick is a logical choice after he threw 31 pitches tonight — and then recall that reliever on Thursday as the corresponding move for Siri’s IL placement. They’d probably option Hagenman back out after his spot appearance and call up an outfielder at that point.
Hagenman, 28, gets the call after pitching parts of four seasons in Triple-A. He was drafted by the Dodgers out of Penn State back in 2018. He got as high as Triple-A in the L.A. system before being traded to the Red Sox at the 2023 deadline as part of a package for Enrique Hernández. Hagenman spent a season and a half in the Boston farm system but never received a call-up. He qualified for minor league free agency when the Red Sox opted not to put him on their 40-man roster at the end of last season.
The Mets signed him to a split deal that pays $225K while he’s in Triple-A and comes with a prorated $850K salary for whatever time he spends in the big leagues. The 6’3″ righty struck out seven without a walk over eight innings in Spring Training. He’s had a tougher start to the season at Triple-A Syracuse. Hagenman has surrendered 11 runs (eight earned) on 15 hits and four home runs through 10 2/3 innings. His most recent start came on April 10, though, so he’s a fresh arm who can provide multiple innings in a pinch.
Hagenman owns a 4.56 ERA through 240 2/3 career innings at the top minor league level. He has struck out a solid 24.5% of batters faced against a 7.8% walk rate. His sinker is averaging 91 MPH, while he’s also using a pair of low-80s breaking pitches and a changeup in the 85 MPH range.
Yup
Seems like a work in process. His numbers aren’t that special or hopeful of a successful debut.
Best of luck if you make it into the game.
Oh, he’s certainly pitching. I would just go ahead and start him if it was me… who knows, maybe he’ll do well and give them four or five decent innings. The Twins don’t have a great lineup to begin with, and two of their top hitters left to injury tonight, so Hagenman has a chance to do OK.
He would do better pitching against the Mets than he will pitching for the Mets, if history is any guide…
Why did this guy need a split contract to sign? Surprised it wasn’t just a straight minor league pact
It’s because he’s considered a little better than an ostensibly less talented minor league FA who’d make the minimum, about $51,000 a year, so to sign him you have to pay him a little more. Hagenman instead makes at least $225,000 for the year, more than that now that he’s getting called up.
As for why they’re calling up a guy who gives up home runs at the same rate a big kid eats popcorn during a movie, it should be because they don’t want to burn an option on a real prospect who they don’t otherwise plan to bring up in 2025.
This rates to be about as exciting as the 2.2 innings Julio Teheran gave the Mets in 2024 before they realized how bad he had become.
I love when Jack explains everything to us, becuz we R dummies.
Or the ones he mutes because once you didn’t agree with something he wrote.
As long as he has had some time in their pitching lab he should have a chance, the pitching this year and last has been outstanding when you consider who is throwing.
@unglar You said it, comrade. Something is definitely going on. Stearns seems to have cracked some of the code. He has his formula for the Mets until the farm starts to regularly produce talent:
Aim for slightly above average pitching, since more than that in free agency is hugely expensive and noticeably less reliable than good hitting. Also aim for an above average offense with a couple of key performers you’re willing to pay big for, complement the whole with that standby as old as the game: Strong up the middle defense, particularly C, SS, and CF, which makes the pitching that much better and lets the Mets shoot for high-BB high-K pitchers and keep the ones who are willing to pitch to contact instead of giving up walks. .
The FO also calculates that at the margins, improving pitching by 1/3 to 1/2 a run per game is a fairly inexpensive proposition in the context of $225m-$350m payrolls—so they aim for guys who are falling through the cracks even with smart teams like the Braves, who let Griffin Canning go. Scoop him up for 1/$4.25m, junk his worst pitch, teach him to put a little more movement on his changeup, and look to turn a guy with an ERA around 4.75 into a respectable starter with a 4.30 ERA for $1/4.25m instead of spending 4/$70m on the likes of Taijuan Walker and Jameson Taillon.
Oh, and keep the truly awful guys off the field. It’s amazing how many GMs still shovel away wins by leaving pitchers with 5.00-5.50 ERAs on the roster to pitch 50-plus innings.
It’ll be interesting to see how much patience the Mets have with Baty, Taylor, Winker, Edwin Diaz, and even Vientos.
That is a far cry from where you were a month ago about this starting pitching. Kudos to you for keeping an open mind, rather than railing on all season long.
To borrow a cliche that I used to love, then learned to hate it because it was so overused… most fans are playing checkers, while Stearns is playing chess. Not just chess, but 3-D chess with a computer assisting him. He’s not really trying to win a WS in the off season, or even this year. He’s only trying to compete just enough to appease the fan base and his owner while he builds the farm. And if the circumstances carry them towards a big season, he’ll adapt then.
The pitching is getting close, not only at the AAA level, but also to having a pipeline of talent at all levels so that when a big name fails, there’s someone else not too far behind.
Unfortunately, the position player side seems to still be a couple of years away. Hence……. the patience they might show with Baty, Taylor, Winker, and Vientos may be dictated by the lack of worthwhile replacements. That said, Baty going down when McNeil comes back seems like a no-brainer.
Vientos is out of options, so he will get at least 200 – 250 PAs before anything is done.
Beyond that, several possibilites, none of them good.
Too bad the Mets didn’t know this on Monday. They could have called up Blade Tidwell instead of him pitching yesterday for Syracuse. That would have gotten Mer fans excited.
Except that there’s absolutely zero basis for thinking the Mets would actually have done that. As a Mets fan, I don’t give a bleep about what “gets Mets fans excited”. I’m more concerned with what is best for the organization, and what builds a consistent winner. Tidwell is not a finished product. He needed nearly a year to figure out AAA, and its not even clear that he’s got that down pat yet. The league can still figure him out and send him into a slump.
How many good, but not great young players do you have to see use up or almost run out of options before you realize that conserving those options matters? Vientos ran out of options before finally (and unexpectedly) finding success in the majors. And now he’s started off badly. Yes, he appears to be turning it around. But what if he doesn’t?
Baty is in his last option year, and he’s looking horrible right now – arguably even worse than in previous stints. Is he on track to make the majors by next season when he is out of options? It can still happen but its looking grim.
Acuna is in his last option year. And so is Mauricio. Are they going to pull it out by next spring. Maybe. Maybe not.
This is the reason guys like Justin Hagenman and Brandon Wadell are signed in the first place, and this is the exactly type of situation for which they were signed.
Hopefully this guy keeps us in todays game ?
They needed a 6th starter this week. Good luck to the fella
It never ceases to amuse me how a player can be recalled to make his major league debut.
Exactly, I hate when the Mets just throw away a game; 11 runs given up in 10 minor league innings; WTP!! Home run derby pitching machine.
Nobody else with a future in MLB that even if they get hit overall the experience is a win?
Makes no sense, guy has no upside and no chance to ever make to the MLB. Wind up pitching a bullpen game anyway. 🙁
There are players who may have a future. The issue is that future may be so far away that you hate to use one of his options this year if it is not necessary. this Mets farm system was so bad for so long, that it just hasn’t caught up yet.
not sure what you expect when a team is down to their 8th starter. 9th, if you consider Christian Scott’s injury. This is why these depth pieces are here. And this is why they are just depth pieces.
Maybe the plan is to start Butto, and only use Hagenman as a piggyback, if needed. And if we’re lucky, Butto goes 5 innings, and they can go to the pen as normal.
nope, my bad… They opened with Brazoban for one (scoreless) inning. then went to Hagenman for two scoreless so far.