The Mets signed right-hander Julian Merryweather to a minor league deal this evening, as relayed by MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo.
Merryweather, 33, was a fifth-round pick by Cleveland back in 2014. Traded to Toronto as part of the Josh Donaldson deal, he made his big league debut with the Blue Jays during the shortened 2020 season. The right-hander showed some promise with a 4.15 ERA and 2.27 FIP across 13 innings in that rookie season, but he never quite lived up to it in future seasons after he was derailed by elbow and oblique issues among other injuries over the years. He put together a 5.64 ERA and 4.36 FIP in 47 appearances with the Blue Jays overall before being designated for assignment in January of 2023.
The right-hander was promptly plucked off waivers by the Cubs, and enjoyed the best season of his career that year. In 72 innings of work as a high leverage arm for Chicago, Merryweather posted a 3.38 ERA with a 3.52 FIP and struck out a fantastic 32.3% of his opponents. Those huge strikeout numbers were enough to overcome a career-high 11.9% walk rate, and Merryweather entered the 2024 season firmly in the Cubs’ late inning mix alongside closer Adbert Alzolay and offseason addition Hector Neris. Unfortunately, Merryweather was part of a bullpen implosion early in the season that proved fatal to Chicago’s chances last season. He spent most of the season sidelined by a knee injury that ultimately required surgery, and even when he was healthy enough to pitch he struggled to a 6.60 ERA with a strikeout rate that had plummeted to just 18.9%.
It was easy enough to blame Merryweather’s struggles in 2024 on his injuries, which may have thrown him off mechanically and contributed to his fastball velocity losing two ticks relative to the prior season. To whatever extent that may have been the case, however, a healthy offseason clearly wasn’t all it took to fix Merryweather’s issues. His velocity remained down this year, and 2025 proved to be more of the same as he pitched to a subpar 5.79 ERA while striking out a career-low 17.0% of his opponents and walking a career-high 12.5%. The right-hander’s 21 outings for Chicago this year were clearly too much for the club to stomach, as he was designated for assignment as the team turned to more reliable late-inning options like Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, and Daniel Palencia who had emerged in recent weeks.
Merryweather eventually went unclaimed on waivers, and the Cubs had the option to outright him to the minors as a non-roster depth option for the remainder of the year as he was a few days shy of the ability to reject the assignment while retaining his full salary. Chicago chose to grant the righty his release, however, and he returned to free agency late last month. Now, he’s on to New York to join a Mets club that is tied with Chicago for the best record in the National League. The Mets will try to recapture what made Merryweather so effective with the Cubs in 2023 while he gets to work at Triple-A Syracuse as a potential depth piece alongside arms like Justin Garza and Colin Poche.
Send him to the lab ASAP
He will be our hidden going down the stretch
There is something wrong with him. When he got here he threw a nasty slider. Now he won’t throw it at all. There’s something wrong with him to the point he doesn’t want to throw it anymore. No lab can fix that until it goes all together.
Good luck Jerry. Wish you all the best.
LFGMets fire Stearns comment any minute now…
@Blue Baron, it must be a sad life you live busting someone’s balls that hasn’t even commented on a post as of yet, however it is totally “on brand” for you. Thanks for not disappointing the MLBTR community.
@ZS59 Hes just tired of me being right all the time, I’m used to it. I watch all the games and make unpopular decisions by comparison to the homer Met fans on here that think every move the team makes is “spectacular”. You can’t improve a team if you don’t identify their weaknesses
I’ve seen him pitch, he is awful. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen him have a clean outing without giving up a walk or hit. Should be in single A, not the majors
@lfg, stating “I’ve seen him pitch and he’s awful” has no context. He was one of the better bullpen options for the Cubs in 2023. And was not good to start 2024 which may have been the result of some injury issues. The Cubs have better options in 2025 and released him. Your “he’s awful and should be in Single A” hyperbole is why you Blue Baron called you out, way to go and prove him right.
He has been doing this for years. you should hear some of his wild thoughts and never admits when he is flat out pointed out wrong and usually changes his name to hide it. Interesting fact, a pitcher that he “watched” for years and thought should be the top reliever and said he should have a deal because power pitching lefties last will always be in demand.
This “lefty reliever” is Shintaro Fujinami who has for large parts last season and this season was sporting double digit era and pretty close to 1 to 1 strike out per walk.
So take any “scouting report” from him with a grain of salt. Personally i think he is mad at the mets because he probably went to a game and Drew Smith probably denied him a baseball or something. Ask him his take on Drew sometime too.