The Mets announced a series of roster moves today. Outfielder/designated hitter Starling Marte has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Infielder Jared Young has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse in a corresponding move. The club also activated recent waiver claimee Rico Garcia and recalled right-hander Justin Garza. To open spots for those two arms, the club optioned right-hander Kevin Herget and designated right-hander Chris Devenski for assignment. Additionally, left-hander Brandon Waddell’s optional assignment was reversed and he has instead been placed on the major league 15-day injured list due to a right hip impingement.
Devenski, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason. He was selected to the big league roster in April. As a veteran with well over five years of major league service time, he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. The Mets have optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse three times this year, so he presumably agreed to those transactions.
This time, instead of being optioned, he’s been designated for assignment. The Mets didn’t need to open a 40-man spot today, so it’s unclear why they’ve done so. With the deadline coming up, they are expected to pursue bullpen upgrades. Perhaps the Mets, or Devenski, realized that their relationship might not extend much farther. From Devenski’s perspective, if he’s going to get squeezed down the depth chart, perhaps now is a good time to open himself up to other clubs rather than accept another stint in Syracuse.
Whatever the reasoning, he is now in DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Mets could take five days to explore trade interest. Around his optional assignments, Devenski has tossed 11 1/3 innings big league innings for the Mets this year, allowing three earned runs on seven hits, three walks and two hit-by-pitches while striking out nine. He has also thrown 25 Triple-A innings with a 4.32 ERA, 17.2% strikeout rate, 4% walk rate and 50.6% ground ball rate.
Devenski’s best seasons came with the Astros almost a decade ago. More recently, his results have been up and down. He had an encouraging showing in 2023, split between the Angels and Rays. That year, he tossed 42 1/3 innings with a 4.46 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate. The Rays re-signed him for 2024 but Devenski posted a 6.75 ERA last year. He was released by July and was stuck in the minors the rest of the year.
Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images
That 2.38 ERA was way too low for him to be in the Mets bullpen
@carlos15 How do you DFA Devenski and keep this turd Alejandro Carrillo on the roster? Is he related to someone in the Mets organization?
Secondly Young should have never been on the roster!
How Carillo has remained is beyond me too. Young I’m indifferent on. The team can barely score more than 2 runs a game so having a guy on the bench with some pop isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially when Winker is hurt again (another miss by Stearns) but either way Young hasn’t done much.
9 more days of this before real reinforcements?
Uh no. They’ll be one or two new guys and less dfa’s but it will still go like all teams do.
I’d be shocked if anything resembling “reinforcements” are added before the deadline.
The headline buries the lede, but Marte returning is the most important move in this mix. It creates a bit of a log jam with Vientos. It’s matchup dependent, but you have Baty and Vientos (and Mauricio) battling for playing time at 3B, and Marte and Vientos battling for playing time as a right-handed DH. Marte being out allowed Vientos to fill the DH spot, now there’s two right-handed DH. I’m going to assume today’s lineup (against a RHP) has McNeil in CF, Baty at 2B, Vientos at 3B, and Marte DH-ing.
The situation will continue to be fluid until/unless the Mets get another position player into the mix.
But on paper, its not much of a battle right now. Marte OPSing a respectable .757 vs lefties right now, Vientos .533. The Mets desperately need to add length and stability to that line-up, and Marte does that. That said, Swaggy’s ..533 is still better than either Baty or Mauricio, so he may get a nod at 3rd. But sample sizes this small can also turn around quickly with one good week. And we can’t overlook that Baty is improving and may be coming into his own. Not to mention his defense. (BTW, Acuna is leading all of them with a .716 vs lefties for now does that make him a factor in the 3B mix?).
Against RHers, Vientos is at .661, Baty .756, and Mauricio at .753.
So for now, the latter two should take up 3b and DH, respectively, against lefties.
All of that said, David Stearns made reference several times in his presser yesterday to Jeff McNeil having gotten “a lot more comfortable” in CF right now, and indicated that he might get a bulk of the playing time there for the time being. This opens up 2B for more playing time for the youngsters, at least until another position player gets added.
Keep Baty and Acuna and trade Mauricio and Vientos. Taking Acuna out yesterday for Mauricio was a huge Mendoza mistake! Mauricio who swings for the fences on every pitch and in every situation; Mets and Mendoza got lucky the Angels blew the play and gave us the game. At least Acuna has some speed, better average and puts the ball in play; we got lucky.
I am a long time Mets fan.
I’d deal Baty, Vientos is the only one who has shown he can do it at a big league level. Acuna can be a piece in the future and same for Vientos but agree on Mauricio. Mendoza’s bad decision is cause he doesn’t know what to do. This team has shown no signs of life. The offense is stagnant. Lindor looks awful. The bullpen can’t throw a strike. I’m not a fire the manager guy typically but Mendoza is in over his head. The only guy worse is Hefner. No one on the team can throw strikes. It’s embarrassing. Stearns has missed on every move so far and sat out a bunch of moves that made a ton of sense. He got the glory for good decisions by a lot of the staff in Milwaukee and rode that to a job he isn’t capable of doing.
Dodgers may need a fill-in for a few days.
Is Butto back up yet? Who goes in tonight after 5? Garrett, Stanek n Raley?
Butto is eligible to return. According to Mendoza yesterday, he’s going to pitch tomorrow, though they’re not sure if it’ll be for AAA or the big league club.
Devinski has been good, why get rid of him? Hes been arguably more reliable then Brazoban and Stanek. What an awful GM
Because he wouldn’t be available to pitch for another day or 2 and Mets need arms now. He’ll be back
@Adirondacks what makes you so confident that another team won’t claim him?
I still can’t understand how teams (not only the Mets) can have eight relief pitchers every day, without concern of having super long extra-inning games, and never seem to have enough arms.
Super long extra inning games are a thing of the past since the extra innings ghost man rule went into effect.
Certainly, more reliable than Alejandro Carrillo!!
Shhh. Don’t tell the Phillies he’s available. They’ll sign him.