The Mets and right-hander Zach Pop are in agreement on a major league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Whenever it is official, corresponding moves will be required to get him onto to the 40-man and active rosters.
Pop, 28, just spent a few weeks on the Mariners’ roster. He made four appearances, the first three of which were fairly normal. The fourth one, however, was a disaster. Put into a game against Minnesota with Seattle losing 2-0 in the sixth, Pop allowed seven earned runs in one inning, via two walks and six hits, including two home runs. That gave him an unsightly 13.50 earned run average for the year. He was then designated for assignment and elected free agency.
In his career, Pop has gotten many chances thanks to his intriguing velocity. He averages 96 miles per hour on his sinker, though that has led to more ground balls than strikeouts. In 161 career innings split between the Marlins, Blue Jays and Mariners, he has a 4.75 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 55.2% ground ball rate.
He exhausted his final option year with the Jays last season. The Jays still had some hope of utilizing him in 2025, as they tendered him a contract. He had qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player and the two sides avoided arb by agreeing to a $900K salary for this year.
He stuck on Toronto’s 40-man through the winter but experienced some elbow soreness during camp. The Jays designated him for assignment on Opening Day to open a 40-man spot. Since he was injured at the time, he couldn’t be put on outright waivers, so he was released. That left the Jays on the hook for the majority of that salary, allowing any other club to pay him the prorated version of the minor league minimum for any time spent on the roster.
That led to a minor league deal with the Mariners. During his brief stint on their major league roster, he passed three years of service time, which gave him the right to elect free agency yesterday even though it was his first career outright.
For the Mets, their pitching staff has been hit pretty hard in the past few weeks, so they need all the help they can get. They currently have 12 pitchers on the injured list. Their starting rotation has lost Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning and Paul Blackburn in the past few weeks. They just placed Blackburn and reliever Dedniel Núñez on the IL today, after playing a doubleheader yesterday. Justin Hagenman and Rico Garcia were called up to give the club a couple of fresh arms.
David Peterson is starting tonight’s contest against the Brewers. Tim Britton of The Athletic relays that the club plans to have Hagenman, Frankie Montas and Brandon Waddell start the next three games against the Yankees. After that, the club will get a much-needed day off but it’s going to be a challenge for them to limp through the weekend.
Pop will give them a fresh arm at virtually no cost. As mentioned, he is out of options and would need to be removed from the 40-man if the club wants to remove him from the active roster. If he somehow manages to hold a spot until the end of the year, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images
Zach Pop is literally terrible. Mets must have a death wish to fade off again.
Mets gotta have their Pops.
to quote one of my all time favorite bands- XTC- this is POP!
Wish they were together still. I know, very long story with XTC
Just was listening to Skylarking couple days ago…CRIMINALLY overlooked and under-appreciated band.
He throws like 90 straight down the chute. Awesome batting practice/HR Derby pitcher…that’s it. He just gave up 8 runs in a third of an inning last week for the Mariners. And he did the same thing with Toronto earlier in the season. Whatever you do, only pitch him in mop-up duty when the Mets are losing by more than 10. He is likely better than a position player doing it.
A lot of Pop off the bat when be pitches!
7 IP before he is DFA’d… Again.
More likely 1 or 2 innings/appearances max.
7 innings in one game if the Mets are down 15-0 after the first inning.
One of the several atrocious players the Orioles got for Machado
Dean Kremer turned out pretty good
Thought POP would end up in MINNE-SODA !!
@Jacksson13
Post reported because I didn’t think of it first.
Also could have ended up in COLA-RADO.
Well Done !
Seems odd to me that they passed up on signing Michael Fulmer and lefty Matt Gage to minor league free agent contracts yesterday but gave Pop a major league deal..
Magnitude says, “Pop, pop!”
Desperate times…
Desperate measures…