The Mets announced today that outfielder Tyrone Taylor has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. In a corresponding move, fellow outfielder Jose Siri has been designated for assignment. Will Sammon of The Athletic reported Siri’s DFA prior to the official announcement.
Siri was acquired from the Rays in the offseason, with the Mets sending right-hander Eric Orze to Tampa in exchange. That deal has clearly been a bust for the Mets. Siri has spent most of the 2025 season on the injured list. When healthy, he hasn’t performed well.
Taylor’s return squeezes him off the roster. Siri is out of options and can’t be easily sent back down to the minors. He is making $2.4MM this year and would have been due a raise in arbitration going into next year. The Mets were probably planning to non-tender him this winter anyway, so he gets cut today instead.
The Mets surely knew they were getting a flawed player, but also one with clear attributes. In 2023, Siri hi 25 home runs for the Rays, stole 12 bases and provided strong center field defense. His 35.7% strikeout rate and 5.5% walk rate were both awful figures but the power still helped him produce a .222/.267/.494 line and 106 wRC+. When combined with his speed and defense, he was worth 2.6 wins above replacement, in the eyes of FanGraphs.
His performance backed up a bit last year. He increased his walk rate slightly to 6.9%, though his strikeout rate also ticked up to 37.9%. His home run tally dropped to 18, in a larger sample of plate appearances. His .187/.255/.366 batting line and 78 wRC+ showed clear regression at the plate, but he still put up 1.8 fWAR thanks to his speed and defense.
But as mentioned, his 2025 season has not looked like that at all. He fouled a ball off himself in April and suffered a fractured left tibia. He was expected to miss eight to ten weeks but he ended up missing about five months, getting reinstated from the injured list earlier in September. When not on the IL, his performance has been decidedly lacking. It has only been 36 plate appearances but Siri struck out in 47.2% of those and has produced a .063/.167/.125 line.
Taylor hasn’t been great this year, but his tepid .218/.277/.315 line is still well beyond Siri’s production. The Mets acquired Cedric Mullins at the deadline to try to fortify the center field position. That hasn’t really worked out either, as Mullins is hitting .188/.287/.291 since joining the Mets, but that’s also a notch above Siri’s performance this year and Mullins has a greater track record as well. Brandon Nimmo started a game in center this week as well, though he’s back in left today with Taylor taking over up the middle.
Time will tell how the Mets fill the position going forward but they have decided there was no room for Siri. With the trade deadline having passed long ago, the only choice will be to put Siri on waivers. He would have no appeal to other clubs in the short term. As mentioned, he’s been in poor form. He also wouldn’t be postseason eligible with any claiming team. He can be controlled via arbitration for two more seasons, so it’s theoretically possible for another club to have interest in claiming him with an eye on next year.
If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment, as a player with at least three years of big league service time. It’s possible he would decide to accept such an assignment, however. If the Mets make the playoffs and someone gets injured, he could be added back to the roster and perhaps play a role in the postseason.
There would also be a small financial consideration, as he has less than five years of service time. That means he would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in order to elect free agency. At this late stage of the campaign, that would be just a few thousand dollars, but the combination of that cash and the possibility of factoring into the playoffs could be enough for him to accept. In that scenario, he would have another chance to elect free agency at season’s end.
Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images
I would like to see the Cardinals pick him up.
And then he crushed the pitch….
youtube.com/shorts/jB8RN0wHS0M?si=bSPZsCH_e07f7lT3
King: Why? They have nothing to play for. He will be available as a free agent in the offseason.
I think hes a good fit. If you take him now you pay him about 2 million in 2026 and hes under control for 1 more year. Thats not bad for a plus defensively player who can back up Victor Scott.
But he’s likely to come cheaper as a free agent off his numbers this year.
He might
He’a a bum.
Joel, you don’t want Siri. Run away, as fast as you can from such a notion.
I think hes a good fit. Hes a big plus defensively.
I thought you guys have an overabundance of CF’s…off the top of my head Scott and Siani…both of whom can run circles around Siri.
Siani is no good. Scott is fine but hes a lefty the team could use a righty.
Dude siri has been awful, the team you watch already has 6 outfielders for 3 spots and you want them to add another defense only guy? Siani and Victor scott are literally Siri clones from the left side who are making league minimum. They should be picking up alex manoah if theyre doing any pick ups
Siani sucks. He’s not part of the team champ. The Cardinals need a right handed hitting outfielder who can play center.
But not Siri.
Thank god. Scratched my head at the signing. If Mets had sign Bader. Sigh.
Next:
1) fire Carlos Mendoza in offseason
2) fire Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes. Just please fire.
3) trade Peterson.
It was a trade, not a signing. And Bader sucked in the second half of last year. Convenient how everyone forgets that. There was a reason they didn’t bring him back. Obviously this season he turned things around.
@Bill: even with Bader sucking in the second half of last year, he was still better than Siri. But it wasn’t a bad deal for the Mets because they only gave up Orze who was horrible. Of course, in typical Mets fashion, Orze was pretty good this season.
Don’t forget Hefner!
Hefner may have to pitch before it’s over.
hurr durr player on my team had two bad months let’s get rid of him while his value is lowest
Don’t trade Peterson. He’ll be better with a better pitching coach.
And the Mets would have been better with Jake Mangum than Jose Siri. At least rhat kid can go get ‘em and has some fire in his belly.
2 hits in 36 plate appearances this year. Useless!!
Siri, What happened to Jose Siri? He Gone!
Lame af
Well that worked out good… while Harrison Bader is killing it for the Phils…
Look at the great numbers of Eric Orze; do you think the Mets could use a reliever with those stats? Another bad trade by Stearns and we get nothing for it.
Fire Mendoza Fire Mendoza Fire Mendoza Fire Mendoza
Mendoza and Hefner have used a franchise record 46 different pitchers this season, with a bunch of coming and going out of option retreads that make the franchise look silly.
All the while letting go of Dom Hamel, Mike Vasil, Eric Orze and making Chris Devenski pay for not stiking out enough people even he gets them out.
The reward for pitching well has been “Pack your bags, we need a fresh arm here” ( and let me finish Mendy and Jeremy’s statement: “because we can’t manage a 13 man pitching staff!”)
It has to be a disnointed andeis onnected and disincentivized clubhouse when you cycle through more than THREE TIMES the amount of active roster pitchers to get you to the final month of the season.
No good deed goes unpunished. And no good outing saves from Syracuse or a DFA.
Don’t get me started about the hitting coaches either. The rally ( albeit in the 8th inning) doesn’t changw my mind.
How many LOB in scoring position all year?
0-65 this season when trailing after 8 innings
All the players have to say is “we know we’re better than this.”
NO, actually, your record PROVES you have inflated opinion of yourselves. The Mets suck when it counts rhe most.
To Alonso, Lindor, Nimmo, Soto, McNeil Vientos, et al, OWN that statement.
Siri, take out the trash.
“Siri is out of options….” Sounds about right, but at least as a fall-back he can show you what he found on the web.
Si-ya later..
Was a bad move to acquire him to begin with. While I appreciate a good bargain find, Stearns has been dumpster diving since he joined the Mets.
Yeah, the 77M 2025 payroll additions of Soto and Alonso was quite a dumpster dive.
I wish the Rays would dumpster dive and get guys like Alonso and Soto. The Rays will probably Ray and sign Siri so he can be their .100 hitting starting CF for 2026.