The Mets have signed left-hander Joe Jacques to a minor league contract, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports. Jacques will receive $800K in prorated salary if he makes New York’s active roster, and he will receive an invitation to the Mets’ Spring Training camp.
The move is a bit of a homecoming for Jacques, who was born in Shrewsbury, New Jersey and played his college ball at Manhattan University. The Mets are the sixth different organization Jacques has played for since he was a 33rd-round pick for the Pirates in the 2018 draft, and the sidearmer’s on-field resume in the majors consists of 29 2/3 innings with the Red Sox and Diamondbacks over the 2023-24 seasons.
All but three of those innings came during Jacques’ 2023 rookie season in Boston. The D’Backs claimed him off waivers in April 2024, giving him exactly one MLB appearance each with Boston and Arizona during the 2024 season. He has since bounced to the Dodgers and Mariners without getting any more time in the Show, as Jacques struggled to a 6.02 ERA over 52 1/3 combined Triple-A innings with both teams’ top affiliates in 2025.
Jacques (who turns 31 in March) is a groundball specialist who has a 61.7% groundball rate in his brief time in the majors. He has steadily increased his strikeout totals during his minor league career, with a respectable 22.3% strikeout rate to show for his 218 1/3 innings at Triple-A. Jacques has had very large platoon splits for much of his minor league career and there was still a sizeable gap within his splits in 2025, though left-handed hitters still did pretty well (.768 OPS) against Jacques while righty swingers crushed him (.885 OPS).
Forty-six different players pitched for New York this season, due to both injuries and Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns’ penchant for acquiring and cycling through a ton of arms. It isn’t surprising to see the Mets get a quick jump on their non-roster invites already, and Jacques figures to be one of many minor league pitching signings for the Amazins as the team tries to figure out its bullpen mix.
The first of many extras which the Mets have no intention of bringing up to the big league but somehow always find themselves sent up and down the Stearns elevator of shame as the poorly balanced and flawed roster that he puts together flounders and fails.
Frère Jaques dormez-vous !
I’m not a fan of Stearns’ Chuck Churn (real pitcher) philosophy.
I would rather focus on developing the pitchers you have, and keep them.
Of course, all teams do this to some degree, but he overdoes it.
Stearns has only had two years at the helm of the organization, At the time, they had little to no upper level minor leaguers who could fill the gaps in the rotation and bullpen. I agree they have overused a number of those lightning in a bottle signings leading to lengthy arm injuries. The folks he drafted/inherited in the lower levels are rising through the minors and will be there to support the MLB team in 2026/2027. With the deep pockets it behooves Stearns to still attempt to catch lightning in a bottle and take advantage of the roster flexibility they offer. Hate to say it but I’d rather have too many pitchers than not enough. These types of pitchers we can churn through while we let the higher quality arms develop. It worked in 2024 and blew up in 2025. I put more blame on the rotation’s inability to pitch deep into games. Captain Hindsight would say Montas over Severino was a bad move. Severino ate innings and appeared to be a good clubhouse guy.
Lightning in a bottle:
Key and Peele
Season 5 Episode 5
“Killer Concept Album”
(:10 min – :13 min)!
Agree that the major issue this season was lack of innings from the starters and failing to get another good starter before or during the season.
My concern is not Stearns signing lightning in a bottle RPs, but rather DFAing them after 1 outing.
Mets have lost several useful pitchers in the past couple of years this way.
Clownish, and it’s only October. How does this Stearns still have a job?
Imagine getting worked up about a no-risk minor league signing in October. Talk about “clownish”.
Read it too quickly as Jacque Jones coming out of retirement
A tier D reliever, but you need those guys, too.
Stearns has been a disaster since the Mets washed out of the 2024 NLCS, but signings like Jacques isn’t one of the reasons why.
What does this portend for Dicky Lovelady is my concern now?
Enough already.
Apparently not lol