The Mets have claimed righty Cooper Criswell off waivers from the Red Sox, reports ESPN’s Jorge Castillo. Boston designated him for assignment just yesterday as a corresponding move after acquiring Johan Oviedo from the Pirates. (Boston needed 40-man spots for both Oviedo and minor league lefty Tyler Samaniego.) The Mets have not yet announced the claim, but they currently have a pair of 40-man vacancies, so they won’t need to make a corresponding move.
Though Criswell isn’t yet eligible for arbitration, the Sox had signed the right-hander to a fully guaranteed $800K deal for the upcoming season. As noted here at the time he signed, Boston’s hope in doing so was likely that Criswell’s lack of minor league options and a slightly higher-than-usual salary for a pre-arbitration player would help him pass through waivers so they could keep him as non-roster depth.
That didn’t work out for the Red Sox, but we’ve increasingly seen clubs take this tactic with fringe 40-man players who lack minor league options as a means of attempting to bolster their stash of experienced players in the upper minors. The Mets themselves could very well try the same with Criswell later in the offseason as their 40-man roster fills up.
The 29-year-old Criswell appeared in seven games for the Sox in 2025, logging 17 2/3 innings of 3.57 ERA ball but with only an 11.3% strikeout rate. He’s totaled 154 2/3 innings across parts of five major league seasons and carries a career 4.48 ERA, 16.7% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate between the Angels, Rays and Red Sox. He also tossed 65 2/3 innings of 3.70 ERA ball for the Sox’ Triple-A affiliate in Worcester this past season, working primarily as a starter.
If Criswell survives the offseason and spring training on the 40-man roster, he’d likely be looking at a swingman role if the Mets consider carrying him on the Opening Day squad. New York currently has Nolan McLean, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Jonah Tong, Brandon Sproat and Christian Scott ahead of Criswell on the rotation depth chart. The Mets are also likely to further add to that group via free agency and/or trade, though it’s also possible that some of those names could be subtracted via trade. Senga, in particular, has seen his name pop up in recent rumors.
Not surprising, but, best of luck to him in Queens.
Great upside
Agreed. He’s more than worth a shot, I didnt expect him to pass through waivers myself, not with just the 800k guaranteed deal to provide cover
Me either. Who is the reliever from Pittsburgh? I don’t know him. I liked Criswell for who he is.
Dewey – samaniego… a 27 year old who hasn’t made an mlb debut yet and never pitched above AA.
GA, why then not keep Criswell? My guess is they “something” that can be fixed. In this case, I killed having Criswell in reserve.
Dewey – im trying not to lean into it too much this early in the offseason, but, it has the faint stench of Henry pulling the pursestrings.
If you think back, there was a *very* similar offseason with bloom forced into pinching pennies because Henry was stockpiling cash for a non-baseball investment/expansion of FSG… could we be seeing a repeat?
Despite the recent signing of criswell to that 800k deal, shortly after weve seen the two SP trades, reports of boston facong spendong constraints, and its possible that Breslow got additional guidance about what he would, or wouldnt, have acces to for additional funds… so, recovering that 800k for other moves and getting out from under it mightve forced this particular choice
GA. It would be a sad state for us Sox fans if the doc were micromanaging in December over $800k.
Sad to see him go. I really thought he had the potential to contribute if given the chance. I hope he finds success with the Mets.
That’s a bummer. Criswell seemed solid. Best of luck to him
He didn’t die; he went to the Mets.
Seems like “best of luck” is more appropriate than “rest in peace,” then.
same difference
👎 vtadave
Glory what a tuff transaction
Criswell could be one of 2026’s DFA warriors. Out of options and very “13th pitcher”-y currently.
Brett de Geus Part Deux
The Red Sox AAA rotation is pretty full with Dobbins, Tolle, Early, Uberstine, Perales, Drohan and Sandlin. I can see giving them 40 man roster spots ahead of Criswell.
Quick as expected. Congrats Mets fans. He’s a gamer.
Ah, Scooper Rizzwell – men around Boston breathe a sign of relief as it’s most notorious womanizer heads to Queens
Was he would sneak through waivers but not surprised that he didn’t. Solid pickup for the Mets
I don’t understand why the Red Sox didn’t try to trade him for some type of prospect… Criswell has value.
I’m sure they tried. No team willing to trade assets for him.
If he was just DFA’d yesterday, doesn’t that mean teams ahead of the Mets in priority order still have 2 days to put in their own claim before we really know where he’s going?
He may have been placed on waivers prior to the DFA (they’re two different windows/actions that just often overlap)
They passed, and he got to the Mets. It’s not like teams wait until the last day or minutes to make a decision.
Ok but now let’s sign some real players, Bellinger, Valdez, resign Pete and Edwin sign a DH either Ozuna or A.Garcia
Very low risk pickup by the Mets.
This guy can start or be a long relief dude. He’s had some limited success.
He was well respected in Boston for his work. That’s hard to do.
Breslow will get him back when he trades for Mark Vientos to play 1B.
Breslow will focus on dumping Duran and Casas.
More likely when the Mets mJe their free agency moves and need a 49 man spot, he gets cut again. Could be temporary although I still like him.
This guy did nothing but perform when asked on the major league team, and he wasn’t even protected. I guess it doesn’t matter since breslow is just picking up a bunch of middle and back rotation starters because our $6 billion owner doesn’t want to pay a $10 million luxury tax to compete.
Good claim by the Mets. He has the ability to be in the rotation. Hard to see him dfa’d.
Seems like a move similar to the Canning move last year. Could be a solid depth move.
Great for him if the Mets keep him on the 40. Sadly, it’s almost a certainty that they’re just going to try to sneak him through a DFA a little later. If other interested teams pop up, he’s going to end up on the DFA merry-go-round all winter, and that has to suck.
Yep, that’s what I basically just wrote.
VLTC – Mets still have only 38 players on their 40 Man, and you needed to have prospects on the roster last week to protect them from Rule 5. Unless the Mets sign three free agents they don’t have to make a decision on Criswell.
I’m confident the Mets still have a lot more off-season to go.
Seriously?? I guess this solves the Mets pitching problems. Stearns’ infamous pitching lab will turn him into an ace!
Really horrible take.
Here’s troll no. 1 aka Frick.
Ok so?
I have no idea why you’re here, do you even like baseball?
And here’s troll no. 2 aka Frack.
Now all you need is MarlinsFanBase, chandlerbing, Robrock30, and jackstrawb and you’ve got yourself a troll bingo.
They’d hoped to pass him through waivers. It didn’t happen. Win some, lose some
Harvard outsmarts Yale……….again
HAHVAHD sucks!
Good pickup for the Mets.
Still shaking my head over here about Breslow and the Red Sox keeping Vaughn Grissom on the 40-man roster and exposing Criswell this early in the offseason when it’s clear to me Criswell is more valuable.
Sunk cost fallacy is in full effect with Breslow regarding the Grissom-for-sale trade that Boston has so obviously lost.
Either guy would’ve gotten grabbed.
While Grissom doesnt seem to be in the red sox plans for the infield, they lack depth there for guys capable of being MLB infield filler, and grissom can do that.
Then theres your optics of giving up on aforementioned trade.
Its surprising that they didnt at least try trading him for a ptbnl or cash considerations or something, but, seems like they really thought they could pass him through waivers already. Its a move that shouldnt have been tried until after the rule 5 when teams mightve been tempted to fill out their 40 man more.
GASox – the problem once again is a misunderstanding of roster construction by the Sox front office. Rushing out to get Gray, when you already have Grissom, Hamilton, Eaton and Sogard on the 40 Man. Pulling the trigger on this trade knowing the two Pirate prospects mean you need to dfa someone. And, dumbest of all, thinking that the extra $20k tacked onto Criswell’s newly negotiated contract was going to deter other teams from grabbing him once on waivers
Agree. They must still be hoping they can include him as a minor piece of a trade or something. Seems unlikely he carries any real value since he has no options.
But maybe he can be the second piece when we go back to the cardinals for Contreras.
Go Tar Heel!
Can he play LF??
Nothing against Criswell, but he is a quad A pitcher. I wish him well, but I bet he does not stick with the Mets
Samaniego has never pitched above AA. Last season, when finally promoted to AA (again) he pitched pretty well in 20 relief appearances. Of course he should have, he’s 26, pretty old for the levels he was playing at. I can’t understand why the Sox would want to keep Samaniego over Criswell.
I am surprised that no one ahead of the Mets in the waiver pecking order grabbed him, even with no options. Somebody must have had space on the 40 man, and while he’s no Skubal he seems to have real value. Now watch them include him as part of a trade package for a higher level starter next week at the Winter meetings.
The dude a solid swing man, can start in a pinch & relieve. I wish the Sox could have stashed him. The Mets got a good one here, very versatile.
Criswell had no options left. The only way to stash him was to get him through waivers. They tried.
I expected him to get picked. It was a stupid move to DFAing him saying they thought he would make it through, so my guess is they expected his being picked n that statement was nonsense to the fans.
Criswell was a good depth piece for the red sox, so you can add him as a casualty of the Garcia trade. I do hope Oviedo performs otherwise we gave up a lot for another 5 or 6 pitcher which is what criswell already is. We could have saved garcia as a piece along with others for a # 2 which we actually do need..
This year’s Griffin Canning?