Outfielder Tommy Pham has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse. The veteran has exercised his right to reject the assignment and elect free agency. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reported the news.
Pham, 38, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in March. He was added to the roster in mid-April. He got into nine games and was sent to the plate 14 times. He struck out seven times, walked once and did not get a hit. The Mets pounced on Austin Slater a couple of days after the Marlins let him go. Pham was the roster casualty for that signing. As a veteran with many years of experience, Pham has the right to reject outright assignments and has exercised that right.
He’ll now head to the open market in search of his next opportunity. He’ll most likely be limited to minor league offers. In the most recent offseason, he lingered unsigned until late into March, signing on March 26th. His recent performance with the Mets surely didn’t do anything to improve his stock.
Though Pham is in his late-30s, he was still providing offense close to league average with the Pirates last year. He hit ten home runs and drew walks at an 11.1% clip, leading to a .245/.330/.370 line and 94 wRC+. That’s not too inspiring but he did have a torrid stretch in the summer. He had a brutal .207/.280/.237 line through the end of May but then slashed .304/.382/.495 from the start of June to the end of August, before he scuffled through September with a .143/.270/.270 line.
Coming into 2026, Pham expressed some hope that a treatment to address plantar fasciitis could improve his game after struggling with the condition in recent years. That hasn’t panned out yet but he also didn’t really get a good chance to get into form. As mentioned, he remained unsigned long enough to miss spring training. The Mets put him into five Single-A games before calling him up and he didn’t get into a groove. Though he may only get minor league offers, it’s theoretically possible that some regular reps could position him for another summer surge.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
bring him back to the white sox
why?
The Syracuse council closed Bada Bing. No reason to go there, now.
Diamond Dolls is still open by the airport. Businessman’s lunch 12-2 pm.
Hang em up
If he’s willing to sign a minor league deal he can play at home in Las Vegas if he signs with the A’s. Not sure if they need OF depth.
Vegas donr want him
Maybe he can appl6 to be a school at one of his 3 highschool’s he went to in Las Vegas to be their coach of an assistant to the coach.
Guaranteed Philly.
Ewwww
That was quick
12 AB, 0H, 1 BB, 6 K
I didn’t say it was wrong
Nice deal for him, $2.25m that the Mets stupidly gave him and he gets to keep.
$2.25M in dead money that Steve Cohen can easily write off.
Speaking of money, you can go to Thursday’s getaway game for only $9 and have a few laughs along the way.
Lol yea. He saw the dumpster fire and decided to jump out. Mets are hot trash
.000/.071/.000/.071 and -77 = hot trash
More like he was too bad even for the dumpster fire.
Not enough strip clubs in Syracuse apparently.
@Web’s #2
No there are not!! ☹️☹️
It’s weird how some players who don’t deserve it still get chances. How some guys have a long career, even though they are average at best – Jeff Mathis comes to mind. All while Ryan Ward and James Tibbs III are tearing up AAA right now but are blocked from being in the big leagues. Tommy Pham’s career should have ended long ago. Yet oddly enough he’s hung around – and it’s safe to say that his attitude isn’t what has kept him in the big leagues. Trash person and a bad player if we are being honest.
Jeff Mathis is a bad example. Yes, he couldn’t hit to save his life, but he was an excellent defensive catcher, which is something teams value in a backup catcher. As for Pham, he’s lasted because he’s been a better option than whatever a given team had in their system at the time. Tommy Pham played the whole season for Pittsburgh last year because the Pirates didn’t have a better option in their system. If the Pirates had a Ryan Ward type prospect who was major league ready, Tommy Pham wasn’t going to block him.
Socal, if Mathis was a good defender, his career WAR would be more than 0.3.
@Hornysanchez
Posey had 117 DRS in ~9300 innings
Russ Martin 127 in 13000+ innings
Jeff Mathis 95 in 7300+ innings
Mathis was very good defensively. His 45 wRC+ brought down his fWAR significantly. 10 DRS being worth about 1 fWAR.
what a jerk
One good news today is AJ Ewing got promoted and performed well I believe
promoted to AAA
How does he have a job, and Trevor Bauer does not?
Bauer just pitched a no-hitter for the Long Island Ducks in the indie Atlantic League. If the Mets have half a brain, they’ll DFA Manaea or Peterson then sign Bauer to a major league contract.
Pham is one player that I didn’t miss for a minute. Now if we could do something about Walls…
And a tree falls in an empty forest