The White Sox announced this morning that they’re in agreement with left-hander Sean Newcomb on a one-year deal that guarantees the southpaw $4.5MM this morning. Lefty Ryan Rolison was designated for assignment to make room for Newcomb on the 40-man roster.
More to come.
The Tigers have re-signed right-hander Tyler Mattison to a minor league deal, according to a report from Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. Mattison was non-tendered by the Tigers last month but now returns to the organization on a non-roster pact that includes an invite to big league Spring Training and will pay him $835K in the majors.
Mattison, 26, was a fourth-round pick by Detroit back in 2021. After spending most of his collegiate career as a starter, he moved to the bullpen upon joining the Tigers organization. While it took time for the righty to adjust to his new role, a strong performance in the Arizona Fall League at the end of his first pro season helped set him on course to take a bigger step forward during the 2023 campaign. In that year, Mattison reached the Double-A level and pitched to a sterling 1.62 ERA in 33 1/3 innings of work as a multi-inning reliever.
Unfortunately, Mattison’s ascent was put on hold when he underwent Tommy John surgery just before the 2024 campaign began. He missed the entire year and did not return to the mound until May 28 of this year. After two months of rehab, the right-hander was finally promoted to Triple-A on July 30 but posted middling results for the Mud Hens upon his arrival in Toledo. Across 20 appearances, Mattison posted a 3.79 ERA with an alarming 17.4% walk rate. That was enough to convince the Tigers to non-tender Mattison last month, even in spite of his previously strong results and solid 25.6% strikeout rate.
The decision to non-tender Mattison was largely motivated by a desire to no longer carry the righty on the club’s 40-man roster. As a player who has not yet made his big league debut, Mattison was of course not yet eligible for arbitration and wouldn’t be making more than the league minimum. Still, that roster spot was valuable and would have forced the Tigers to use one of Mattison’s option years to send him back to the minors. As a result, the team opted to risk him signing elsewhere in free agency for the chance to bring him back into the fold on a non-roster deal.
That gamble paid off, and it could wind up as a win/win scenario for both player and club should Mattison find his way back to the majors. The Tigers will have afforded themselves some additional roster flexibility for the offseason and early part of the 2026 campaign without losing an up-and-coming relief arm from their system, while Mattison will now enjoy a higher salary in the majors than he would have in the event he simply remained on the 40-man all offseason.
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on throughout the day today:
1. Athletics add a bat:
Yesterday’s Jeff McNeil trade saw the A’s add a proven bat to a lineup that already had plenty of firepower. The 33-year-old veteran offers a substantially different look than the power-focused approaches of Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, and Brent Rooker, as McNeil is a contact-heavy player good for just ten to 15 homers per season. That should be no problem for an A’s team heavy on power, and alongside fellow contact-oriented middle infielder Jacob Wilson should allow the A’s to field a more diverse lineup during their second year in West Sacramento. Whether they’ll be able to add more talent to a roster that had a much larger need for pitching than additional hitting talent remains to be seen, but yesterday undoubtedly saw an already-competitive AL West get just a little bit stronger.
2. Mets continue restructuring their roster:
The McNeil trade was the latest move in the Mets’ roster overhaul following a deeply disappointing 2025 season. McNeil joined outfielder Brandon Nimmo in being traded away, while Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz were both allowed to walk in free agency. The additions of Luke Weaver, Devin Williams, Jorge Polanco, and Marcus Semien haven’t exactly inspired confidence in the future within the fan base so far, though president of baseball operations David Stearns surely isn’t anywhere close to done with the team’s offseason moves. New York has been known to be searching for a top of the rotation starter all offseason, and it seems as though at least one more bat for an outfield mix that has little certainty outside of Juan Soto also appears to be a must. What will be the team’s next addition?
3. Movement on the outfield market?
The outfield market saw some of its first movement of the offseason yesterday, though it wasn’t a top-of-the-market bat like Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger coming off the board. Instead, veteran bench bat Rob Refsnyder landed with the Mariners on a one-year deal. The addition of Refsnyder looks to be a savvy one for a Mariners club that figures to rely on platoon players like Dominic Canzone and Luke Raley in significant roles next year, and while it’s unlikely to make a significant difference at the top of the market it could spark some action in the lower tiers of the market. Refsnyder joins Lane Thomas as a notable right-handed outfield bat who has now signed, with players like Austin Hays and Harrison Bader still unsigned among a dwindling group of available options in free agency. Could one of those names follow suit before the holidays?
The Mets have traded infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil to the Athletics along with cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. The Mets receive right-hander Yordan Rodriguez in return. The A’s designated left-hander Ken Waldichuk for assignment to open a 40-man spot, which you can read more about here. New York is reportedly sending $5.75MM to cover part of McNeil’s $15.75MM salary in 2026 and will cover the $2MM buyout on McNeil’s $15.75MM club option for 2027 if the A’s don’t pick it up.
Once again, the Mets are moving on from a long-tenured player as they overhaul their roster this offseason. They traded Brandon Nimmo to the Rangers last month. In recent weeks, Pete Alonso signed with the Orioles and Edwin Díaz with the Dodgers. Díaz was acquired by the Mets in a trade ahead of the 2019 season. Nimmo, Alonso and McNeil were all drafted by the Mets, Nimmo back in 2011, McNeil in 2013 and Alonso in 2016.
McNeil debuted in the big leagues in 2018 and played in eight different seasons as a Met. Through the 2022 campaign, McNeil had appeared in 516 games, stepping to the plate 2,039 times. He established himself as one of the hitters most likely to put the ball in play. His 6.8% walk rate was a bit lower than league average while his 11.9% strikeout rate was barely half of par. He showed a bit of pop with 46 home runs in that span, though 23 of those were in the 2019 juiced-ball season. Put it all together and McNeil slashed .307/.370/.458 for a 130 wRC+ over those five seasons, indicating he had been 30% better than league average on the whole.
In addition to his skills at the plate, he swiped a few bags and provided the Mets with a good amount of defensive versatility. He spent most of his time at second base but also appeared at third base and the outfield corners, generally getting good marks for his glovework. FanGraphs credited him with 15.3 wins above replacement in that span.
Going into 2023, the Mets signed him to a four-year, $50MM contract extension, just ahead of his age-31 season. That deal hasn’t been a disaster but McNeil’s production has declined since then. Up until he signed that pact, he had a .332 batting average on balls in play. That’s roughly 40 points better than typical league averages, a tremendous boost for a guy who puts the ball in play so often. But in the past three seasons, his BABIP has been just .269, which has led to a .253/.326/.389 line and 102 wRC+. Thanks to his glovework, he’s still been worth about two fWAR per year over the course of his extension so far.
The infield picture in Queens has become jumbled in recent years. Francisco Lindor has been a mainstay at shortstop since 2021. McNeil has been at second a lot but has also been moved around as the Mets have tried to find time for a crop of younger infielders consisting of Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña.
As those players have been earning more playing time, to varying degrees, trade rumors around McNeil have picked up. The Mets further loaded up the infield by acquiring second baseman Marcus Semien from the Rangers as the return in the Nimmo trade.
McNeil’s defensive versatility meant the Semien trade didn’t completely kick him out the door but it was perhaps telling that the Mets acquired one of the most reliable, everyday guys to cover the position McNeil has played most often. Since McNeil will turn 34 years old in April and has just one guaranteed year remaining on his contract, a deal did feel likely. The Jorge Polanco signing added even another layer. He is expected to primarily play first base and serve as the designated hitter but some time at second or third base is possible as well.
The trade possibility was complicated by the fact that McNeil’s health is at least somewhat in question. It was reported in November that McNeil underwent a thoracic outlet procedure at the end of the 2025 campaign. His agent characterized the procedure as minor and said the expectation would be for McNeil to be back to normal in time to be a full participant in spring training.
The procedure doesn’t seem to have dissuaded the A’s, who have been looking for upgrades at the second and/or third base positions. The A’s have been rebuilding for a while and have had a lot of success at developing their young position player prospects. They have almost a full lineup of controllable players but they came into this offseason with some room to add on the infield. Jacob Wilson is the club’s shortstop and Nick Kurtz the first baseman, but the other two spots were wide open.
Zack Gelof flashed some home run pop when he debuted in 2023 but his strikeout problems have worsened since then and he was injured for most of 2025. Various other young players have received sporadic auditions while veterans like Luis Urías and Aledmys Díaz have also floated through.
McNeil will likely be the club’s regular second baseman in the upcoming season but his flexibility also allows them to pivot as things develop. Wilson is not an especially strong defender at shortstop, so he could end up pushed to second or third. He will probably stick at short for the time being but prospect Leo De Vries, acquired in the Mason Miller trade, is looming. He’s only 19 years old but he is one of the best prospects in the league and has already played in 21 Double-A games.
Wilson’s arm strength was ranked by Statcast in the 80th percentile this year, so handling the hot corner is a possibility, though the A’s might prefer to have him stick up the middle. As they sort that out, guys like Max Muncy, Darell Hernaiz, Max Schuemann, Brett Harris and Gelof will be trying to earn playing time as well. Injuries and further acquisitions will inevitably change the situation but McNeil can move around as circumstances dictate. He even played a bit of center field this year, so he can give the A’s some coverage for Denzel Clarke, who is an elite fielder but questionable hitter.
The A’s could have turned to the free agent market and tried to do so. They reportedly offered Ha-Seong Kim $48MM on a four-year deal, which works out to $12MM per year. Instead, Kim decided to bet on himself with a one-year, $20MM deal with Atlanta, as he will hope to return to free agency with a better platform.
Once Kim was gone, the A’s weren’t left with amazing options. Bo Bichette is still out there but the A’s are not going to meet his asking price and he wouldn’t want to play in a minor league park even if they did. Alex Bregman and Eugenio Suárez shouldn’t be quite as expensive as Bichette but those situations would be somewhat comparable. Below that tier, the top free agents are utility types like Ramón Urías, Willi Castro and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
McNeil has a better track record than those guys and isn’t prohibitively expensive. Since the Mets are covering $5.75MM of his salary in 2026, the A’s will only have to pay him $10MM, a bit less than they were willing to pay Kim annually. If McNeil has a good year, they can pick up his $15.75MM club option for 2027 but they can also walk away for nothing since the Mets have agreed to cover his buyout.
RosterResource estimates that the A’s are slated to spend $87MM on next year’s club. It’s unclear where they want the budget to be but that’s already $8MM higher than last year. They could still use some pitching but it’s unclear how much more they are willing to spend.
The A’s are also parting with a lottery ticket prospect. Rodriguez is a Cuban righty who just signed with the A’s this year for a $400K bonus. He tossed 15 1/3 innings in the Dominican Summer League with 20 strikeouts but eight walks and two wild pitches. He’s still only 17 years old, turning 18 in January, and isn’t properly on the prospect radar yet. Baseball America says he was not going to be one of the Athletics’ top 30 prospects for the upcoming year. If he’s ultimately able to contribute anything for the Mets, it won’t be for quite some time.
The Mets will take the flier on Rodriguez and see if they can cash him in later. For now, it’s about moving some money off the payroll and likely opening themselves up for further transactions. It’s unclear what their next moves will be but an outfield acquisition feels inevitable after sending out both Nimmo and McNeil. Vientos, Polanco and Baty are projected to share the infield corners and the DH spot unless the Mets shake things up with an external addition. Further moves on the pitching side are surely forthcoming.
Time will tell how it all plays out but it’s the latest sign that there’s a changing of the guard taking place in Queens. Semien isn’t a young player but he’s only signed for three years as opposed to Nimmo’s five, so that move was at least somewhat about avoiding long-term commitments to aging guys. Letting Díaz and Alonso walk while trading McNeil could also be moves about preventing the club from getting too old. The Mets are looking for rotation help but reportedly don’t want to commit to top free agents on lengthy deals.
Owner Steve Cohen has an almost unmatched willingness to spend but that led to inconsistent results in the first few years of his regime. He presumably brought in president of baseball operations David Stearns to make the tough, analytical decisions about how to use the resources. So far, the results under Stearns have also been uneven but it’s only been two seasons.
Clearly, there’s a desire to avoid long-term pitfalls. Apart from the Juan Soto deal, which was an exceptional situation due to his youth, Stearns hasn’t signed a contract longer than three years with the Mets. He has let fan favorites walk away in free agency and has also sent them packing himself. The fan base doesn’t appear too happy at the moment, especially after the disappointing 2025 campaign, so it will have to work out in the long run for Stearns to win them back.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the details of the trade. Photos courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Jasen Vinlove, Imagn Images
The White Sox are signing outfielder Dustin Harris to a minor league deal, reports James Fegan of Sox Machine. The lefty hitter will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.
Harris, 26, is a former A’s draftee who was traded to Texas early in his career. He showed a decent power-speed combination in the minors and ranked among Baseball America’s top 10 prospects in the Rangers system each year from 2022-24. The Rangers carried him on their 40-man roster for a couple years. Harris received a brief look as a September call-up at the end of the ’24 season. His prospect stock had already begun to dim by that point, as his .272/.358/.391 showing in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League was a little worse than average given the hitter-friendly setting.
The Rangers bounced Harris on and off the active roster for the first few months of this past season. They designated him for assignment at the trade deadline and successfully ran him through waivers. He came back up in September while Adolis García was on the injured list but was outrighted again at the beginning of the offseason. Harris elected free agency the second time around.
His big league résumé consists of 21 games, in which he has hit .217 with a .280 on-base percentage. Harris has posted solid but not exceptional numbers over two and a half seasons in Triple-A. He’s a .276/.367/.420 hitter in nearly 1300 plate appearances. Harris has posted strong strikeout and walk rates, but his exit velocities at the Triple-A level are near the bottom of the scale. He can play all three outfield positions and probably fits best in left field.
The White Sox have Andrew Benintendi in left field and Luis Robert Jr. (barring a trade) to play center. Out-of-options Everson Pereira is probably lined up for right field work. Pereira has a .146/.227/.215 line in 50 major league games. Fourth outfielder Derek Hill and depth types Brooks Baldwin and Tristan Peters are on the 40-man roster. They’ll enter Spring Training ahead of Harris on the depth chart, but it’s a good spot for a non-roster invitee to carve out a role with an impressive camp.
The Guardians are in agreement with reliever Codi Heuer on a minor league contract, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The righty will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.
Heuer resurfaced in the majors this year for the first time since 2021. The righty was on a minor league deal with Texas that got selected onto the MLB roster in June. He pitched once before being optioned back to Triple-A. That was his only appearance with the Rangers, but they managed to find a taker for him at the trade deadline. They flipped him to the Tigers for cash. Heuer made two appearances with Detroit before being released in September.
The 29-year-old pitched 4 2/3 innings of three-run ball overall. He struck out five while walking two batters. The former sixth-round pick pitched quite well in Triple-A. Heuer combined for a 3.14 earned run average while striking out more than 30% of batters faced across 48 2/3 frames. He kept the ball on the ground at a 48.3% clip with a league average 8.4% walk rate.
Heuer looked like a potential high-leverage bullpen piece early in his career with the White Sox. He posted a 1.52 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate while sitting around 98 MPH during his 2020 rookie season. His stuff backed up the following year, especially after he was dealt to the Cubs at the ’21 deadline. That was a precursor to a series of significant elbow injuries. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022, then broke his elbow while rehabbing in June ’23. He made all of 15 minor league appearances between 2022-24.
A healthy ’25 season itself counts as a major achievement given that history. Heuer’s stuff unsurprisingly wasn’t as electric as it’d been before the injuries. His fastball was in the 94-95 MPH range and he averaged around 84 MPH on his slider, four ticks below where it had once sat. Heuer nevertheless showed he’s capable of succeeding against Triple-A competition, so he’s a sensible addition for a Cleveland team attacking the bullpen with depth signings.
Last offseason, the Reds were among the teams linked to Luis Robert Jr. in trade conversations. The White Sox surprisingly held onto their center fielder both last winter and beyond the trade deadline. They’ve been content to keep him into 2026 but aren’t closed off to talks.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer each report that the Reds have resumed discussions with the Sox. Nightengale also lists the Mets as a possibility. Robert has been more loosely tied to Pittsburgh, San Diego and Philadelphia at points throughout the offseason.
The Reds have yet to upgrade a lineup that ranked 14th in scoring despite playing half its games at Great American Ball Park. Their park-adjusted offense was eight percentage points below league average. That tied them with the Angels and Rangers for fifth-worst in MLB. Cincinnati made a run at Kyle Schwarber but reportedly viewed the Ohio native as a unique free agent. There’s no indication they’re going to reallocate the $25MM annual salary that they offered Schwarber elsewhere on the free agent market.
Robert will make $20MM next season. Wittenmyer writes that the White Sox may be willing to eat roughly half that salary to facilitate a trade. There’s a matching club option for the 2027 campaign. Chicago’s seeming willingness to pay down part of the contract would be conditional on getting a package of controllable talent that they like. Robert isn’t a pure salary dump. If the Sox had viewed him as a negative value asset, they would have bought him out for $2MM at the beginning of the winter.
Cincinnati has a quality center fielder in TJ Friedl. They don’t have an everyday option in left, where Friedl’s below-average arm strength would be less of a concern. Robert would certainly upgrade the outfield defense, though it’s less clear whether he’s a consistent enough hitter to be Cincinnati’s marquee offseason pickup. He has been a well below-average hitter since his 38-homer campaign two years ago. Robert owns a .223/.288/.372 batting line with a near-30% strikeout rate in 856 plate appearances since the start of 2024. He looked like he was turning a corner in the second half of ’25 but suffered a season-ending hamstring strain in August.
The Mets have a clearer need in center field. Tyrone Taylor projects as the starter despite hitting .223/.279/.319 across 341 plate appearances this past season. Top prospect Carson Benge is looming but struggled in his first 24 Triple-A contests after raking up through Double-A. He’s likely to begin the year in the minors. Left field is wide open following the Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil trades.
New York is virtually certain to add an outfielder. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic write that they’re looking to add a right-handed bat somewhere in the lineup. Robert qualifies and is coming off a strong season against left-handed pitching. He was terrible against southpaws in 2024 but raked against them in every other season and has a lifetime .293/.367/.505 slash with the platoon advantage.
The Rays announced the hiring of former All-Star Corey Dickerson as first base coach. It’s the first big league coaching job for the 36-year-old, who last played in the majors two years ago. Former first base coach Michael Johns took the bench coach job with the Nationals in November.
Dickerson played two seasons under skipper Kevin Cash in Tampa Bay, who acquired him in a 2016 deal that sent then-prospect Germán Márquez to the Rockies. He combined for a .265/.310/.480 batting line in 298 games with the Rays, earning the aforementioned All-Star selection in the ’17 season. Tampa Bay traded the left-handed hitter to the Pirates during the 2017-18 offseason. Dickerson hit .300 and won a Gold Glove during his first year in Pittsburgh.
Traded to the Phillies at the 2019 deadline, Dickerson then bounced around as a bench bat and wound up playing for four more teams. He finished his career as a .280/.323/.476 hitter with 136 home runs in nearly 4000 plate appearances. Dickerson topped 20 homers on three occasions and drove in almost 500 runs.
Dickerson’s playing career came to an end when he was released by the Nationals in 2023. He does have a bit of coaching experience, albeit not in the professional ranks. He coached high school ball in his native Mississippi this year.
Marlins breakout righty Ronny Henriquez underwent UCL reconstruction with an internal brace, reports MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola. He’ll miss the entire 2026 season. Miami subsequently announced the news and added that he’s expected to be ready for Spring Training in 2027.
Henriquez was an excellent waiver pickup during the 2024-25 offseason. The Fish grabbed him out of DFA limbo from the Twins in February. Henriquez was coming off an impressive Triple-A season but hadn’t missed many bats in 19 career big league appearances. He was an intriguing flier as a 25-year-old former prospect of note who sat around 96 MPH with his fastball.
Miami needed to carry Henriquez on the active roster, as he’s out of minor league options. It didn’t take long for him to emerge as one of Clayton McCullough’s most trusted arms. Henriquez reeled off 73 innings of 2.22 ERA ball over 69 appearances. He picked up seven saves and 26 holds while only blowing four leads. He punched out 32.4% of batters faced behind a massive 16.7% swinging strike percentage. Henriquez ranked among the game’s top 20 relievers (minimum 50 innings) in strikeouts and whiff rate.
Henriquez added a tick to his fastball and took a little off his slider. He spun the breaking ball at a higher rate and got a little more depth on what emerged as a plus pitch. He showed no signs of slowing down towards the end of the season, turning in a 1.61 ERA in 28 innings after the All-Star Break. That came on his heaviest workload since he moved to the bullpen during the ’22 campaign.
Miami only had two relievers with 20+ innings who struck out at least a quarter of opponents: Henriquez and Lake Bachar. They had five bullpen arms who managed a sub-3.00 ERA but need to miss more bats as a group. Miami relievers were 24th in strikeout rate and swinging strikes. They’ve been linked to free agent righty Pete Fairbanks a few times this offseason. His strikeout numbers have declined over the past couple seasons, but even his 24% rate of the last two years would make him one of their best swing-and-miss arms.
Henriquez can be placed on the 60-day injured list once Spring Training begins. He’ll collect a full service year and be paid around the $780K minimum. He’s unlikely to meet next winter’s Super Two cutoff, meaning he’ll be slated for another league minimum salary in 2027. He’s under club control through 2030.
December 22nd: The Mets announced Weaver’s signing. They opened a 40-man roster spot by trading McNeil to the Athletics earlier today.
December 17th: The Mets are working to finalize a two-year, $22MM deal with free agent reliever Luke Weaver, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The two sides have an agreement in place, per Will Sammon of The Athletic. The deal is pending a physical. Weaver is repped by Excel Sports Management. The Mets have a full 40-man roster and will need a corresponding move to make this deal official.
The two-year, $22MM terms are the exact same ones as the just-agreed-upon deal between the division-rival Phillies and righty Brad Keller. Like Keller, Weaver is a starter-turned-reliever who’s found notable success pitching near the back of a big-market contender’s bullpen.
Weaver, 32, has spent the past two-plus seasons as a key late-inning arm over in the Bronx. A rocky finish to the 2025 season inflated his earned run average to 3.62 but since signing with the Yankees late in the 2023 campaign, Weaver touts a 3.22 ERA, 29.4% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate in 162 innings of relief. He saved a dozen games and picked up 43 holds along the way, blowing only four other opportunities in that time. It’s presumably just coincidence, but the Mets now employ Weaver, Devin Williams and Clay Holmes (who’s moved into the rotation) — the Yankees’ three highest-leverage arms for the bulk of the 2024-25 seasons.
A first-round pick by the Cardinals back in 2014, Weaver debuted in the St. Louis rotation in 2016 and showed some promise as a starter there in 2017-18. The Cards flipped him to the D-backs as part of the return for star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, and Weaver looked to be on the cusp of a full-fledged breakout in 2019. He started a dozen games and pitched to a 2.94 ERA with plus strikeout and walk rates before a forearm strain ended his season. Subsequent shoulder and elbow injuries doomed the rest of Weaver’s D-backs tenure; from 2020-23, he pitched to a 5.95 ERA while bouncing between five clubs.
The last of those five stops, however, was in the Bronx. He made enough of an impression in three late-season starts to sign a $2.5MM big league deal in the offseason — one that contained a 2025 club option. It proved to be a raucous bargain for the team and a career-saving deal for Weaver, who rebuilt himself into a coveted bullpen arm and now lands the largest payday of his 12-year professional career. Despite that strong run in the Bronx and some reported interest in a reunion, the Yanks were not in the bidding for Weaver, per Sherman.
Back in September, Weaver expressed some openness to returning to a starting role if a team gave him a chance, but that doesn’t seem to be at play here. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com writes that Weaver will slot into the bullpen. It’s unclear if that’s sourced reporting or deduction but there hasn’t been anything to suggest the Mets plan on giving Weaver a rotation gig. The price of Weaver’s deal is right around expectations. At the beginning of the offseason, MLBTR predicted him for an $18MM guarantee over two years, an estimate that he has marginally beaten.
New York had a middling bullpen in 2025. Their collective 3.93 ERA was 15th in the majors. It was even worse later in the year as the season slipped away from the club. Over August and September, the relief corps had a collective 4.18 ERA. At season’s end, Edwin Díaz, Tyler Rogers, Gregory Soto, Ryan Helsley and others hit free agency, further thinning out the group. Those four have already signed with other clubs.
The Mets have signed Williams and now Weaver to fortify the group. They will slot in among incumbent arms like A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley, Huascar Brazobán and others. Presumably, there are still more bullpen moves to come.
RosterResource, assuming an equal distribution of Weaver’s guarantee over two years, now projects the Mets for a $305MM payroll and a $307MM competitive balance tax figure. Since they have paid the tax in at least three straight years, they face compounding taxation rates. The top tier of the tax in 2026 is $304MM, so this deal pushes them over. That means they will pay a 110% tax on any further spending, though that’s nothing new for them.
There are still several items on the to-do list for the Mets this winter. Sammon wrote earlier this week that the club is still looking for a front-of-rotation starter and an offensive upgrade. That could come via free agency but there have also been plenty of trade rumors surrounding Jeff McNeil, Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña. For now, Weaver upgrades the bullpen at market price.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Brad Penner, Imagn Images
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