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Mets, Rico Garcia Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Mets are in agreement with free agent reliever Rico Garcia on a minor league contract, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (X link). The Gaeta Sports Management client gets an invite to big league Spring Training on a deal that would pay him a $900K base salary if he makes the big league roster.

Garcia is trying to work back to the big leagues after spending this year in Triple-A. The righty had a nice year for Washington’s top affiliate. Garcia saved 20 games and turned in a 3.94 ERA through 61 2/3 innings. He struck out a massive 34.1% of opposing hitters. That came with a fair number of free passes, as an 11.5% walk rate is perhaps the biggest reason he didn’t get an MLB look.

The 30-year-old Garcia has pitched in parts of four big league campaigns between five teams. He has struggled to a 7.32 earned run average over 35 2/3 innings. His most recent MLB action came with 10 appearances between the Athletics and Nationals in 2023. Garcia hasn’t carried over much bat-missing ability to the highest level. His 12.4% career strikeout rate is well below average.

New York has made a couple bullpen depth additions since the offseason began. They gave Dylan Covey a major league contract last week. The 40-man spot gives Covey a leg up on Garcia and whichever other relievers the Mets add as non-roster invitees, but there’s likely to be a fair amount of competition for middle relief roles in camp.

Willy Adames Reportedly Willing To Move Off Shortstop

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The best available free agent shortstop is Willy Adames but he could also expand his market by playing elsewhere. Per Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic, Adames wants to stay at short but would be willing to move to other positions for the right offer from a competitive club. On the Baseball Tonight podcast, Jorge Castillo of ESPN says the Mets have considered signing Adames and moving him to third while others have also considered second base (39:05 mark of this link at Apple Podcasts link).

Adames probably doesn’t need to make the shift based on his abilities, though he is coming off a bit of a down year in terms of his glovework. He was credited with 10 fielding errors in 2024, more than the seven he had in the previous two seasons combined. Defensive Runs Saved gave him a dismal grade of -16 for the year while Outs Above Average merely had him at par. However, DRS gave him a positive grade in each of the previous five seasons while Adames had a big +16 grade from OAA in 2023 and +10 the year prior.

Clubs could view that more as an outlier season, as opposed to Adames suddenly falling off a cliff defensively at the age of 28. Still, there’s logic to him being open to a position change. Any free agent is helped by having more suitors, as a more fervent bidding war can drive up prices, as opposed to a stagnant market that sees the player linger in free agency. Adames has no third base experience in the big leagues and only a small amount at second, but most shortstops are able to pivot elsewhere on the diamond without much issue. He has a .248/.322/.444 career batting line and hit .251/.331/.462 for a 119 wRC+ in 2024, offense that would play at any position.

There are plenty of clubs that already have shortstops but could perhaps use help at second or third, with the Mets being one of them. They have one of the best shortstops in the league in Francisco Lindor, who is under contract through 2031 and just wrapped up a strong season that might see him finish second to Shohei Ohtani in National League Most Valuable Player voting.

But second and third base are a bit more open. Jeff McNeil is arguably the best option for the keystone but his performance has wobbled in recent years and he’s also capable of playing other spots. At third, Mark Vientos just had a breakout season at the plate but with poor defense and it’s been suggested the club could look to move him to first base as a replacement for free agent Pete Alonso.

The Mets could take that approach with an existing third baseman like Alex Bregman, as he is a better hitter than Adames and already established at the position. But Adames is a couple of years younger and could secure a lesser contract just based on his track record. MLBTR recently projected Bregman for $182MM over seven years and Adames for $160MM over six seasons in our annual Top 50 Free Agents post.

For Adames, having a club like the Mets at the table can only help. They are one of the top spending clubs in the league but there would be no point in them getting involved if Adames was firmly committed to staying at short, so it’s sensible for him to express openness to moving. Clubs like the Yankees, Mariners, Blue Jays, Red Sox and Royals could also be classified as having greater needs at infield positions other than shortstop, so getting them to the table as well could further expand his market.

One of the more straightforward fits would be the Giants, with president of baseball operations Buster Posey frankly admitting yesterday that the club is on the lookout for shortstops. However, Adames has received a qualifying offer from the Brewers that he’s sure to reject, thus tying him to the associated penalties.

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic suggests that Posey might try to avoid signing players that rejected qualifying offers so early in his tenure. The Giants just had a hamstrung draft a few months ago, as they gave up their second- and third-round picks to sign Blake Snell and Matt Chapman last offseason, both of whom had rejected qualifying offers. The Giants went on to pay the competitive balance tax in 2024, meaning that signing any QO’d players this time around would result in forfeiting their second- and fifth-best picks of the upcoming draft as well as $1MM of international bonus space.

The Giants are one of the most sensible on-paper fits for Adames as a club with a strong record of spending and a clear need at shortstop. If they were to pivot to the trade market or signing a player without a qualifying offer like Ha-Seong Kim, that would only further the importance of Adames staying open to other positions.

As for a return to Milwaukee, that never seemed especially likely since the Brewers almost never give out massive contracts like the one Adames will surely require. Looking at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows that the Christian Yelich extension is the only time the club has surpassed $105MM on any deal. As if precedent wasn’t enough, owner Mark Attanasio basically confirmed it recently. “He’s going to get an enormous free-agent contract and I’m very happy for him and his family, and we’ll give it our best shot,” Attanasio said of Adames. “But there’s a lot deeper pockets out there. That’s just the reality.”

Adames recently reflected on those comments, per another column from Sammon and Woo. He seemingly left the door open for a hometown discount, though perhaps only slightly. “I’m willing to stay here for less money, let’s say, but I just want to be fair for what I deserve in my career and whatever I’ve done,” Adames said. “We just have to wait and see where we’re at. You never know what’s going to happen and you never know who is going to be willing to make that commitment with me for a long time.”

13 Players Receive Qualifying Offers

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Today is the deadline for teams to decide whether or not to issue qualifying offers to eligible players. Per Jeff Passan of ESPN on X, 13 players have received the QO and they are:

As a recap, the qualifying offer system was created in the name of competitive balance, allowing clubs to receive compensation if key players depart via free agency. The value changes from year to year as it is the average of the salaries of the 125 highest-paid players in the league. This year’s QO is valued at $21.05MM.

If the player rejects the QO and signs elsewhere, his previous team receives draft compensation while his new club is subject to draft pick forfeiture and sometimes international bonus penalties as well. MLBTR has previously covered what each team’s compensation and penalties would be.

Players have until 3pm Central on November 19 to decide whether to accept or not. In that time, they are free to negotiate with other clubs just like all other free agents, assessing their options before making a decision.

Most of the players on this list are not surprising. Many of them have enough earning power where it was obvious that they would receive a QO and they have an easy decision to reject it while going on to pursue larger guarantees on multi-year deals. Some of the decisions were a bit more borderline and MLBTR took closer looks at those in separate posts, including Martinez, Pivetta and Severino/Manaea.

There were also some notable players who were candidates to receive a QO but ultimately didn’t. MLBTR recently took a look at the pitchers and position players with a chance at receiving a QO. Michael Wacha was listed as a possibility but that came off the table when he and the Royals agreed to a new deal yesterday. Shane Bieber of the Guardians, Jeff Hoffman of the Phillies, Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals, Tyler O’Neill of the Red Sox, Gleyber Torres of the Yankees, as well as Ha-Seong Kim and Jurickson Profar of the Padres were all identified as long shots to receive a QO and ultimately none of them did.

Clubs generally don’t want to lose draft picks or be subject to the other associated penalties. As such, receiving a QO can sometimes have a negative impact on a player’s prospects in free agency, though it won’t be a significant factor for the top guys.

Mets To Issue Qualifying Offers To Severino, Manaea

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The Mets are issuing the $21.05MM qualifying offer to both Luis Severino and Sean Manaea, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post (X links). There’s no surprise in Manaea’s case, though Severino was more of a borderline call. The pitchers will have until November 19 to determine whether to lock in that salary. That’ll give their representatives just over two weeks to gauge the market.

Manaea is coming off one of the better platform years of anyone in the rotation class. He turned in a 3.47 earned run average while striking out a quarter of opponents through a career-high 181 2/3 innings. The southpaw had an excellent second half that coincided with a dip in his arm angle and an increased use of his sinker. He’ll probably be limited to three-year offers as he enters his age-33 season, though those could come at a comparable annual value to the QO price. He shouldn’t give much consideration to accepting.

Severino could have a more interesting decision. The hard-throwing righty worked to a 3.91 ERA across 182 frames spanning 31 starts. It was a nice rebound from his terrible final season with the Yankees. Severino improved his ground-ball rate to 46% but didn’t find the kind of bat-missing ability that made him a high-end starter during his early days in the Bronx. He fanned 21.2% of batters faced while getting swinging strikes at a well below-average 9.4% clip.

The lack of whiffs could lead to trepidation from some teams. Severino has plus velocity and good control, though, and he proved capable of shouldering a full workload for the first time since 2018. With Manaea virtually certain to decline the QO, the Mets were willing to risk bringing Severino back on a decent one-year salary. They’re likely to find themselves in the top tier of luxury tax penalization next season. That’d entail paying a 110% tax, potentially putting them on the hook for more than $44MM.

If Severino declines the offer in search of a three- or four-year deal, the Mets would be in line for modest draft compensation. As luxury tax payors, New York receives the lowest form of compensation for losing qualified free agents. They’d get compensatory picks after the fourth round if Manaea and/or Severino sign elsewhere. The prospect value of those picks is minimal, but it’d tack on a few hundred thousand dollars to next year’s amateur signing bonus pool.

Image courtesy of Imagn.

Mets Claim Luis De Los Santos

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The Mets announced that they have claimed infielder Luis De Los Santos off waivers from the Blue Jays. Additionally, outfielder DJ Stewart as well as left-handers Joey Lucchesi and Matt Gage were outrighted off the 40-man roster. Stewart and Lucchesi elected free agency.

De Los Santos, 26, got up to the big leagues for the first time this year. He hit .172/.226/.241 in a small sample of 31 plate appearances to start his major league career. He hit .260/.375/.441 in his 154 Triple-A plate appearances while spending time at all four infield positions.

He still has a couple of option seasons and less than a year of year of service time, so he can provide the Mets with some depth around the dirt for the foreseeable future. They have Francisco Lindor cemented at short but questions elsewhere. First baseman Pete Alonso is now a free agent. He could be re-signed but it’s no guarantee he’ll be back. Mark Vientos just had a breakout season while playing third base but with poor defense, so he could perhaps move over to first if Alonso departs. Second base could be taken by Jeff McNeil but he’s also capable of playing other positions. Young guys like Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuña or Ronny Mauricio are candidates to take over at second or third base.

Stewart, 31 this month, finished 2023 on a heater but couldn’t really carry it over into 2024 as he finished the year with a .177/.325/.297 batting line for the Mets. He could have been retained for 2025 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $1.7MM salary but the Mets clearly weren’t interested in that and bumped him off the roster instead.

Lucchesi, 32 in June, has been an optionable depth arm for the Mets for a while but is now out of options. That means he wouldn’t be able to continue in that role going forward. Since missing 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, he has tossed 57 innings for the Mets over the past two seasons with a 3.32 ERA but but subpar strikeout and walk rates of 16.2% and 10.4% respectively. As players with at least three years of service time, both Stewart and Lucchesi had the right to elect free agency and did so.

Gage, 32 in February, was acquired from the Dodgers in a cash deal in July but didn’t pitch for them after that, mostly staying on optional assignment. He has 19 2/3 innings of major league experience with the Blue Jays and Astros in previous seasons.

Mets Claim Kevin Herget From Brewers

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The Mets have claimed right-hander Kevin Herget off waivers from the Brewers, per a report from Robert Murray of FanSided. There had been no prior indication that Herget was designated for assignment, though with today’s deadline to activate players from the 60-day injured list plenty of 40-man roster movement is to be expected around the league.

Herget, 34 in April, signed a minor league deal with the Brewers last offseason after being cut loose by the Reds. He went on to get a limited amount of big league action in the majors in 2024, tossing 11 1/3 innings for Milwaukee with two earned runs allowed. In Triple-A, he had a larger sample of work, posting a 2.27 earned run average in 47 2/3 innings. He struck out 32.4% of batters faced at that level while only giving out walks 6% of the time.

The Mets were apparently intrigued by those strong numbers, grabbing Herget off waivers today. The Mets just lost Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino, Ryne Stanek and Drew Smith to free agency so they have filled in some lost bullpen depth with this claim. Despite his age, Herget is still in his pre-arbitration years and is therefore cheap and can potentially be controlled for years to come.

Mets Decline Team Option On Phil Maton

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The Mets have declined their $7.75MM team option on right-hander Phil Maton, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The 31-year-old will receive a $250K buyout and return to free agency.

The decision isn’t much of a surprise, even though Maton pitched quite well for the club down the stretch this season. The veteran righty posted a 2.58 ERA with a nearly identical 2.57 FIP in 28 2/3 innings of work after being acquired from the Rays in early July, with a 26.5% strikeout rate against a 5.3% walk rate. Those excellent numbers may have been worth considering the $7.5MM decision on his option if they were held throughout the season, but that unfortunately was not the case.

Not only did Maton struggle badly in the playoffs, with an 8.53 ERA in six appearances for the Mets this season, but his brief tenure with the Rays was something of a disaster. His 4.58 ERA in 35 1/3 frames with the club was 12% worse than league average by measure of ERA+, and his 5.63 FIP was 42% below par by measure of FIP-. He struck out just 19.7% of batters faced during his time with Tampa Bay, but even more concerning was the fact that his walk rate ballooned to 11.8% during that time. In all, that leaves Maton to enter free agency with a platform season that casts him as a solid but unspectacular middle reliever with a 3.66 ERA and 4.26 FIP in 71 appearances this year.

That’s more or less par for the course for Maton throughout his eight seasons in the majors. The right-hander sports a career ERA of 4.16 (100 ERA+) with a 4.00 FIP and a 25.9% strikeout rate against a 9% walk rate. The best season of Maton’s career came just last year with the Astros, his third season in Houston after the club acquired him from Cleveland midway through the 2021 campaign in the trade that made Myles Straw a Guardian. In 2023, Maton struck out 27% of opponents while walking 9.1% en route to a 3.00 ERA in 66 innings of work.

A club that buys into Maton’s 2023 performance and his stretch run during the regular season with New York this year could potentially look at the right-hander as a late-inning option, although it’s possible he’s best suited to serve as a steadying, veteran presence in a bullpen like those of the Tigers, Cubs, and Rockies that has relied heavily on relatively young and inexperienced players. All three of those teams figure to be in the market for relief help this winter, but that can also be said of virtually every team in baseball. That should leave Maton comfortably in position to land a big league deal this winter, even if it doesn’t come at an AAV north of $7MM like this team option would have if exercised.

As for the Mets, Edwin Diaz remains locked in as the club’s closer and players like Jose Butto, Sean Reid-Foley, and Alex Young all impressed with the club this year. While it wouldn’t be a shock to see them look for bullpen upgrades this winter (particularly from the left side), they’ve already begun to make additions with their recent deal to land right-hander Dylan Covey. The signing of Covey, who has struggled in the majors but spent time both as a relief arm and a starter, could signal that the Mets don’t plan to spend much of their considerable payroll flexibility this winter on relievers as they look to reconstruct their rotation, retain first baseman Pete Alonso, and get into the thick of the bidding for Juan Soto.

Sean Manaea To Opt Out Of Mets Contract

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Left-hander Sean Manaea is planning to opt out of the second year of his contract with the Mets, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo writes (X link). Manaea signed a two-year, $28MM free agent deal with New York last winter that contained the player option for the 2025 season, and he’ll now leave $13.5MM on the table in search of a longer and more lucrative guarantee this offseason. He’s a virtual lock to receive a $21.05MM qualifying offer but is overwhelmingly likely to decline that in his pursuit of a longer-term pact.

Manaea’s decision comes as little surprise. The two-year pact he inked in Queens came in his second free agency foray. Since first reaching the open market on the heels of the 2022 season, he’s signed a pair of two-year contracts with opt-outs after year one, showing willingness to bet on himself and the confidence that he’ll eventually land a longer-term contract. Given the strength of his 2024 campaign, he’s now likely to find a guarantee of at least three years in free agency.

Entering the 2024 season, Manaea was viewed as something of a veteran stabilizer for the Mets’ rotation. New York’s president of baseball operations, David Stearns, made a series of short-term acquisitions in the rotation — Luis Severino also inked a one-year deal, and Adrian Houser was acquired from the Brewers — in an effort to patch things over in what most expected to be a transitional year for the Mets. Instead, the Amazins romped through the season’s final four months as the sport’s hottest team and rode that momentum all the way to the NLCS.

Manaea’s success was a huge part of that run. The 6’5″, 245-pound southpaw pitched a career-high 181 2/3 innings in the regular season and worked to a sharp 3.47 ERA. He fanned one quarter of his opponents, issued walks at a solid 8.5% clip and deftly avoided home runs (1.04 HR/9). Solid as the year-long numbers were, it was the second half where Manaea truly took off. Manaea altered his throwing motion midseason — closely resembling the delivery of likely NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale — and at the suggestion of pitching coach Jeremy Hefner began a unique pregame workout wherein he throws to the opposite mound in the bullpen while warming (X link, with video, via Steve Gelbs of SNY).

The transformation was nearly immediate. Over the final two-plus months of the year, Manaea pitched to a 3.09 ERA with an improved 28.5% strikeout rate against a 6.2% walk rate. He ditched his cutter entirely and eventually ditched his four-seamer as well, all in the name of throwing more sinkers and sliders. Opponents had averaged 89.2 mph off the bat against him prior to the changes and posted a 40.8% hard-hit rate, per Statcast. Down the stretch, those numbers plummeted to 87.5 mph and 32.4%, respectively. Manaea’s excellence carried on through three postseason starts, but he finally ran into a wall in the Mets’ final game of the year, surrendering five runs in just two innings in the decisive Game 6 loss to the eventual World Champion Dodgers.

In free agency, Manaea will market not only a career-high workload (200-plus innings, including the postseason) but also newly altered mechanics and a tweaked repertoire that led to his late-season surge. He’ll turn 33 in February, which will make anything longer than a four-year deal extraordinarily unlikely, but a three- or four-year pact at a strong annual value should be on the table. The Mets are in the market for multiple starting pitchers and will surely have interest in retaining the big lefty, but Manaea will command interest from a broad range of suitors. He’s one of the top starters on the market this time around, but his age will prevent him from landing the type of long-term deal from which many clubs shy away.

Mets Among Roughly 11 Teams To Reach Out To Soto

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Day One of the offseason means the Juan Soto pursuits are underway. Until Monday, only the Yankees are allowed to discuss salary figures. However, other teams can touch base with his camp to broadly express interest and pitch their organizations now that the World Series is finished.

The top free agent has gotten no shortage of attention. Jon Heyman of the New York Post writes that 11 teams were in contact with Soto’s camp by Thursday morning. The Post’s Mike Puma relays that the Mets — widely perceived as the top challenger to the incumbent Yankees — were among them.

Soto getting attention from more than a third of the league isn’t surprising. There isn’t a single front office that wouldn’t love to add him. The number of legitimately plausible suitors is much smaller. Soto’s contract demands figure to be prohibitive for all but a handful of teams, though Heyman writes that two unidentified small-market franchises were among the initial eleven. Still, it’s hard to envision Soto landing with a team that isn’t a traditional behemoth.

To that end, Heyman floats the possibility of Soto’s camp looking to top $700MM without any deferred money. While Shohei Ohtani hit that mark before adjusting for the deferrals, the deal’s net present value was well south of $500MM. MLB calculates the Ohtani deal just shy of $461MM for luxury tax purposes, while the Players Association puts it around $438MM. Either number still represents an all-time record. The Ohtani contract is the only one in MLB history to top $400MM.

There’s not much doubt that Soto is going to beat both versions of the NPV of the Ohtani deal. Doing so on a contract with a present value of $700MM is a massive ask. It’d require breaking the guarantee record by upwards of $240MM. Getting there would require at least $50MM annually over a 14-year term. Ohtani’s deferral-adjusted $46.06MM average annual value is the only AAV north of $44MM.

No free agent has signed for 14 years. Fernando Tatis Jr. is the only player to sign a 14-year contract, though his $340MM deal was an extension signed before his age-22 season. Bryce Harper got to 13 years as a free agent going into his age-26 season, as Soto is now. Harper took a relatively diminished $25.38MM annual salary, and while Soto is certainly going to beat that, shattering the AAV record and signing the longest free agent contract of all time would be an ambitious ask.

Of course, Soto is going to start free agency with extremely high expectations. The process seems likely to carry well into the offseason, perhaps beyond December’s Winter Meetings. Every high-payroll franchise figures to be linked to Soto in some capacity. The general expectation is that there’ll be a huge bidding war between Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and Mets owner Steve Cohen, in particular. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has already stated that the organization has the payroll flexibility to consider a run at “pretty much the entirety of the player universe.”

Puma notes that while the Mets may shy away from signing players who require draft compensation, they’re unsurprisingly willing to make an exception in Soto’s case. He’ll decline a qualifying offer, so the Mets would forfeit their second- and fifth-highest draft choices and $1MM in international bonus pool space to sign him.

That’s a non-issue for a player of Soto’s caliber. If the Mets are reluctant to surrender draft compensation, that could be a factor for their other free agent pursuits. They’ll be heavily involved on free agent pitchers. Corbin Burnes and Max Fried will get QOs, but Blake Snell and Jack Flaherty are ineligible. Borderline QO candidates include Michael Wacha, Nick Martinez and Nick Pivetta. As with Soto, they could consider Burnes and Fried to be exceptional free agents for whom they’re willing to take a hit to their farm system. That’ll be a subplot in what should be a fascinating offseason in the Big Apple.

Mets Sign Dylan Covey To Major League Deal

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The Mets have given out their first major league contract of the offseason, signing right-handed pitcher Dylan Covey to a one-year deal. The team announced the news this afternoon.

The terms of the deal have not yet been announced, although it’s presumably not a very high guarantee. Indeed, it’s somewhat surprising to see Covey land a big league deal at all considering his limited track record and lack of MLB success. He made his debut with the White Sox in 2017 after they selected him from the A’s in the Rule 5 draft. Over three seasons in Chicago, largely as a starting pitcher, he produced a 6.54 ERA and 5.16 SIERA in 250 1/3 innings of work. It was hardly a surprise when the White Sox cut him over the 2019-20 offseason and he elected free agency.

Over the next few years, Covey bounced from the Rays to the Red Sox to the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. His performance over two seasons with the Rakuten Monkeys convinced the Dodgers to offer him a minor league deal before the 2023 season. Yet, after just one appearance for L.A., he was designated for assignment. The Phillies, in need of a mop-up man, claimed Covey off of waivers and put him in their bullpen. In his first chance at regular MLB playing time as a reliever, he was rather effective, albeit in a low-leverage role, pitching to a 3.69 ERA and 4.53 SIERA over 39 innings.

However, Covey did not pitch in the majors at all in 2024. He sat out the first four months of the season recovering from a right shoulder strain, and the Phillies removed him from the 40-man roster and sent him outright to Triple-A upon his return from the IL. Nonetheless, the Mets must have liked what they saw over his 15 appearances with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. After giving up a solo home run to the very first batter he faced at Triple-A in 2024, the right-hander did not allow another run for the rest of the season. He struck out 27.6% of the batters he faced. The Mets have several open spots on their 40-man roster, and they will use one of those spots to slot Covey into the bullpen picture for 2025.

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