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Mets Designate Ender Inciarte For Assignment

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The Mets have designated outfielder Ender Inciarte for assignment, tweets Tim Healey of Newsday. The move clears an active roster spot for second baseman Jeff McNeil, who’d be on paternity leave. New York’s 40-man roster tally drops to 39.

New York signed Inciarte to a minor league contract last month, then selected him to the majors not long after. The move afforded the club a defense-oriented depth outfielder while Travis Jankowski was on the injured list, but the latter returned a few days ago. Jankowski will reassume his role as the speed and glove option off the bench, while Inciarte’s time in the organization could come to a close.

Inciarte appeared in 11 games for the Mets, primarily as a late-game defensive substitute. He tallied eight plate appearances, his first MLB action of the season. Prior to latching on with the Mets, he’d spent the 2022 campaign on a minor league deal with the Yankees. Through 34 Triple-A games in the Yankees’ system, he hit a decent .252/.336/.408 with four home runs and stolen bases apiece.

The past few seasons have been a struggle for Inciarte, who combined excellent defense with near league average hitting at his peak with the D-Backs and Braves. Going back to the start of the 2020 campaign, the left-handed hitter owns a .197/.262/.271 line across 228 plate appearances. He’s continued to make a fair amount of contact, but his ball-in-play results have dropped precipitously.

The Mets will have a week to trade the three-time Gold Glove winner or place him on waivers. The latter course of action seems likely, and Inciarte would have the right to refuse an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he passes through unclaimed.

Yankees Unlikely To Continue Pursuit Of Andrew Benintendi

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Royals outfielder Andrew Benintendi has reportedly been a target of both the Blue Jays and Yankees in the early stages of the summer trade market, but yesterday’s placement on the restricted list in advance of Kansas City’s trip to Toronto, due to vaccination status, is already having impact on his market. It seemed obvious at the time of that revelation that the Jays would be out of the mix for Benintendi, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post now reports that the Yankees are also unlikely to further pursue the outfielder. Presumably, the same is true of Benintendi’s teammate Michael A. Taylor, who joined him on the restricted list and has also reportedly been considered by the Yankees.

The Yankees are one of two teams (joining the Astros) who have taken a full roster on the road to Toronto this season. They still have three games in Toronto on the schedule in late September, and Blue Jays, currently in possession of the American League’s third Wild Card spot, represent a potential postseason opponent. Certainly, not all contending clubs are going to be dissuaded from pursuing unvaccinated players, but it’s also doubtful the Yankees and Jays will be the only ones taking this stance.

Outfield help is known to be a priority for a Yankees club that watched Aaron Hicks and, to a far greater extent, Joey Gallo struggle for much of the season. Hicks has righted the ship of late, hitting at a very strong .268/.376/.449 batting line over his past 149 trips to the plate, dating back to late May. He’s also gone 4-for-5 in stolen bases during that time, swatted five homers, and added four doubles and a couple triples. (Hicks was helped off the field during last night’s game after fouling a ball into his shin, but thankfully for both him and the team, imaging did not reveal a fracture.)

It’s been another story for Gallo, whom the Yankees would surely like to move over the next 19 days between now and the Aug. 2 trade deadline. Gallo’s .166/.287/.336 batting line is miles away from the .214/.340/.507 slash he posted with the Rangers from 2017 through July 27 of last year, when he was traded to the Bronx. The Yankees surely didn’t expect Gallo to begin hitting for a high average. However, a 50-point drop in his already perennially low mark, combined with an uptick in strikeout rate and decrease in walk rate and power output, has rendered Gallo one of the least-valuable hitters in baseball at the moment. For a 28-year-old hitter still in his prime, it’s a fairly remarkable decline.

Turning the focus back to Benintendi, Heyman further tweets that the Mets, who don’t have a Toronto series on their schedule and would thus only need to worry about a potential World Series matchup there, do have some interest in Benintendi. The Mets have cast a wide net in seeking upgrades, however, and Benintendi is surely just one of many players on their radar as they seek to bolster the roster.

Interest in Benintendi, Taylor and other players who are unable to travel to Toronto will vary from team to team. For the Yankees, it seems a clear and understandable roadblock. Other clubs will feel differently. There’s no denying the adverse effect it has on the Royals, however, due both to the fact that they’ll be without nearly 40% of their big league roster this weekend and to the fact that president of baseball operations Dayton Moore will have fewer interested parties to engage on the trade market.

Dodgers Claim Jake Reed Off Waivers From Mets

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The Dodgers announced that they have claimed right-hander Jake Reed off waivers from the Mets. The Mets had designated Reed for assignment a few days ago when they claimed Sam Clay. The Dodgers have had an open spot on their 40-man roster since designating Ian Gibaut for assignment last week.

This is a return to the Dodgers for Reed, as he made his MLB debut with the club last year. After throwing 5 1/3 innings with Los Angeles, he was claimed on waivers twice in a span of about a week, first going to the Rays and then to the Mets. He’ll now complete the circle by going back to the Dodgers.

In between all of these waiver claims, he’s managed to throw 16 1/3 MLB innings with a 6.61 ERA in that small sample. He has fared much better in the minors, especially in the strikeout department, which is likely why teams keep taking fliers on him. Going back to the start of last year, he’s thrown 43 1/3 innings in the minors with a 4.98 ERA, 26.6% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. He probably deserves better than that ERA, as he has a .353 BABIP in that time, which is well above average. That’s likely why FIP placed him at 3.97 for that span.

Reed, 29, can still be optioned for the remainder of this season and another season beyond that, making him a fairly sensible depth addition for a club that had an open roster spot.

Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat announced the move shortly before the official announcement.

Alderson: Mets Seeking Another Bat, Bullpen Help

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The Mets dropped tonight’s contest against the Braves by a 4-1 score, shrinking their lead in the National League East to  1 1/2 games. At 54-34 with a +70 run differential, New York looks very likely to reach the postseason. Holding off Atlanta to secure a division title and a chance at a top-two seed in the NL (and the associated first-round bye under the new playoff format) is going to be of particular import for the club through the season’s second half.

New York heads into deadline season as obvious buyers, and team president Sandy Alderson shed some light on the club’s target areas today. Chatting with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post on The Show podcast, Alderson indicated the team was prioritizing adding another bat and bolstering the bullpen. He pointed specifically to designated hitter as an area that could be addressed, noting that New York hasn’t gotten the production they’d anticipated out of the position this season.

While he didn’t specifically single out any player who has underperformed in 2022, it’s not especially hard to read between the lines. Aside from quasi-rest days for star first baseman Pete Alonso, the Mets have given virtually all the DH playing time to the duo of J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith. Davis is hitting .240/.328/.353 through 192 plate appearances. Despite strong exit velocities, he’s compiled only 12 extra-base hits (including three home runs). Hitting for power is paramount for Davis, who’s not a strong defender anywhere and is striking out in north of 30% of his trips to the plate.

Smith has had an even tougher year, posting a .203/.281/.301 line in 139 tallies. He’s not connected on a single longball and spent some time on optional assignment to Triple-A Syracuse. Both Davis and Smith have pre-2022 track records of offensive productivity, but their combined .228/.313/.337 showing (entering Tuesday) hasn’t been sufficient for bat-first players.

Over the past few weeks, Heyman has linked the Mets to rental bats Trey Mancini and Nelson Cruz. With Alonso locked in at first base, interest in those players suggested the club was looking into DH possibilities. Alderson flatly stated there’s “probably an opportunity to improve there” and noted that the prospect acquisition cost for defensively-limited bats isn’t likely to be exorbitant.

That could also be true of the bullpen, which Alderson said “needs to be strengthened.” The prospect talent required to land relief help certainly varies depending on the target. Prying away Pirates star closer David Bednar, as an example, would take a massive haul. Yet there are various lower-impact relief arms with lesser windows of remaining control who’d not require a huge prospect return. Mike Puma of the Post suggests (on Twitter) that adding a left-hander could be particularly important; after releasing Chasen Shreve last week, the Mets are down to Joely Rodríguez as the sole southpaw in the bullpen.

Alderson didn’t tip his hand as to specific targets, but there are a number of middle or late-inning arms who look likely to be available. The Cubs (David Robertson and Mychal Givens) and Tigers (Andrew Chafin, Michael Fulmer and Joe Jiménez) both had multiple relievers placed among MLBTR’s top 50 trade candidates last week. Chafin is one of a handful of southpaws who could change hands, as are Rangers breakout hurler Matt Moore and the D-Backs Joe Mantiply.

While adding a bat and some relief pitching seem to be priorities, Alderson indicated the club didn’t feel a pressing need to address the starting rotation. He pointed to the high acquisition cost that’d be associated with landing an impact starter. Later in the conversation, New York’s president downplayed the possibility of dealing from the top of the farm system in any fashion. “We want to try to preserve the prospects we have,” Alderson told the Post. “We have to be careful about who we move, and for what reasons.” He name-checked catcher Francisco Álvarez and corner infielder Brett Baty as prospects the club was highly unlikely to deal. Alderson pointed to last season’s trade of former first-rounder Pete Crow-Armstrong for half a season of Javier Báez as a deal that dealt a big blow to the farm system in recognition of Crow-Armstrong’s excellent start to the 2022 campaign in Low-A.

The reluctance to deal from the top of the system jibes with a recent report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today, who wrote last week that the team was likelier to try to leverage their financial power than move top-tier young players. Alderson confirmed as much, saying they’d prefer to “err on the side of money, as opposed to the side of prospects” in trade talks. There’s no guarantee the opportunity to take on a higher-priced player will present itself, but the reluctance to deal from the top of the system seems to cast doubt on the chances of landing an impact starter in the Luis Castillo or Frankie Montas mold.

That may also be true of catcher, where the Mets have gotten lackluster production this season. Willson Contreras is the clear top player available at the position, but the Cubs are sure to land a strong return. New York has James McCann under contract for the next two seasons, but the veteran hasn’t provided much at the plate and is currently on the injured list. That’s left the club to rely on the light-hitting duo of Tomás Nido and Patrick Mazeika.

Álvarez is viewed by most evaluators as the franchise’s catcher of the future, but he’s only 20 years old and was just promoted to Triple-A for the first time. Alderson expressed a desire for him to get extended reps against Triple-A pitching before he’d be considered for an MLB look. That’d seemingly leave catching to Nido and Mazeika until McCann returns, particularly with a thin market at the position. Tucker Barnhart and Kurt Suzuki are impending free agents on non-competitive teams, but neither has played well this season. Roberto Pérez and Mike Zunino may have been trade candidates, but both suffered long-term injuries that take them out of that picture.

East Notes: Castillo, Jays, Orioles, Marte, Kiermaier, Nationals

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Luis Castillo was a Blue Jays trade target last winter, and unsurprisingly, Toronto continues to have interest in Castillo’s services, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.  Though Castillo missed the first month of the season due to shoulder soreness, he has been in strong form with a 2.92 ERA over 71 innings, even if his Statcast numbers aren’t quite as reflective of top-notch performance.  Castillo’s walk rate and hard-contact numbers are only okay, though his strikeout rate (25.3%) is well above league average and he still has elite fastball velocity.

The Reds right-hander is one of the very best players (let alone pitchers) expected to be available as the deadline approaches, making him a natural fit for a Toronto club in sore need of pitching upgrades.  Between Hyun Jin Ryu’s Tommy John surgery and underwhelming performances from Jose Berrios and Yusei Kikuchi, the faulty rotation has been the chief reason for the Jays’ struggles in the last month, which is why Nightengale writes that the Blue Jays “are expected to be the most aggressive team pursuing starting pitching help.”  Last summer’s trade for Berrios is an example of how the Toronto front office hasn’t been hesitant to pay a big price for a player they want and need, though the Blue Jays will face plenty of competition for Castillo’s services.

More from both the AL East and NL East…

  • Also from Nightengale, the Orioles’ surprisingly strong play seemingly hasn’t changed the club’s long-term plans, as Baltimore is “expected to unload” several notable veterans.  The list of names includes both impending free agents like Trey Mancini, Rougned Odor, and Jordan Lyles, plus more controllable players like Anthony Santander and All-Star closer Jorge Lopez.  It’s safe to assume that the price tag will be a lot higher for Lopez and Santander than the others, but regardless, the O’s likely aren’t going to change course and start thinking about a playoff push.
  • Starling Marte left Saturday’s game due to a groin injury, and Marte wasn’t in the Mets lineup on Sunday.  However, Marte is only day-to-day, as manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) that an MRI revealed only minor inflammation and no serious damage.  Marte has been a big contributor in his first year in New York, and his first-half performance earned him a slot on the NL All-Star team earlier today.  With this groin injury lingering, however, Marte might opt to skip the game to rest up over the break.
  • Kevin Kiermaier was placed on the 10-day injured list earlier today, marking the second time this month that a nagging hip injury has put the Rays outfielder on the shelf.  Kiermaier told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that he received a cortisone shot during his first IL stint, but now that the issue has returned, he’ll be visiting a specialist to further explore the injury.  “There’s just a lot of unknowns right now with what’s to come….I don’t really know what the future holds, to be quite honest,” Kiermaier said, noting that surgery was a possibility.  A major procedure could quite possibly end Kiermaier’s season, and thus maybe his tenure with the Rays altogether, as 2022 is the final guaranteed year of his contract.  Kiermaier has spent all 13 of his pro seasons in the Tampa organization, though that tenure has involved several injury absences.
  • There hasn’t been much public information revealed about the Nationals’ possible sale, but billionaire Michael B. Kim is the first name linked to the list of potential buyers, according to Barry Svrluga and Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post.  Kim and another bidding group have met in person with team officials already, and a third group is also slated for in-person meetings later in July.  Though there seems to be an increasing feeling that the Lerner family will indeed sell the Nationals, it is still early in the process, since “as many as five or six individuals or groups are expected to meet with club officials.”

Mets Claim Sam Clay Off Waivers, Designate Jake Reed

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The Phillies have announced that left-hander Sam Clay, whom they designated for assignment on Friday, has been claimed off waivers by the Mets. In order to open a spot on their 40-man roster for Clay, the Mets have designated right-hander Jake Reed for assignment. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those who relayed the news on Reed.

It’s been a busy month of July for Clay, who now joins his third organization this month, just ten days in. He started the season with the Nationals, who designated him for assignment on July 1. He was then claimed by the Phillies and designated for assignment yet again three days later, before now landing with the Mets.

Clay was originally a Twins draftee but reached minor league free agency without ever being selected to their 40-man roster. The Nationals decided he was worth a roster spot and signed him to an MLB deal before the 2021 season. Unfortunately, their optimism didn’t translate into results, as Clay put up a 6.02 ERA in 49 1/3 big league innings between last year and this year before being shuffled off the roster.

The Nats aren’t the only teams able to see the potential, however, as evidenced by the Phillies and Mets putting in claims on him over the past few days. Even in that mediocre MLB showing, Clay got ground balls at an excellent 61.8% rate, with the league average usually coming in around 43%. He hasn’t racked up many strikeouts at the big league level so far, with just a 15.6% rate. In the minors, however, he’s often been above 20% and occasionally above 30%. The potential for a lefty reliever who both gets grounders and strikeouts is understandably tantalizing, especially considering most clubs are always a bit short-handed when it comes to southpaw relievers.

The Mets certainly fall into that category, having used only three lefties all season. David Peterson is in the rotation and Chasen Shreve has been released, leaving Joely Rodriguez as the only southpaw in the bullpen. That makes Clay a fairly sensible addition for the club, as they hope he can find better results in Queens than he did in D.C.

Reed, 29, was claimed off waivers from the Rays in August of last year. The Rays had claimed him off waivers from the Dodgers just about a week before that. Between the Dodgers and Mets, he has just 16 1/3 innings of MLB experience with a 6.61 ERA. He’s thrown 13 innings in the minors this season with a 4.85 ERA, 25% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate. The Mets will have one week to trade him, pass him through waivers or release him.

Mets Place James McCann On IL With Oblique Injury

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Mets manager Buck Showalter has informed reporters, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, that catcher James McCann will be placed on the 10-day injured list due to an oblique injury. Fellow catcher Patrick Mazeika will be recalled to take his place on the active roster. Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News relays that Showalter said McCann will be out longer than the ten-day minimum.

On the heels of two strong seasons with the White Sox in 2019 and 2020, the Mets signed McCann to a four-year, $40.6MM deal going into the 2021 season. Unfortunately for both parties, things haven’t gone according to plan since then. McCann slumped to a .232/.294/.349 line last year, producing a wRC+ of 80. This year, he was shelved by a broken hamate bone and now this oblique injury, limiting him to just 30 games on the season so far. In that time, he’s hit just .183/.250/.293 for a wRC+ of 60.

With McCann missing significant time, the that’s led to increased action for Tomás Nido and Mazeika, with both of those players struggling to make use of the opportunity. Nido is hitting .221/.264/.248 through 52 games for a wRC+ of just 52. Mazeika has gotten into 17 contests and hit just .167/.200/.292 for a wRC+ of 41.

The Mets have been one of the best teams in baseball this year, currently leading the NL East with a record of 53-32. With the August 2 trade deadline now just over three weeks away, catcher stands out as one area with room for improvement, especially if McCann is going to be out for a while. Although no specific timeline has been provided, the fact that the Mets immediately expect him to be gone longer than ten days suggests that he could be facing a lengthy absence.

MLBTR’s list of the top trade candidates featured two catchers, with Willson Contreras taking the #1 slot and Sean Murphy at #41. However, recent reporting has suggested the Mets would like to hang onto their top prospects and would prefer to make deals by taking on large contracts. Contreras is a pure rental but the Cubs will surely be looking to extract as much prospect capital as they can in order to help them return to competition in the years to come. They’re running a lower payroll than in recent years and won’t need to worry about cost savings. As for Murphy, he hasn’t even reached arbitration yet and would only be moved by the A’s if they were bowled over by the return package, then turning to prospect Shea Langeliers behind the dish.

Another wild card that could come into play is Mets’ catching prospect Francisco Alvarez. He’s one of the best prospects in the game, with Baseball America ranking him #10, FanGraphs #6 and MLB Pipeline #2. Just 2o years old, he began the season in Double-A and mashed his way through with 18 home runs and a line of .277/.368/.553 for a wRC+ of 148. He was recently promoted to Triple-A but has struggled in a tiny five-game sample, hitting .125/.286/.188. Many Mets’ fans are already calling for his promotion, with those calls surely to only grow louder if McCann stays out of action and the club can’t find a suitable replacement on the trade market.

Mets Release Chasen Shreve

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The Mets announced that left-hander Chasen Shreve was released.  Shreve was designated for assignment earlier this week, to make room for Max Scherzer’s activation off the injured list.

Shreve signed a minor league deal with the Mets shortly after the lockout, returning to Queens after spending 2020 with the Mets and then the 2021 season with the Pirates.  While Shreve was eligible for arbitration last winter, the Pirates essentially gave him an early non-tender by outrighting him off the 40-man roster after the season, and Shreve then opted for free agency.

After making New York’s Opening Day roster, Shreve locked in a $1.5MM salary for himself, but his performance over 26 1/3 innings had plenty of ups and downs.  As recently as June 10, Shreve had a respectable 3.86 ERA, but then allowed 10 runs over his next 5 1/3 innings of work.  In total, the southpaw has a 6.49 ERA for the season, with an above-average 25.4% strikeout rate but plenty of subpar Statcast numbers in other major categories.  Shreve’s old problems with the home run ball have also resurfaced, as he has given up six homers in his 26 1/3 IP.

The Mets are responsible for paying the remainder of Shreve’s guaranteed salary, so any new team will owe him only the prorated portion of a minimum salary.  With teams constantly on the lookout for (especially left-handed) bullpen help, Shreve seems likely to catch on somewhere, particularly since his 2022 performance is something of an outlier.  Over 181 1/3 relief innings from 2017-21, Shreve had a solid 3.72 ERA, despite some unimpressive walk totals.

Mets Have Interest In Nelson Cruz

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The Mets are among the teams with interest in Nationals slugger Nelson Cruz, reports the New York Post’s Jon Heyman.

At this stage of his career, Cruz is strictly a designated hitter. Apart from one game at first base with the Rays in 2021, he hasn’t played the field since 2018. The Mets have frequently used their DH slot to give their regulars a half-day off, though the closest things they have to regular designated hitters are J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith. Both players have shown offensive prowess in the past but are having down years so far in 2022, making it fairly logical that the Mets would be thinking about upgrades.

Through 128 plate appearances coming into tonight, Smith is hitting .221/.297/.327 for a wRC+ of 83, a far cry from the 134 he put up in 2019 and the 166 during the shortened 2020 campaign. It’s a second straight season of diminished production for Smith, as he also put up a line of .244/.304/.363 last year, 86 wRC+. As for Davis, he had a wRC+ between 118 and 137 in the previous three seasons but is down to 98 this year, with a line of .240/.328/.338 coming into tonight’s action. There’s a bit more reason for optimism in the case of Davis, as he’s still hitting the ball hard. Statcast gives him good marks on basically every batted ball metric, including placing him in the 98th percentile in terms of average exit velocity. However, it seems the Mets are willing to look outside the organization to consider a change.

The Nationals underwent a big roster teardown last year, trading away many of their best players for prospects. In the offseason, they signed a number of veterans to one-year deals, with Cruz getting the largest and the most notable of the contracts. With the club knowing they were entering a noncompetitive rebuild year, his $15MM deal was clearly designed with a midseason trade in mind. As expected, the club is currently sporting a recording of 30-55, the second-worst in the National League.

However, Cruz isn’t exactly holding up his end of the bargain, as he’s hitting just .241/.322/.369 for a wRC+ of 94. That’s fairly similar to the production he put up with the Rays after last year’s midseason trade from the Twins. His batting line in a Rays’ uniform last year was .226/.283/.442, 96 wRC+. That means it’s been almost a full season’s worth of below average offensive production for the 42-year-old.

It’s still likely that some team takes a shot on Cruz based on his track record, but it’s unlikely the Nats will get the huge return they may have envisioned. Last year, the Twins sent Cruz and Calvin Faucher to the Rays in exchange for Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman. That deal seems to have worked out very well for the Twins, with Ryan emerging as a key piece of their rotation, though Strotman is struggling in the minors. Cruz was hitting .294/.370/.537 at the time of the deal for a wRC+ of 141, which surely helped the Twins net a return that the Nats are unlikely to match.

Since the Nats are so far out of contention and Cruz is heading back into free agency at season’s end, it’s likely that they will take the best prospect package they can find. That means it’s unlikely the Mets and Nats make perfect trading partners, as Heyman’s report notes that the Mets hope to hang onto all of their top prospects. This lines up with reporting from Bob Nightengale of USA Today from a few days ago, which suggested the Mets would prefer to take on large contracts as opposed to giving up important young players. That would seem to suggest the two clubs have misaligned priorities, though it’s possible the Nats aren’t able to get top prospects from any team, based on Cruz’s diminished production over the past year. Heyman adds this lack of willingness to deal top prospects makes it unlikely the Mets land either Josh Bell or Willson Contreras, but makes Cruz and Trey Mancini better fits. The Mets’ interest in Mancini was reported last week.

Given the rebuild, the Nats’ payroll is the lowest it’s been in about a decade, outside the shortened 2020 campaign, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. That presumably means they don’t need to move Cruz just for financial reasons. For their part, the Mets are right up against the new fourth luxury tax line of $290MM. Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimates that the Mets have already surpassed the line, calculating their luxury tax number to be $290.1MM. The aggressive spending has worked out for them thus far, as they are currently 51-31, trailing only the Dodgers among NL teams and giving them a 2 1/2 game lead over Atlanta in the East. They will surely look to be aggressive between now and the August 2 trade deadline in order to supplement their roster for a postseason run.

Mets Sign Deven Marrero To Minor League Deal

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The Mets signed Deven Marrero to a minor league contract last week (h/t to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America). The infielder was assigned to Triple-A Syracuse, where he’s made four appearances thus far.

Marrero, 31, is a former first-round pick of the Red Sox. He debuted in Boston in 2015 and spent parts of three seasons there, tallying a career-high 188 plate appearances in 2017. The right-handed hitter appeared in 49 games — primarily as a defensive replacement — for the 2018 Diamondbacks and saw sporadic action in parts of two seasons with the Marlins. That included ten games with Miami last season; Marrero made appearances on whenever the need for a depth infielder arose but found himself quickly outrighted off the roster each time.

At the end of last season, Marrero qualified for minor league free agency. He spent the first couple months of the 2022 campaign with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, hitting .238/.330/.300 through 194 trips to the plate. That’s obviously not an overwhelming showing, but Marrero has continued to get opportunities at the upper levels on the strength of his defensive versatility. He’s played more than 4500 minor league innings at shortstop and also has a fair bit of experience at each of third and second base.

Marrero will add some experienced non-roster infield insurance to the upper minors for the Mets. He owns a .194/.250/.284 line through parts of six MLB seasons and is a career .230/.291/.334 hitter in Triple-A.

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