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Mets Claim Michael Tonkin, Designate Tyler Jay

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The Mets have claimed righty Michael Tonkin off waivers from the Twins, per a team announcement. Left-hander Tyler Jay was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

It’s in many ways a reversal of some recent bullpen-related transactions in Queens. New York designated Tonkin for assignment on April 5, traded him to the Twins for cash, and less than a week later selected the contract of Jay (a former Twins top prospect himself). Minnesota designated Tonkin for assignment a second time after he made just one appearance.

Both Tonkin and Jay were original Twins draftees — Tonkin in the 30th round in 2008 and Jay with the No. 6 overall pick in 2015. The 34-year-old Tonkin has allowed 10 runs in six innings between the Mets and Twins this year, though only four of them have been earned. He’s whiffed eight of 33 opponents and walked three, although he’s also plunked three batters in his tiny sample of innings.

Tonkin spent the 2023 season in the Braves’ bullpen, logging a 4.28 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in 80 innings. That set a new career-high MLB workload for the journeyman right-hander, who owns a career 4.42 ERA (4.55 FIP, 3.70 SIERA) with a 23.1% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 39.7% grounder rate in 232 1/3 big league innings between Minnesota, Atlanta and New York. Tonkin has also pitched in the D-backs and Brewers systems in addition to stints with the independent Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, the Mexican League’s Toros de Tijuana, and the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan.

As for Jay, his major league debut came far, far later than most would’ve expected when he was taken sixth overall as a high-profile college arm out of the University of Illinois. A former top-100 prospect, he’s been slowed by shoulder and neck troubles throughout his career and notably underwent thoracic outlet surgery back in 2017, costing him a year of his career. Jay never tossed more than 83 2/3 innings in any of his seasons with the Twins before being cut loose during the canceled 2020 minor league season. He didn’t pitch at all in 2021 and spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League.

His work with the Slammers earned him a look in the Mets’ system late last year. He re-signed on a minor league deal over the winter, tossed 5 2/3 shutout frames in Triple-A Syracuse to begin the season, and allowed one run on five hits and a walk in his first four MLB frames with the Mets. Jay only struck out one of the 18 batters he faced but also recorded an outstanding 66.7% ground-ball rate. New York will have a week to trade Jay, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.

Francisco Lindor’s Slow Start Is Not Abnormal

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This post is brought to you by Stathead.  We use Stathead, powered by Baseball Reference, to find interesting stats in our articles. Stathead has easy-to-use discovery tools to take you inside the BR database. Try it for free today!

The 2024 season is now rolling along, which means it’s time to wildly overreact to small samples of data. Previously unremarkable players are suddenly looking like Hall-of-Famers while reliably good players now seem to be washed.

A midseason slump is easy to dismiss when you look up and the full season stats still seem good. Maybe a slumping hitter is still hitting .265 or a pitcher that just got lit up still has an earned run average around 4.00. But early on, a batting average that starts with a zero or an ERA that has two digits before the decimal place can be a cause for concern.

Thankfully, Stathead has an amazing tool to help put this all into proper context. Using the Span Finder, we can search a player’s entire career to see if they have ever had a previous slump that compares to what’s currently happening. Let’s use Francisco Lindor as an example.

It’s no secret that Lindor hasn’t exactly been his best self so far this year. His struggles became such a talking point amid fans of the Mets that some of them got together on social media and decided to support Lindor with a standing ovation, mirroring how Phillies’ fans responded when Trea Turner was struggling last year.

Through 15 games, Lindor has just eight hits in 62 at-bats for a .129 batting average. Just two of those eight hits have been for extra bases, one double and one home run. His batting line is just  .129/.236/.194 and his on-base plus slugging is just .430, well below his career mark of .810.

Now that Lindor is 30 years old, it might be tempting to consider this the start of some age-based decline, but Span Finder shows us that he has been here before. Doing a custom search for every 15-game stretch of Lindor’s career and sorting by ascending OPS, we get this…

  • September 10 to September 26 of 2016: .309 OPS
  • September 11 to September 28 of 2016: .337 OPS
  • September 9 to September 24 of 2016: .340 OPS
  • April 17 to May 5 of 2021: .388 OPS
  • October 1 of 2023 to April 13 of 2024: .392 OPS
  • September 8 to September 23 of 2016: .404 OPS
  • April 17 of 2021 to May 3 of 2021: .414 OPS
  • September 29 of 2017 to April 11 of 2018: .429 OPS
  • March 29 to April 14 of 2024: .430 OPS

Lindor is clearly in one of the worst stretches of his career right now, but it’s not totally without precedent. He slumped real bad at the end of the 2016 season when he was 22 years old. Despite that awful finish, he still hit .301/.358/.435 on the year overall for a 106 OPS+. Cleveland made the playoffs that year and Lindor immediately put that slump behind him, hitting .310/.355/.466 in the postseason as the club went all the way to Game 7 of the World Series, even going to extra innings in that classic game.

Given that there were also some notable struggles early on in 2018 and 2021 mixed in there, it seems fair to conclude that Lindor is performing within the range of previous outcomes. It’s clearly not ideal for him or the Mets that he’s started the season in this hole, but it’s one he has climbed out of before. Throughout the ups and downs of his career, he has hit .272/.340/.470 for a 116 OPS+.

That bat, along with Lindor’s speed and defense, are why the Mets gave him a ten-year, $341MM extension a few years ago. That deal pays Lindor $32MM annually through the 2031 season, so it’s good for the Mets that his current slump isn’t totally unprecedented.

Mets Acquire Joe Hudson From Cubs

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The Cubs traded journeyman catcher Joe Hudson to the Mets yesterday, per the teams’ transaction logs at MLB.com. It’s presumably a cash deal that’ll give the Mets some additional depth behind the plate. Hudson was assigned to Double-A Binghamton.

Hudson, 32, has seen brief action in three big leagues seasons but none since 2020. He has just 33 MLB plate appearances under his belt. Hudson has spent the past two seasons in Triple-A with the Rays and Braves, hitting for a low average but posting strong on-base marks and showing off good pop at the plate. He was hitless in eight plate appearances with the Cubs’ Iowa affiliate in 2024 but batted .230/.362/.432 with 20 homers in just 437 plate appearances with the top affiliates for the Rays and Braves from 2022-23.

Behind the plate, Hudson is 0-for-7 in halting steals at the MLB level but boasts an enormous 40% caught-stealing rate in 11 minor league seasons. He’s also typically posted strong framing marks in the upper minors, per Baseball Prospectus.

The Mets are set at catcher on the big league roster, with young Francisco Alvarez shouldering the bulk of the workload and veteran Omar Narvaez backing him up. In Triple-A, they’ve got veteran Tomas Nido and well-traveled Austin Allen — a pair of backstops with big league experience (quite a bit of experience, in Nido’s case). For now, Hudson will head to Double-A and pair with top catching prospect Kevin Parada.

Orioles Acquire Yohan Ramirez From Mets

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The Orioles have acquired reliever Yohan Ramírez from the Mets for cash, the teams announced. New York had designated the righty for assignment on Monday. Baltimore’s 40-man roster now sits at capacity.

Ramírez spent a couple months in the New York organization. The Mets acquired him from the White Sox in a cash deal in December. He held his spot on the 40-man roster for the rest of the offseason and broke camp. A pair of rough outings quickly squeezed him off the big league team, though. After recording one out in a scoreless appearance in his season debut, he allowed seven runs on nine hits over his next five innings.

The 28-year-old has played for five teams over the past four-plus seasons. Ramírez has tallied 129 1/3 innings at the highest level, turning in a reasonable 4.31 ERA. He has punched out a decent 23.1% of batters faced, yet he’s also struggled to throw strikes consistently. Ramírez has walked over 12% of big league opponents. The sinkerballer induced grounders at a huge 58.4% rate last season but has posted more pedestrian ground-ball numbers in every other year.

While his stuff has clearly intrigued a handful of teams, Ramírez’s scattershot command has made him something of a volatile middle reliever. Perhaps more importantly, he’s also out of minor league options. Teams can’t send him to Triple-A without first running him through waivers, which no club has yet achieved.

Baltimore entered the day with a pair of openings on the 40-man roster. They snagged infielder Livan Soto off waivers this afternoon before their evening bullpen pickup. Neither move comes at much cost, although the O’s will need to devote an MLB bullpen spot to Ramírez once he reports to the team.

The Orioles already have four relievers on the active roster who can’t be sent down: Craig Kimbrel, Mike Baumann, Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb. They’re not likely to send down any of Yennier Cano, Keegan Akin or Dillon Tate, while Jonathan Heasley is working as a long reliever. That’s a tough bullpen for Ramírez to crack, so it’s not out of the question that Baltimore tries to sneak him through waivers themselves in the next few days.

Julio Teheran Elects Free Agency

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Julio Teheran has elected free agency after clearing waivers, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The Mets had designated him for assignment on Tuesday.

Teheran’s stint as a Met couldn’t have been much shorter. The veteran righty agreed to terms on a major league deal on April 3, a move that was announced by the team two days later. Skipper Carlos Mendoza tabbed him for a start in Atlanta on Monday. Teheran allowed four runs without making it out of the third inning and was DFA one day later.

While it wasn’t the most productive tenure, Teheran banked a major league salary for around a week. His contract called for a prorated $2.5MM salary for time spent in the majors, so he collected upwards of $80K. That’s a decent outcome for a player who had opted out of a minor league pact with the Orioles at the end of Spring Training.

The 33-year-old now sets out in search of his third organization of the 2024 campaign. He may need to settle for a minor league contract this time around, but he should find interest from teams looking for experienced rotation depth. Teheran started 11 of 14 appearances with the Brewers last season, allowing 4.40 earned runs per nine innings.

That was Teheran’s heaviest workload at the major league level since 2019. A two-time All-Star during his nine-year tenure with the Braves, he has pitched for four clubs since the start of the ’20 campaign. Over the last four-plus seasons, Teheran owns a 6.10 ERA with a well below-average 16.1% strikeout rate against a solid 7.2% walk percentage.

Mets Transfer Kodai Senga To 60-Day Injured List

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The Mets announced that right-hander Kodai Senga has been transferred to the 60-day injured list. That’s the corresponding move to open a roster spot for left-hander Tyler Jay, who was reported earlier to be joining the club.

Senga, 31, was diagnosed with a moderate posterior capsule strain in his throwing shoulder during Spring Training and started the season on the 15-day IL. He’ll now be ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement, which will be late May. Manger Carlos Mendoza said yesterday that Senga still has not thrown off a mound, per Will Sammon of The Athletic.

The news of Senga’s injury came in late February and the club initially planned for a shutdown period of at least three weeks, though they later planned on adding another seven to ten days to be cautious. It was reported almost three weeks ago that Senga was to begin a throwing program but the fact that he has not made it to a mound yet suggests that he either had some sort of setback or is being ramped up very slowly. Whatever the reason, the Mets apparently don’t expect Senga to be able to rejoin the club in the next six weeks.

It’s obviously a frustrating development for Senga and the team. The righty came over from Japan last year and was an immediate success, pitching 166 1/3 innings with a 2.98 earned run average. His 11.1% walk rate was a tad high but he struck out 29.1% of batters faced while keeping 44.7% of balls in play on the ground. He finished seventh in National Cy Young voting and second in Rookie of the Year voting.

Rotation health has been an issue for the Mets so far this year. David Peterson required hip surgery in the offseason and began the year on the IL, while Senga and Max Kranick followed him due to spring injuries, the latter suffering a hamstring strain. Tylor Megill took a rotation spot to start the year but landed on the IL himself after just one outing due to a shoulder strain.

The current rotation consists of Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino and Adrian Houser, with José Buttó likely to be recalled soon to join that group. Until the injured hurlers get back, Joey Lucchesi is likely the top depth option, as he’s on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment.

Mets To Select Tyler Jay

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The Mets are calling up left-hander Tyler Jay for what would be his major league debut. Newsday’s Tim Healey tweeted last night that right-hander Dedniel Nunez was optioned back to Triple-A following yesterday’s appearance, and @JohnFromWrigley reported that Jay would be taking his 26-man roster spot. Multiple reporters, including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, have since confirmed that Jay will indeed be joining the big league club. The Mets will need to formally select Jay’s contract to the 40-man roster and make a corresponding move in order to do so.

Jay, 30 next week, was the No. 6 overall pick by the Twins back in 2015. The former University of Illinois lefty was widely regarded as one of the top pitching talents in the draft. Though there was some surprise at his coach’s decision to put Jay in the bullpen, the southpaw was viewed as a potential big league starter or fast-track reliever.

Early scouting reports at Baseball America, MLB.com, ESPN and other outlets pegged him with a fastball that reached 98 mph and what BA termed “at least” a 70-grade slider. Keith Law wrote at the time that Jay had plus-plus command as well. He was ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects at BA, MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus and ESPN heading into the 2016 season.

As is so often the case with pitching prospects, injuries intervened. Shoulder and neck injuries plagued Jay for much of his early years in pro ball. He pitched just 11 2/3 innings in 2017 before requiring thoracic outlet surgery. Jay topped out at 83 2/3 innings in his other three seasons in the Twins’ system and was out of affiliated ball entirely by the time the 2021 season rolled around. Jay didn’t pitch at all that year and only returned to pitching in 2022 on the independent circuit, tossing 22 excellent innings for the Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League.

Jay returned to the Slammers in 2023 and parlayed his stint there into a minor league look with the Mets. He yielded four runs in six Triple-A frames last year, re-signed on a minor league deal, and has opened the 2024 campaign with 3 2/3 scoreless innings.

Overall, Jay has a 3.77 ERA in parts of seven minor league seasons. He’s fanned 22.5% of his opponents against an 8.3% walk rate. Whether he gets an actual chance to stick in the bullpen or is merely up for a quick cup of coffee, it’s a feel-good story for Jay, who’ll be occupying a spot on a big league roster for the first time after a nearly decade-long grind through the minors and the independent circuit.

Mets Designate Julio Teheran For Assignment

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The Mets have designated right-handed pitcher Julio Teheran for assignment, according to an announcement from the club. In a corresponding move, the team selected right-hander Dedniel Núñez from Triple-A Syracuse.

Teheran and the club just agreed to a one-year, $2.5MM deal last week, but Tim Healey of Newsday reports today that the contract was non-guaranteed and prorated with Teheran collecting $54K for his brief stint on the roster, though Healey also adds that Teheran’s prorated deal will continue to pay him while he’s in DFA limbo.

Teheran took the ball for the Mets last night against a tough Atlanta lineup and clearly struggled. It took him 68 pitches to get through 2 2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs via six hits and two walks, striking out three in the process.

The Mets were put in a position to need an extra starting pitcher by some recent injuries. They knew long ago that David Peterson had hip surgery and wouldn’t be an option early in this season, but then Kodai Senga was diagnosed with a moderate posterior capsule strain in his throwing shoulder in late February. That left a spot open for a depth arm like Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi or Jose Buttó. Megill won that job but then suffered a right shoulder strain after just one start.

Neither Lucchesi nor Buttó could be recalled right away to replace Megill since they were optioned to start the season and an optional assignment comes with a 15-day minimum stay. An exception that rule is allowed for a double-header, which is why Buttó was allowed to be the club’s “27th man” and pitch on April 4, but he wasn’t allowed to stay after due to the 15-day rule. Teheran filled that rotation job for one outing but it seems Buttó will be coming up this weekend once he’s eligible, per Tim Healey of Newsday and Mike Puma of The New York Post.

The Mets will now have a week to trade Teheran or try to pass him through waivers. The latter scenario will largely be a moot point since Teheran is a veteran with well over five years of major league service time, meaning he can reject an outright assignment in favor of electing free agency.

Teheran had a bit of a bounceback year in 2023, tossing 71 2/3 innings over 11 starts and three relief appearances with a 4.40 earned run average. He only struck out 17.4% of batters faced but limited walks to a 4.5% clip. Those results aren’t super exciting but still were a bit of a return to form for him. He didn’t pitch in the majors at all in 2022 and was only allowed to take the ball once in 2021 after he posted an ERA of 10.05 for the Angels in the shortened 2020 season.

Prior to that, he was a mainstay in the Atlanta rotation, making 222 starts from 2013 to 2019 with a 3.64 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate. Last year’s performance with the Brewers wasn’t quite at that level but was a turnaround after three challenging years. Given the enormous amount of pitching injuries around the league right now, it’s possible that Teheran will garner interest from clubs in search of innings.

Núñez, 28 in June, has not yet appeared in a major league game but he does have one year of major league service time. That’s because the Giants selected him from the Mets in the 2020 Rule 5 draft but he required Tommy John surgery before the 2021 season started and he eventually spent all of that year on the injured list, with the Giants returning him to the Mets after that year.

He split 2023 between Double-A and Triple-A with a 5.53 ERA in 57 innings, striking out 26.8% of batters faced but also walking 12.3%. He has thrown 3 1/3 scoreless innings at Triple-A so far this year, with five strikeouts and just one walk. Back in February, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs mentioned Núñez as a pitcher who could debut for the Mets this year thanks to his high 90s heat, but also expressed concerns about the lack of control.

Twins Acquire Michael Tonkin From Mets

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The Twins announced that they have acquired right-hander Michael Tonkin from the Mets, after the latter club designated him for assignment last week. Outfielder Max Kepler has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right knee contusion, opening an active roster spot for Tonkin. Right-hander Zack Weiss was transferred to the 60-day IL due to his right shoulder strain, opening a spot on the 40-man.

Tonkin, 34, returns to the organization that originally drafted him in the 30th round back in 2008. He’s pitched in the D-backs, Brewers, Braves and Mets organizations since originally leaving the Twins, in addition to stints in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the Mexican League and the independent Atlantic League.

Though he pitched just four innings with the Mets, Tonkin spent the entirety of the 2023 season in the Braves’ bullpen, working to a 4.28 ERA with a solid 23.1% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate in 80 innings of relief. That marked his first MLB experience since 2017. Overall, Tonkin has appeared in parts of seven big league seasons. He carries a career 4.38 ERA with strikeout and walk rates that closely mirror his 2023 levels in Atlanta.

Tonkin originally signed a split one-year deal with the Mets, which calls for just a $1MM base salary. The Twins will owe him the prorated portion of that sum for any time spent on the big league roster, though he’ll have a different rate of pay in the minors if Minnesota designates him for assignment, passes him through waivers and outrights him to Triple-A St. Paul. He’s out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent down unless going through that waiver process first.

The Twins have several relievers on the injured list, most notably including Jhoan Duran, Caleb Thielbar and Justin Topa. None of those injuries are expected to require long-term absences, but Tonkin will add a veteran arm to a group that’s been tested more early on than the front office would’ve hoped. If he can get on track and carve out a role in the Twins’ bullpen, he’s technically controllable through the 2026 season via arbitration.

Kepler fouled a ball into his leg recently, creating the contusion that’s currently hobbling him. The 31-year-old is out to a poor start at the plate, having gone just 1-for-20 with a walk and six strikeouts. Kepler had a prolonged slump during the 2023 season as well, struggling badly in May and for most of June before catching fire late that month. He closed out the season hitting .297/.368/.545 with 17 home runs in his final 326 plate appearances. That torrid run erased any doubt that might’ve been rising regarding his $10MM club option for the 2024 season.

With Kepler on the shelf, the Twins can go with fellow lefty swingers Matt Wallner and Alex Kirilloff in the outfield corners — presumably with Wallner in right field. Right-handed-hitting Manuel Margot will work into the mix against lefty starters, and the Twins could also mix in utility players Willi Castro and Austin Martin.

Mets Designate Yohan Ramírez, Select Cole Sulser

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The Mets have selected the contract of right-hander Cole Sulser and designated fellow righty Yohan Ramírez for assignment, with Tim Healey of Newsday Sports among those to relay the transactions.

Ramírez, 29 next month, was acquired by the Mets from the White Sox in a December cash deal. He’s made three appearances for the club so far this year but allowed seven earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out six opponents but also gave out four walks. His outing on Saturday was particularly rough, as he entered the game in the bottom of the seventh with the Mets up 5-4 on the Reds. Ramírez pitched a scoreless frame but came back out for the eighth and then allowed five earned runs on four hits and two walks.

It seems that performance will get the righty bumped off the active roster and off the 40-man as well, since Ramírez is out of options. The Mets will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He could garner interest based on his work in previous seasons, as he has a career earned run average of 4.31 in 129 1/3 innings with the Mariners, Guardians, Pirates, White Sox and now the Mets. His career walk rate of 12.6% is on the high side but his 23.1% strikeout rate and 44.2% ground ball rate are both solid and he’s generally done well at limiting hard contact.

As pitching injuries mount around the league, perhaps some club will be willing to take a chance on him. Ramírez has under three years of service time and therefore comes with years of potential club control. But if he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Mets as non-roster depth. He doesn’t have the service time or the previous career outright that would allow him to elect free agency instead of accepted an outright assignment.

His spot will go to Sulser, 34, who signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason. He appeared to be in good form during the spring, tossing six scoreless innings while striking out ten opponents without issuing a walk. He’s made one Triple-A appearance since then, allowing an earned run while striking out one and walking one.

He has 132 2/3 innings of big league experience with a 3.87 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate. Injuries have often played a role in limiting him from taking on larger workloads. He tossed 63 1/3 innings for the Orioles in 2021 with a 2.70 ERA but was held back by shoulder strains in each of the two subsequent campaigns. He still has an option remaining and could be sent back to the minors at a future date without being exposed to waivers.

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