Mets To Designate Jordan Yamamoto For Assignment
The Mets have designated right-hander Jordan Yamamoto for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for left-hander Chasen Shreve, whose contract has been selected to the 40-man roster, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Shreve told reporters earlier this week that he’d been informed he’s made the roster.
Yamamoto, 25, joined the Mets last offseason in a trade that sent minor league infielder Federico Polanco to the Marlins. He only made two appearances with the big league club and tallied only 32 2/3 minor league innings while battling a right shoulder injury. Originally drafted by the Brewers, Yamamoto was part of the Christian Yelich blockbuster with the Marlins and made his big league debut with the Fish in 2019, pitching to a solid 4.46 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate in 78 2/3 frames.
The shortened 2020 season was a nightmare for Yamamoto, as he surrendered 24 runs in just 10 2/3 innings. That ballooned his career ERA north of 6.00, but Yamamoto has generally been a solid pitcher in limited work outside that outlier season. He carries a career 3.79 ERA with a 25.3% strikeout rate, a 6.9% walk rate and a 44.6% ground-ball rate in 495 2/3 minor league innings as well.
Yamamoto does have a minor league option remaining, so it’s certainly possible that another club in need of some rotation depth will take a chance on a still-young righty who has had plenty of minor league success and also some success in the big leagues (2020 aside). The Mets will have a week to trade Yamamoto or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. If he clears waivers, they can assign him to Triple-A Syracuse to begin the season, and he’ll continue to serve as depth in the upper levels of their system. Given that Jacob deGrom is expected to miss months and the Mets’ rotation has several other injury risks and situations worth monitoring, that’d be a welcome bonus for the organization.
With deGrom slated to start the year on the injured list, it’s looking increasingly like young righty Tylor Megill will be tabbed as New York’s Opening Day starter (Twitter link via Mike Puma of the New York Post). Max Scherzer has been slowed a minor hamstring issue but is back on track and looks ticketed for the season’s second game. Taijuan Walker recently had what the team hopes to be a minor knee issue pop up in his final spring start. Carlos Carrasco is looking for a rebound after an injury-ruined 2021 season, and righty Chris Bassitt, acquired from the A’s over the winter, is expected to round out the Mets’ rotation to begin the season.
Todd Frazier Retires
Two-time All-Star Todd Frazier is set to announce his retirement today, he tells Greg Joyce of the New York Post. “(Baseball) has been my love my whole life,” the third baseman said. “It’s very hard to let go. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made in my life. But where I’m at in my career and where I’m at in my life, I think it was the right decision. I think it’s time to be that family figure that I’ve always wanted to be.”
Frazier has appeared in the majors in each of the past 11 seasons. A supplemental first-round pick out of Rutgers by the Reds in 2007, Frazier emerged as one of the sport’s most promising prospects within his first couple pro seasons. He debuted in the big leagues in 2011 and cemented himself at the hot corner in Cincinnati not long thereafter.
In 128 games in 2012, Frazier hit a productive .273/.331/.498 en route to a third-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year balloting. After a roughly league average showing the following season, he broke through as one of the better position players in the game. Frazier combined for a .264/.322/.479 showing between 2014-15, averaging 32 home runs per season. He was selected to the Midsummer Classic in both years and won the 2015 Home Run Derby in front of a home crowd in Cincinnati.
The rebuilding Reds moved Frazier to the White Sox as part of a three-team deal with the Dodgers the following winter. He spent a season and a half in Chicago, not quite reaching his peak Cincinnati level but still offering solid production. The Sox moved him to the Yankees midseason in 2017, and he spent the following two years in Queens after signing with the Mets that offseason. Frazier continued to hit at a decent level throughout that run. His batting average and on-base percentage gradually ticked down, but he popped 39 homers during his first two seasons as a Met.
Frazier’s 499 plate appearances in 2019 proved his last extended MLB workload. He signed with the Rangers over the 2019-20 offseason, then ended up back in Flushing when the Mets acquired him at the trade deadline. Frazier struggled down the stretch, though, and New York bought him out that winter. He hooked on with the Pirates last offseason and played in 13 games before being released in March.
That marked an end to Frazier’s time in the big leagues, but it didn’t bring his playing career to a complete conclusion. He was among a handful of respected veterans to represent the U.S. as part of last summer’s Silver Medal-winning team at the Tokyo Olympics.
Frazier wraps up his career with a .241/.318/.445 slash line in a bit under 5,000 MLB plate appearances. That production was seven percentage points better than league average in aggregate, by measure of wRC+, and he had three seasons with a wRC+ north of 115. A well-regarded defender for the bulk of his career, Frazier got plus marks from both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating. He suited up for six different clubs, combining to hit 218 homers and drive in 640 runs. Each of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs valued his career at around 23-24 wins above replacement, a very fine showing that endeared him to Reds fans in particular. MLBTR congratulates Frazier on an excellent run and wishes him all the best in his post-playing days.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Mets To Select Chasen Shreve
Veteran left-handed reliever Chasen Shreve has been informed that he’ll make the Mets’ Opening Day roster, Shreve himself tells Tim Healey of Newsday (Twitter link). Shreve signed a minor league deal back on March 17.
This’ll be Shreve’s second stint with the Mets, and it’s a well-earned roster spot for the 31-year-old southpaw, who rattled off four hitless innings with six strikeouts against just one walk allowed during Grapefruit League play with the Mets. Following yesterday’s trade for Joely Rodriguez, Shreve gives new manager Buck Showalter a pair of experienced lefties to help balance out his bullpen.
Shreve spent the 2021 season in Pittsburgh, where he worked to a 3.20 ERA in 56 1/3 innings. However, Shreve also saw his typically strong strikeout rate (career 27.1% prior to 2021) drop to 19.1%, while his 11.9% walk rate was the third-highest mark of his eight-year big league career. The Pirates could’ve retained him via arbitration but instead chose to outright him after the season rather than pay him a raise on last year’s $1.5MM salary.
Shreve’s prior stint with the Mets was a successful one, as he tossed 25 frames during the shortened 2020 season and worked to a 3.96 ERA with a much more robust 33.3% strikeout rate. The Mets will surely hope there’s more of that bat-missing prowess on display in 2022, but so long as he notches something in the vicinity of his career 3.63 ERA (285 innings), they’ll surely be pleased with what already looks like a solid low-risk pickup.
Shreve isn’t your typical lefty specialist with gaudy platoon splits; he hasn’t dominated left-handed opponents in his career but also hasn’t been overmatched by right-handers like so many southpaws. Through 482 plate appearances, lefties have batted .222/.319/.405 against Shreve, while right-handers have posted a very similar .226/.316/.428 slash in a larger sample of 741 plate appearances. Shreve will reach six years of Major League service early this year, so when the 2022 season ends, he’ll be eligible for free agency.
Mets Notes: Scherzer, deGrom, Nimmo
Max Scherzer is set to throw a bullpen session on Tuesday, Mets manager Buck Showalter told Newsday’s Tim Healey and other reporters. Right hamstring tightness kept Scherzer out of a scheduled seven-inning intrasquad game on Saturday, which was supposed to be Scherzer’s last bit of spring work before the beginning of the regular season.
The ace has already tossed 11 Grapefruit League innings, so his arm might already be built up enough should he get through Tuesday’s bullpen without any ill effects. It is also possible that the Mets might opt for some extra caution, and either push Scherzer’s first start back at least a few days, or maybe even sideline him with a backdated IL visit just to be completely sure that the 37-year-old is fully ready.
Scherzer’s health has taken on an greater import for the Mets in the wake of Friday’s news that Jacob deGrom will miss probably at least the first two months of the season after an MRI revealed a stress reaction in his right scapula. The Mets begin play on April 7 with seven straight games (a four-game series against the Nationals and then a three-game series against the Phillies), so there aren’t any off-days to provide breathing room for the pitching staff.
DeGrom and Scherzer had been penciled in for the first two games of the schedule, with Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco, and Taijuan Walker then slated to follow in the rotation. Rather than disrupt this planned routine, if Scherzer can’t pitch on April 7, any of Tyler Megill, David Peterson, or Trevor Williams could start the first two games, or New York could even opt for a bullpen game. Of course, the Mets are also known to be on the lookout for more starting pitching help, so a new face might suddenly emerge to help fill out the rotation picture.
DeGrom met with reporters (including The New York Post’s Mike Puma) today to discuss his injury, and unsurprisingly, his “level of frustration is really high right now” over another lengthy stint on the injured list. A forearm injury ended deGrom’s 2021 season on July 7, cutting short an incredible year that saw deGrom post an 1.08 ERA over 92 innings.
If there is any silver lining, deGrom is confident that his stress reaction won’t be a lingering problem: “Structurally everything looks fine, so once the bone heals then we’ll be ready to go and build up from there and hopefully be healthy for the rest of the year.” As such, deGrom reiterated that he is still planning to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract after the season, and test the open market.
Most pitchers with this recent injury history would be more hesitant over walking away from a guaranteed $30.5MM in 2023, plus maybe another $32.5MM in 2024 via a Mets club option. However, if deGrom is healthy and pitches like his usual self when he returns to the mound, he’ll surely land a more lucrative multi-year commitment. As The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal pointed out, $12MM of deGrom’s 2023 salary would also be deferred, so opting out would allow deGrom to land more up-front money in a new contract.
In other Mets contract news (or lack thereof), Puma reports that there hasn’t been any discussion between the club and Brandon Nimmo‘s representatives about a contract extension. Nimmo has stated multiple times that he would be interested in working out a long-term deal as he enters his final season before free agency. In general, most players prefer to not let talks carry on beyond Opening Day, so there might not be a lot of time left for a deal to get done if Nimmo adheres to this rough deadline.
Nimmo has been one of baseball’s more quietly productive players in recent years, hitting .266/.393/.445 with 47 home runs over 1695 career PA. This translates to a very impressive 131 OPS+ and 134 wRC+, but the key statistic might be the relatively small amount of plate appearances, as Nimmo has been beset by multiple injuries. It could be that the Mets have held off on extension talks in order to see if Nimmo can finally put together a lengthy stretch of playing time in 2022, though if he does stay healthy, Nimmo might then be tempted to test the free agent market.
Mets Trade Miguel Castro To Yankees For Joely Rodriguez
The Mets have traded Miguel Castro to the Yankees for Joely Rodriguez, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. As noted by MLBTR’s Steve Adams, Rodriguez was signed as a free agent this offseason and thus ineligible to be traded prior to June 15th without his consent. He and his agent gave that consent in exchange for a $500K assignment bonus, which will be paid by the Mets as part of this deal. (Twitter links) Rodriguez is represented by Daniel Szew of LA Sports Management.
For the Mets, they have had an extremely busy offseason, upgrading their lineup with the likes of Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar. They also added Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to their rotation and Adam Ottavino to their bullpen. However, the one area of the roster they hadn’t really addressed was left-handed relief. With Aaron Loup joining the Angels, the only southpaws on the roster were candidates for the starting rotation. The club gave minor league deals to veterans like Chasen Shreve and Alex Claudio, but they clearly view Rodriguez as a meaningful upgrade, based on the fact that they were willing to give up Castro to get him.
After a couple of seasons with the Phillies in 2016 and 2017, Rodriguez headed overseas for a stint with the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball. After two solid seasons in Japan, Rodriguez was able to come back to North American via a two-year deal from the Rangers. In the shortened 2020 season, he put up an ERA of 2.13 over 12 2/3 innings. Things seemed to be going in the wrong direction last year, as his ERA shot up to 5.93 in July. However, the Yankees seemed to believe that was a small sample blip, as they acquired him as part of the Joey Gallo trade. He fared much better after the swap, with a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings in pinstripes. At the end of the season, the club declined their $3MM option in favor of a $500K buyout, but then quickly re-signed him to a $2MM salary, saving themselves $500K. With this trade and the assignment bonus, Rodriguez has made back that difference.
The Yanks evidently felt they had enough lefties to part with Rodriguez, given the presence Wandy Peralta and Lucas Luetge, along with closer Aroldis Chapman. For their part, they are receiving Miguel Castro, a right-handed reliever. Despite being just 27 years old, he has appeared in part of seven MLB seasons thus far in his career, spending time with the Blue Jays, Rockies, Orioles and Mets. Those first couple of seasons were a bit shaky, which is not surprising given that Castro was just 20 and 21 years old during that time. However, over the past five seasons, he’s established himself as a quality big league reliever. Since the start of the 2017 season, he’s thrown 321 innings with an ERA of 3.93. His strikeout rate was just 14.6% over 2017-2018, but has jumped up to 25.2% over the past three campaigns. Walks have been a concern, with his annual rate coming in between 10 and 15% in each of the past five seasons. He and the Mets agreed to a $2.62MM salary for this season, his final arbitration year before hitting free agency at the end of this year. He will slot into a bullpen that will be headlined by Chapman, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green and Clay Holmes.
Padres, Mets Reportedly Stalled On Hosmer Trade Talks
4:57PM: Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports that talks may have stalled entirely after the two sides “hit a snag” in negotiations. Sherman is even more blunt, saying the proposed trade “is not going to happen.”
8:50 AM: A potential deal between the two sides would be a little more complex than initially presumed. Per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter), the Padres would unsurprisingly need to eat a fair amount of the money owed to Hosmer in order to make this deal work. Specifically, the Padres would cover roughly $30MM or more of Hosmer’s deal, bringing Hosmer’s per annum down to $6-7MM per year, per Sherman.
The Mets would also get reliever Emilio Pagan in the deal. Pagan has at times looked like a premier bullpen arm during his five seasons in the bigs with the Mariners, Rays, A’s, and Padres. The 30-year-old is an option to close games if he stays in San Diego, whereas in New York he would slot into a fairly deep collection of right-handed setup arms that includes Adam Ottavino, Drew Smith, Miguel Castro, Trevor May, and Seth Lugo.
7:55 AM: The Mets have spent the offseason pushing full-bore towards fielding a competitive squad, but the fragility of an offseason win became clear yesterday with the news of ace Jacob deGrom being shut down for the next four weeks. The panic alarm has sounded, but the Mets are not without solutions.
In fact, they just so happen to have been in conversation with the Padres for the past couple of weeks about different trade scenarios, at least one of which could bring another arm to New York to help plug the leak. Per The Athletic’s Dennis Lin, Ken Rosenthal, and others, a potential deal could center around Eric Hosmer and Chris Paddack heading to the Mets, while Dominic Smith would go to San Diego.
The Padres have been trying to move off of Hosmer’s money for quite some time now, and the freewheeling Mets may now have a big enough need in the rotation to consider taking him back. There’s some urgency for the Padres here, as Hosmer’s partial no-trade clause turns into full 10-and-5 rights at the end of this season. Of course, if he is traded, Hosmer’s contract has a clause that says he cannot be traded twice without his consent, so he will essentially get his no-trade clause by the end of the 2022 campaign regardless for whom he plays.
With $59MM over four years left on his deal, Hosmer does not have positive trade value – not after fWAR totals of 0.0, 0.9, -0.3, and -0.1 over the past four seasons. Entering his age-32 season, one doesn’t expect Hosmer to flourish overnight. Furthermore, the Mets absolutely have no need for him, not with Pete Alonso on the roster.
Acquiring Hosmer would mean pushing the Mets deeper into luxury tax territory with a payroll nearing $300MM, notes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Mets might be willing to take him if they can reinforce their rotation at the same time, however.
Enter Paddack. The 26-year-old has three years of team control remaining and significant upside. He’s far from a sure thing, however. His numbers declined for the third consecutive season last year when he finished with a 5.07 ERA across 108 1/3 innings. A slightly torn UCL might be the cause of the decline, but that’s not necessarily a situation that has totally resolved itself. Paddack would, therefore, be an option to slide into deGrom’s rotation spot, but he’s far from a panacea for the Mets’ long-term concerns.
In the short term, he might not even be an upgrade over Tylor Megill, the presumptive fifth starter in deGrom’s absence. Megill posted a 4.52 ERA/4.69 FIP over 18 starts covering 89 2/3 innings in 2021 – his first taste of big league action. The Mets could certainly begin the season with Megill in the rotation and see how things go from there.
For the Padres part, their motivation would mostly be to shed Hosmer’s contract. They have enough rotation depth, theoretically, to weather the loss of Paddack, and in Smith, they’d be getting back a comparable bat that’s cheaper, more versatile, and with more theoretical upside than Hosmer. He’s also under team control for two more seasons beyond 2022, though those seasons aren’t guaranteed, should he continue to struggle at the dish.
For the first part of his career, the story on Smith was that he needed at-bats, but his natural position of first base was spoken for, so his ceiling was no more than that of a bit player. Then the designated hitter came to the NL in 2020, Smith starting taking flyballs in left field, and the offensive promise came to fruition with a .316/.377/.616 line over 199 plate appearances during the shortened campaign.
He again saw fairly stable playing time in 2021, but the numbers cratered to an 86 wRC+ by way of a .244/.304/.363 line across 494 plate appearances , more than doubling his previous career-high in that regard. The Padres do need a left fielder, and Smith could step right in at first base were this deal to go down. Still, for San Diego, this deal is mostly about moving off of Hosmer. There are options out there for left field – including former Met Michael Conforto – but Smith would certainly be worth rostering if acquiring him meant removing Hosmer from the payroll.
Opening Day In Question For Max Scherzer
Max Scherzer was scratched from his spring training start today because of a tweaked hamstring, writes MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. After the news of Jacob deGrom‘s injury yesterday, there would be no more devastating update for the Mets than a Scherzer injury, but all accounts say that the injury is not serious.
Scherzer himself would not set a timetable on his return, with a video clip of Scherzer speaking to reporters provided here by Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News. Scherzer would not rule out being ready by opening day, but he would neither commit to it.
Without Scherzer and deGrom, the Mets would turn to Carlos Carrasco, Chris Bassitt, or Taijuan Walker for the opening day start. Tylor Megill is likely to step into the rotation as well, barring a trade or other roster movement over the next few days.
Jacob deGrom Shut Down For Four Weeks Due To Stress Reaction In Shoulder
Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom was to undergo an MRI today, and the news isn’t positive for the former NL Cy Young Award winner. As per ESPN’s Jeff Passan, deGrom suffered a stress reaction in his right scapula. The Mets announced that DeGrom will be re-evaluated after being shut down for the next four weeks.
Between the shutdown, the necessary ramp-up period, and probably some natural caution given all of deGrom’s recent injuries, a 60-day IL placement seems likely. That would put deGrom on track for a June debut in a best-case scenario, and thus it will mean that the ace will be going roughly 11 months between Major League outings. DeGrom last pitched on July 7, 2021 before then suffering a forearm issue that wound up ending his season.
Between that forearm problem and multiple smaller injuries beforehand, deGrom pitched only 92 innings in 2021, though he was spectacular in that abbreviated campaign. DeGrom had a 1.08 ERA, 45.1% strikeout rate, and a 3.4% walk rate, and seemed to be on pace for a season for the ages. Despite all his missed time, deGrom’s performance still earned him a ninth-place finish in NL Cy Young voting.
If there is any silver lining to today’s news, a stress reaction is at least preferable to a more serious shoulder injury, as Passan writes that “typically, stress reactions are healed through rest.” Retired right-hander Brandon McCarthy (who suffered the same injury early in his career) also chimed in, tweeting that the stress reaction “really isn’t a big deal. Not as big as it seems. [DeGrom will] be just fine.”
With deGrom out of action, the Mets’ rotation depth will be tested again. Max Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, and the newly-acquired Chris Bassitt will now form the top four, and one of Tylor Megill, Trevor Williams, or David Peterson will step into that fifth starter’s role. It could be that the Mets use more than one of those hurlers as a starter, and as always, a new acquisition can’t be ruled out given how aggressive the Mets have been this winter. However, GM Billy Eppler told reporters (including Deesha Thosar of The New York Daily News) that deGrom’s injury doesn’t necessarily make a trade for pitching any more likely.
Beyond the short-term impact of the injury on deGrom’s status and on the Mets’ season, there is also a longer-term contractual situation looming. DeGrom has already stated that he plans to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract following the season, though naturally this latest injury could change his thinking. DeGrom is owed $33.5MM this season and $30.5MM in 2023, and New York has a $32.5MM club option on his services for 2024. If deGrom returns from his injury and posts his usual numbers, he’ll still surely opt out in search of a lengthier and more lucrative deal with the Mets or another team. Should he miss more time, however, or struggle following his return, it will create more of a decision for deGrom in choosing whether or not to test the open market.
Jacob deGrom Undergoing MRI After Experiencing Shoulder Tightness
The Mets have officially scratched ace Jacob deGrom from today’s scheduled Grapefruit League appearance, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. He’ll instead undergo an MRI after experiencing tightness in his right shoulder while playing catch yesterday. While there’s no indication yet that deGrom is dealing with a major injury or expected to miss significant time, the mere fact that he’s been scratched in favor of imaging is an obvious source of concern.
Expected to pair with newly signed Max Scherzer to form one of the great one-two punches, the 33-year-old deGrom has already cemented himself as one of the most talented pitchers of this generation. If he does miss time with this shoulder ailment, however, it’ll mark a second straight season with an absence due to arm-related injuries.
In 2021, deGrom appeared well on his way to a third Cy Young in four years, pitching to an inhuman 1.08 ERA with a 45.1% strikeout rate against just a 3.4% walk rate through his first 92 innings. He hit the injured list with a forearm strain in early July, however. The injury wasn’t initially believed to be season-ending in nature, but after a series of setbacks and delays in his rehab work, the Mets eventually shut deGrom down for the season in late September.
For the time being, the Mets will send non-roster righty Felix Pena to the hill to make today’s spring start. Manager Buck Showalter is currently speaking with reporters on the matter and indicated that deGrom’s MRI will be conducted around 9:30am ET (Twitter link via Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). No determination on deGrom’s availability for Opening Day will be made until that imaging is performed. DeGrom felt the tightness in his shoulder on the final few throws of a long-toss session yesterday, Showalter added.
The Mets are relying on deGrom, Scherzer, trade acquisition Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco to handle the bulk of rotation work this season, though they have several solid depth options beyond that quintet. Tylor Megill, David Peterson and Jordan Yamamoto are all on the 40-man roster already, while veteran southpaw Mike Montgomery gives them another experienced option who’s in camp as a non-roster invitee.
Mets Claim Yoan Lopez Off Waivers From Marlins
The Mets have claimed reliever Yoan López off waivers from the Marlins, according to announcements from both teams. To clear space on the 40-man roster, New York placed left-hander Joey Lucchesi on the 60-day injured list.
López continues to bounce around the league — and more specifically, the NL East — via waivers. Designated for assignment by the Braves early in the offseason, he was claimed by the Phillies just before the lockout. Since the work stoppage, he’s gone from Philadelphia to Miami and now to Queens on the waiver wire.
Despite having been a member of four NL East teams within the past six months, the only big league club for which López has ever suited up is the Diamondbacks. A high-profile signee by Arizona out of Cuba, he was one of the better pitching prospects in the D-Backs system for the next couple years. López reached the big leagues briefly in 2018 and found a bit of success early in his career. He pitched to a 3.41 ERA over 60 2/3 innings during his second MLB campaign, but an underwhelming 17.1% strikeout rate indicated he might have trouble continuing to keep runs off the board.
That proved to be the case, as he’s posted a 6.19 mark in 32 innings over the past two years. His 19.6% strikeout percentage and 10.1% walk rate in that time are both worse than average. That said, the 29-year-old has actually had some success missing bats on a pitch-by-pitch basis. He’s generated swinging strikes on nearly 13% of his offerings in each of the past two years, about a point above the 11.7% league average for bullpen arms. López has also averaged north of 95 MPH on his fastball and has posted slightly better than average ground-ball marks.
Traded from Arizona to Atlanta in May, López spent the majority of last season with the Braves’ top affiliate in Gwinnett. He had much better results there than he’s had in the big leagues, posting a 3.03 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate in 32 appearances. Between his Triple-A performance and pair of remaining minor league option years, López has clearly piqued the interest of a handful of teams. None have yet been willing to devote him a permanent spot on the 40-man roster, but the Mets can stash him at Triple-A Syracuse as a depth option for the next couple years were they to keep him on the 40-man.
Lucchesi’s 60-day IL placement was an inevitability whenever New York needed a roster spot. The southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery last June and will miss most or all of the upcoming season recovering.