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Deven Marrero

15 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the postseason rolls along, players hit minor league free agency daily. It’s customary each offseason for dozens of players to hit the open market, separate from the players who reach MLB free agency at the end of the World Series based on the expiration of their contracts while having six-plus years of MLB service time.

Any player who is not on his team’s 40-man roster at season’s end but has three-plus years of MLB service, multiple career outright assignments and/or seven-plus seasons in the minor leagues has the right to elect free agency. Everyone in today’s group falls under that umbrella. The majority will take minor league deals over the winter, although one or two could find a big league deal as a bench piece or middle-inning reliever.

MLBTR covered 34 players who qualified for minor league free agency last week. We’ll periodically provide updates as plenty more hit the open market, as reflected on the MiLB.com transactions log.

Pitchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Mets Designate Deven Marrero For Assignment

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The Mets announced a host of roster moves before tonight’s series opener with the Cubs. Luis Guillorme is back from the 10-day injured list, while Trevor May has returned from the COVID-19 list. In corresponding moves, the Mets placed reliever Bryce Montes de Oca on the 15-day IL with left hamstring tightness and designated infielder Deven Marrero for assignment.

Guillorme returns just under a month after straining his groin. The left-handed hitting utilityman has had a productive season, posting a .283/.355/.357 line across 289 plate appearances. He’s not much of a power threat, but Guillorme puts the ball in play and is capable of playing all around the infield. He’s rated particularly well as a second baseman in his career, but he’s also a viable backup for Francisco Lindor at shortstop and a candidate to take some third base playing time from Eduardo Escobar (although Escobar has been on a tear since being reinstated from his own IL stint a couple weeks back).

At the very least, Guillorme gives the Mets a high-quality utility infielder. His return left no room for Marrero, who was initially promoted when Guillorme first went down in mid-August. New York quickly outrighted Marrero off the roster but brought him back to the majors not long after. The 32-year-old has been on the roster for the past couple weeks but only gotten into five games, going hitless with three strikeouts in six at-bats.

It’s familiar territory for Marrero, who was also frequently shuttled on and off the Marlins roster last season. Despite only appearing in 15 MLB games over the last two years, he’s been designated for assignment a staggering eight times since June 2021. He’s cleared outright waivers each time. He’d have the right to refuse a minor league assignment in favor of free agency if he goes unclaimed again, but it seems likely he’d elect to return to Triple-A Syracuse. Marrero has a .217/.309/.325 line over 137 plate appearances there this year.

Montes de Oca was first promoted on September 3, when May landed on the injured list. He’s made three appearances, allowing four runs in 3 1/3 innings but striking out six. The big right-hander has averaged 95.4 MPH on his cutter and just under triple digits on his sinker, per Statcast, showcasing the impact stuff that allowed him to strike out more than 35% of opponents in 30 Triple-A innings this year. The 26-year-old also walked 15.4% of batters faced at that level, though, and the Mets eased him into the big leagues with low-leverage work.

Mets Designate Connor Grey For Assignment

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The Mets have designated righty Connor Grey for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the roster will go to journeyman infielder Deven Marrero, whose previously reported selection from Triple-A has now been made official. New York also recalled right-hander Adonis Medina as the second of their two September call-ups.

Grey, 28, hasn’t pitched in the Majors to this point in his career but was added to the Mets’ 40-man roster last month amid a series of roster moves to get some fresh arms in the ’pen. Grey has made 21 starts and a relief appearance in Triple-A Syracuse but struggled to a 5.52 ERA with lackluster strikeout and walk ratios (17.9% and 9.5%, respectively).

Originally a 20th-round pick by the D-backs in 2016, Grey posted solid numbers up through the Double-A level but has yielded an ERA north of 6.00 in parts of three Triple-A seasons. He’ll be placed on outright waivers or released within the week.

Medina, 25, will give the Mets an extra arm in the bullpen. The former Phillies top prospect has appeared in 13 games with the Mets this season and tallied 23 1/3 innings while pitching to a 4.63 ERA. He’s logged a below-average 16.5% strikeout rate but also walked only 4.9% of his opponents in that small sample. Medina has a 3.71 ERA in 26 1/3 innings with Syracuse, though he’s walked a much more problematic 12.1% of his opponents there.

Mets To Select Deven Marrero

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The Mets are planning to select infielder Deven Marrero onto the major league roster, reports Andy Martino of SNY (Twitter link). New York also plans to recall reliever Adonis Medina from Triple-A Syracuse, Martino adds. That duo will fill the extra two active roster spots with the September expansion from 26 to 28 players. New York will need to make a 40-man roster transaction to accommodate Marrero.

It’ll be the second MLB stint of the season for Marrero. The veteran infielder signed a minor league deal with New York in July and was briefly added to the big league roster a couple weeks ago. He appeared in three games, tallying four plate appearances, before being designated for assignment. After clearing outright waivers, Marrero accepted an assignment back to Triple-A. He’s headed back to the big leagues just a few days later.

Marrero has never been a great hitter, and he carries a .192/.247/.280 line through 371 MLB plate appearances spread over parts of seven seasons. The 32-year-old has posted just a .217/.309/.325 mark with three homers in 36 games with Syracuse this year, bringing his career line at the Triple-A level to .229/.291/.333.

The appeal lies in Marrero’s defensive versatility. He’s best suited for action at third base but capable of manning anywhere on the infield. The former first-rounder has rated as a plus defender at the hot corner throughout his career in the eyes of public metrics, so he’ll offer a glove-first option for manager Buck Showalter. The Mets infield depth has thinned out in recent weeks, with Luis Guillorme and rookie Brett Baty hitting the injured list. Baty is headed for surgery tomorrow to repair a ligament tear in his thumb; he could miss the rest of the 2022 season.

Outrights: Clay, Marrero, Fry

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A roundup of some recent outright assignments for players who cleared waivers following a DFA…

  • Mets lefty Sam Clay passed through waivers unclaimed and was assigned outright to Syracuse, tweets Michael Mayer of MetsMerized. The ground-ball specialist appeared in just one big league game with the Mets this season and allowed an unearned run on a hit and a walk with two punchouts. Clay carries a 5.90 ERA in 50 1/3 Major League innings but also boasts a mammoth 62.5% ground-ball rate in that time. He also has a career 3.81 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout rate in 59 Triple-A innings, making him a nice depth piece to have on hand in the upper minors, even if he’s yet to find real success in the big leagues just yet.
  • Veteran infielder Deven Marrero also cleared outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Syracuse by the Mets after being designated last week. The team didn’t make a formal announcement on the matter, but Marrero, who could’ve rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, was back in the Syracuse lineup last night. Marrero, who’ll turn 32 tomorrow, appeared in three games at the big league level and went hitless in four plate appearances, though he did swipe a base. He’s a career .192/.247/.280 hitter in parts of seven big league seasons but is a well-regarded defender capable of handling any of shortstop, second base or third  base. He’s appeared in 33 games with Syracuse and hit .229/.323/.349 in 125 plate appearances.
  • Left-hander Paul Fry cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks and was assigned to Triple-A Reno, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. Fry has previously been outrighted and could rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, but he’d have punted the remainder of this year’s $850K guarantee in doing so, as he doesn’t yet have five years of Major Leaguer service time. The 30-year-old pitched just one MLB frame with the Snakes this season, plus another dozen with the Orioles, with whom he’s spent the prior four years. Fry was a solid lefty in the Baltimore ’pen in 2020 and for much of the 2021 season before a late collapse last year (due primarily to repeat drubbings at the hands of the Rays). Fry hasn’t regained his form in either the big leagues (6.23 ERA in 13 innings) or Triple-A (5.50 ERA, 18 innings).

Mets Designate Deven Marrero, Outright Nick Plummer

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The Mets announced to reporters, including Tim Healey of Newsday, that infielder Deven Marrero has been designated for assignment. That move paves the way for the activation of infielder Yolmer Sanchez, who was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox yesterday. Additionally, outfielder Nick Plummer cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse.

This ends a very brief stay on the roster for Marrero, as the 31-year-old was only selected on Monday. He got into three games but made just four plate appearances before losing his roster spot. He has now played for four big league teams, after previously appearing in games for the Red Sox, Diamondbacks and Marlins.

He was outrighted off the Marlins’ roster at the end of last season and signed a minor league deal with the Mets in July. In 32  games at Triple-A this year, he hit .236/.325/.358 for a wRC+ of 86. Though he’s never been a strong hitter, Marrero does provided defensive versatility. The former first round pick has played second, third and short this year, in addition to having played first base and left field in previous seasons.

With the trade deadline now gone and Marrero DFA’d, the Mets will have no choice but to place him on waivers, either the outright kind of the release kind. Since he’s previously been outrighted in his career, he would be eligible to reject an outright assignment and return to free agency.

The same can’t be said of Plummer, who was signed by the Mets to a major league deal in November, which was his first time joining a 40-man roster. He hit .138/.194/.379 in 14 big league games and .231/.317/.370 in 58 Triple-A games. He was designated for assignment earlier this week and has now cleared waivers. Since this is his first outright and he has less than three years of MLB service time, he is unable to reject the assignment. He will remain with the Mets as depth but without occupying a spot on the 40-man roster.

Mets Select Deven Marrero

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The Mets announced they’ve selected infielder Deven Marrero onto the major league roster. He replaces Luis Guillorme, who has landed on the 10-day injured list with a left groin strain (as reported earlier). New York also recalled catcher Michael Pérez from Triple-A Syracuse, placing fellow backstop Tomás Nido on the COVID-19 injured list in a corresponding move. Nido doesn’t count against the team’s 40-man roster while on the virus list, so no additional move was necessary to accommodate Marrero’s promotion.

Marrero, 32 next week, is headed to the big leagues for the second straight year. He appeared in 10 games with the division-rival Marlins last season, frequently bouncing on and off the roster depending on Miami’s need for additional infield insurance. He didn’t reach the majors in the shortened 2020 campaign, but he’d also gotten to the big leagues each year from 2015-19.

A former first-round draftee of the Red Sox, Marrero has settled in as a journeyman utility type. He’s never made much of an offensive impact, compiling a career .194/.250/.284 line with six home runs over 367 career big league plate appearances. Marrero owns a .230/.292/.335 line in parts of eight seasons at the Triple-A level, including a .236/.325/.358 showing in 32 games with Syracuse since signing a minor league contract with the Mets last month.

Marrero has the ability to cover anywhere on the infield, with the vast majority of his professional innings coming at shortstop. He can play second and third base as needed, and that defensive flexibility is of value to a New York team dealing with a couple injuries on the infield. None is more notable than the groin strain that’s likely to cost Guillorme more than a month of action, but New York also saw Eduardo Escobar sit out two games over the weekend due to some soreness in his left side. Escobar is in tonight’s staring lineup at third base and shouldn’t require an injured list stint, but Marrero adds some additional cover if manager Buck Showalter wants to mix in a few more rest days for the veteran Escobar.

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com first reported Marrero was being promoted.

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.

Marlins Outright Four Off 40-Man Roster

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The Marlins have outrighted infielders Eddy Alvarez and Deven Marrero and right-handers Preston Guilmet and Andrew Bellatti off their 40-man roster, tweets Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. The Fish now have 36 players on the 40-man roster, but with seven players on the 60-day injured list, they’ll still need to clear three more spots to reinstate all of their injured players between now and the conclusion of the postseason. All four players will be eligible for minor league free agency.

Of the two infielders, Alvarez saw significantly more action in 2021, compiling a .188/.297/.328 line across 74 plate appearances. He also made a few headlines in both 2020 and 2021: first when he became the first Winter Olympic medalist to appear in a Major League Game (he won a silver medal in speed skating at the 2014 Sochi Games), then again when he became the third American to medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics (he was a member of the silver-winning USA baseball squad in this summer’s Tokyo Games).

Marrero, a first-round pick of the Red Sox in 2012, put together a similar .188/.316/.375 line across just 19 PAs. He’s seen big-league action in six seasons (three with Boston, one with Arizona, and two with Miami) but has never managed to put together an extended run of production. Across a career-high 188 PAs for the BoSox in 2017, he managed only a meager .211/.259/.333 triple-slash. He hasn’t managed much more in the minors (he has a .623 OPS across 490 games in Triple-A) but remains a plus defender and could get a chance to catch on elsewhere.

Like Marrero, neither Guilmet nor Bellatti saw much time on the field for the Marlins. Guilmet covered only two innings (4.50 ERA) in two appearances, while Bellatti was roughed up (13.50 ERA) in a tiny sample of 3 1/3 IP in three trips to the mound. Guilmet’s track record is much longer, appearing with seven clubs across five big-league seasons, but he’s never seen more innings than the 10 1/3 he covered for Baltimore in 2014.

Bellatti’s brief run in 2021 was his first in the bigs since he posted a strong 2.31 ERA (albeit with a 5.23 FIP) across 23 1/3 innings for the Rays in 2015 before injuries derailed his career. He was out of baseball entirely in 2017 and ’18 before latching on with the Yankees Double-A affiliate in 2019 (after a single outing with the Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters) and ultimately getting the call from the Marlins this year.

Marlins Select Three Players

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The Marlins announced a set of roster moves in advance of their final series against the Phillies. Infielder Deven Marrero and right-handers Preston Guilmet and Andrew Bellatti were all selected to the big league club, while outfielder Brian Miller was recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville. Outfielder Jesús Sánchez (right hamstring strain) and right-hander Edward Cabrera (blister) were placed on the 10-day injured list. To create 40-man roster space, utilityman Jon Berti was transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list, while infielder Joe Panik and right-hander Luis Madero have been designated for assignment.

It’s promotion number six for Marrero, who has been shuttled on and off the 40-man roster at various points throughout the season. He’s been limited to just twelve big league plate appearances amidst all the back-and-forth. The right-handed hitter owns a .215/.299/.337 line over 207 trips to the plate with Jacksonville.

Guilmet and Bellatti were also in the majors at earlier points this season before being outrighted. Guilmet tossed a scoreless inning back on July 28, his first MLB action in three years. He’s had a solid campaign with Jacksonville, working 52 1/3 frames of 3.78 ERA ball with very impressive strikeout and walk rates (32.5% and 6.3%, respectively). Bellatti — back in the bigs for the first time since 2015 — made two appearances in late July, allowing five runs in 2 1/3 innings. He owns a sterling 1.52 ERA in 29 2/3 frames of Triple-A work with similarly strong peripherals as Guilmet’s.

Sánchez and Cabrera were both injured in last night’s game against the Mets. Their respective seasons will come to a close a few days early, but both young players look to be potential core pieces in Miami moving forward. The 23-year-old Sánchez posted an impressive .251/.319/.489 showing over 251 plate appearances this season. That came with an elevated strikeout rate, but he demonstrated the impressive power potential that once made him a top prospect. Cabrera struggled badly through his first seven big league starts, but he’s regarded by public prospect evaluators as one of the more promising young pitchers in the game.

Panik joined the Marlins as a salary offset in this summer’s trade that sent Corey Dickerson and Adam Cimber to Toronto. A New York-area native, he accompanied the team on their trip to Queens for the series against the Mets but decided to stay in his home area to attend to the birth of his child, manager Don Mattingly told reporters (including Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald) after last night’s game. Panik is slated to reach free agency at the end of the season anyhow, so the Marlins free up a 40-man roster spot by designating him for assignment a few days early. (Had they placed Panik on the paternity list, he’d have still counted against the 40-man). Over 257 trips to the plate between Miami and the Jays, the lefty-hitting Panik slashed .208/.266/.284 with three home runs.

Madero has been selected and outrighted a few times this season. He’s allowed twelve runs in as many innings at the big league level, his first taste of the majors. Should Madero again clear waivers, he’d have the right to elect free agency. Even were he to accept another outright assignment, Madero would reach minor league free agency this offseason unless Miami were to add him back to the 40-man roster.

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