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22 Players Elect Free Agency

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Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents.  Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.

To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back.  These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.

We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion.  These free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.

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Outfielders

Utility Players

Pitchers

Mets Place Brett Baty On 10-Day Injured List

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The Mets placed infielder Brett Baty on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain.  Outfielder Jared Young was called up from Triple-A Syracuse in the corresponding move.  New York also announced that outfielder Jose Siri and left-hander Richard Lovelady each cleared waivers and were outrighted to Syracuse.

Baty was removed in the second inning of Friday’s 6-2 loss to the Marlins with what was described initially as side tightness.  The severity of the strain isn’t yet known, but at the very least, Baty will miss the Mets’ last two regular-season games and wouldn’t be available until partway through the NLDS, should the Mets both reach the playoffs in the first place and then advance beyond the wild card round.  Anything beyond a minimal strain will probably end Baty’s season entirely, given how most oblique injuries require at least 3-4 weeks of recovery time.

New York faces an uphill battle to make it to October, since the Reds hold the tiebreaker advantage over the Mets.  Both teams are 82-78, so if the Reds win out (or the Mets lose one and the Reds win one), Cincinnati will clinch the final NL playoff berth.

This difficult path to the postseason will be even trickier without Baty, who has hit .312/.368/.512 with seven home runs over his last 136 plate appearances.  This hot streak over the last six weeks has raised Baty’s season-long slash line to .254/.313/.435 over 432 PA, and his wRC+ is now 111.  Since Baty had only a 71 wRC+ in 602 big league plate appearances prior to 2025, this season has been a welcome step forward for a player who was once the top prospect in New York’s farm system.  Beyond his improved hitting, Baty has also been providing pretty steady glovework at both second and third base, and his work at the keystone represents Baty’s first time playing second base at the MLB level.

Baty has mostly stuck to third base over the last few weeks, and any of Mark Vientos, Luisangel Acuna, or Ronny Mauricio (who is at the hot corner in today’s lineup) could handle the position this weekend and potentially into the playoffs.  Young’s return to the active roster gives the Mets enough outfield depth to keep McNeil more or less locked at second base.

Siri and Lovelady were each designated for assignment earlier this week.  Both players have the right to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency — Siri because he has more than three years of MLB service time, and Lovelady because he has previously been outrighted in his career.  Electing free agency would cost Siri what little remains of his $2.4MM salary for 2025, and he might prefer to stick with the Mets just in case they make the playoffs and injuries open a roster spot.  Lovelady is a longer shot to make any postseason roster, so the southpaw may prefer to become a free agent and get an early start on the offseason market.

Mets Designate Jose Siri for Assignment

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The Mets announced today that outfielder Tyrone Taylor has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. In a corresponding move, fellow outfielder Jose Siri has been designated for assignment. Will Sammon of The Athletic reported Siri’s DFA prior to the official announcement.

Siri was acquired from the Rays in the offseason, with the Mets sending right-hander Eric Orze to Tampa in exchange. That deal has clearly been a bust for the Mets. Siri has spent most of the 2025 season on the injured list. When healthy, he hasn’t performed well.

Taylor’s return squeezes him off the roster. Siri is out of options and can’t be easily sent back down to the minors. He is making $2.4MM this year and would have been due a raise in arbitration going into next year. The Mets were probably planning to non-tender him this winter anyway, so he gets cut today instead.

The Mets surely knew they were getting a flawed player, but also one with clear attributes. In 2023, Siri hi 25 home runs for the Rays, stole 12 bases and provided strong center field defense. His 35.7% strikeout rate and 5.5% walk rate were both awful figures but the power still helped him produce a .222/.267/.494 line and 106 wRC+. When combined with his speed and defense, he was worth 2.6 wins above replacement, in the eyes of FanGraphs.

His performance backed up a bit last year. He increased his walk rate slightly to 6.9%, though his strikeout rate also ticked up to 37.9%. His home run tally dropped to 18, in a larger sample of plate appearances. His .187/.255/.366 batting line and 78 wRC+ showed clear regression at the plate, but he still put up 1.8 fWAR thanks to his speed and defense.

But as mentioned, his 2025 season has not looked like that at all. He fouled a ball off himself in April and suffered a fractured left tibia. He was expected to miss eight to ten weeks but he ended up missing about five months, getting reinstated from the injured list earlier in September. When not on the IL, his performance has been decidedly lacking. It has only been 36 plate appearances but Siri struck out in 47.2% of those and has produced a .063/.167/.125 line.

Taylor hasn’t been great this year, but his tepid .218/.277/.315 line is still well beyond Siri’s production. The Mets acquired Cedric Mullins at the deadline to try to fortify the center field position. That hasn’t really worked out either, as Mullins is hitting .188/.287/.291 since joining the Mets, but that’s also a notch above Siri’s performance this year and Mullins has a greater track record as well. Brandon Nimmo started a game in center this week as well, though he’s back in left today with Taylor taking over up the middle.

Time will tell how the Mets fill the position going forward but they have decided there was no room for Siri. With the trade deadline having passed long ago, the only choice will be to put Siri on waivers. He would have no appeal to other clubs in the short term. As mentioned, he’s been in poor form. He also wouldn’t be postseason eligible with any claiming team. He can be controlled via arbitration for two more seasons, so it’s theoretically possible for another club to have interest in claiming him with an eye on next year.

If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment, as a player with at least three years of big league service time. It’s possible he would decide to accept such an assignment, however. If the Mets make the playoffs and someone gets injured, he could be added back to the roster and perhaps play a role in the postseason.

There would also be a small financial consideration, as he has less than five years of service time. That means he would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in order to elect free agency. At this late stage of the campaign, that would be just a few thousand dollars, but the combination of that cash and the possibility of factoring into the playoffs could be enough for him to accept. In that scenario, he would have another chance to elect free agency at season’s end.

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images

Mets Activate Jose Siri, Designate Wander Suero

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The Mets announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated outfielder Jose Siri from the 60-day injured list. Reliever Wander Suero was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot, and outfielder Jared Young has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. The Mets also announced that righty Justin Garza, whom they’d previously designated for assignment, cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Syracuse.

Siri, 30, appeared in just 10 games with the Mets before suffering a fractured tibia that wound up sidelining him close to five months. New York acquired him from the Rays in an offseason deal sending reliever Eric Orze back to Tampa Bay.

Though Siri strikes out far too often (career 35.8%) and posts poor batting averages and on-base percentages as a result, he’s an elite runner and defender with considerably above-average power. Last year, Statcast pegged Siri’s sprint speed (99th), outfield range (99th) and outfield arm strength (97th) in at least the 97th percentile of MLB players. He popped 43 home runs and stole 26 bags in just 812 plate appearances with the Rays from 2023-24 but did so with a grim .203/.260/.424 batting line overall (91 wRC+).

The Mets placed Tyrone Taylor on the injured list a couple weeks ago and are already expecting to be without Jesse Winker for the balance of the regular season. Siri steps back into an outfield mix that includes Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto in the corners, with deadline pickup Cedric Mullins in center field. Starling Marte, Jeff McNeil and Luisangel Acuña are all options on the grass as well.

Siri’s right-handed bat is a natural complement for the lefty-swinging Mullins in center field — or so it would seem. However, Siri’s career .194/.251/.378 slash against lefties is markedly worse than his career .211/.269/.411 batting line in right-on-right situations. Neither is a strong mark, however, and Mullins is a better hitter in left-on-left situations than Siri is in right-on-left situations — historically speaking, anyhow. For now, Siri seems like he’ll operate as a fourth outfielder and late-game option off the bench, be that in a pinch-running, defensive upgrade or pinch-hitting scenario.

As for the 33-year-old Suero, he was only just claimed off waivers five days ago and only reported to the team four days ago. He didn’t appear in a game during his brief time with the Mets. His only big league work in 2025 has come with the Braves, for whom he yielded eight runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Ugly Atlanta stint aside, Suero was a frequently used bullpen arm for the Nationals from 2018-20, when he pitched 142 2/3 innings of 4.10 ERA ball. He picked up a save and 27 holds along the way. Suero’s production has taken a nosedive since; he’s pitched in each of the past four MLB seasons but has a 7.11 ERA in 57 innings thanks to an alarming susceptibility to home runs. After yielding just 0.63 homers per nine frames in his first three MLB seasons, Suero has surrendered an average of 2.53 big flies per nine innings since 2021.

To his credit, Suero has been outstanding in Triple-A this season. He’s pitched 46 2/3 innings with the Braves’ top affiliate in Gwinnett and recorded a 1.35 ERA with a dozen saves, a 31.2% strikeout rate and a 6.9% walk rate. Now that he’s been designated for assignment, he’ll head to outright waivers and again be made available to all 29 other clubs.

Mets Notes: Tong, Duran, Siri

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There is some feeling within the Mets organization that right-handed pitching prospect Jonah Tong could make his MLB debut before the 2025 season is up, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports.  Tong only just made his debut with Triple-A Syracuse on August 16 and hadn’t been projected as “a consideration for the Major League roster this year,” Puma writes, but “that stance has changed in recent days.”

The shift is due to both the Mets’ rotation needs, and Tong’s continued excellence in his third pro season.  A seventh-round pick for New York in the 2022 draft, Tong has emerged as a top-100 prospect — Baseball America has the right-hander 42nd on their midseason top 100 list, and MLB Pipeline has Tong in their 44nd spot.  It is easy to see why, as Tong has an absurd 1.43 ERA and 40.5% strikeout rate over 113 2/3 combined innings at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2025.  That includes 11 2/3 scoreless innings during his brief time in Syracuse.

Naturally there’s some risk in bringing the 22-year-old up to the Show in such relatively rapid fashion, and Tong’s 10.6% walk rate stands out as a potential weakness to be exploited by big league hitters.  That said, Tong’s unusual delivery could also leave some hitters baffled, not to mention his plus fastball that has a ton of break if relatively little velocity (in the 91-94mph range).

Promoting Tong doesn’t necessarily mean he’d be in the majors for the rest of the season, of course, as the Mets could potentially use him for a spot start during a crowded stretch of the schedule.  New York is six games into a stretch of 26 games in 27 days, with September 4 as the only off-day during that stretch.  This puts even more pressure on a rotation that hasn’t provided much in the way of length or results lately, and the Mets already turned to another rookie in Nolan McLean to take Frankie Montas’ rotation spot earlier this month.

At this point it wouldn’t be a shock to see McLean, Tong, and another top prospect in Brandon Sproat all get onto the mound before the Mets’ season is over.  This need for help from the farm (in addition to any club’s natural reticence about moving top prospects) may have been a reason why the Amazins didn’t make much progress in trade talks with the Twins about Jhoan Duran.

The Mets were loosely linked to Duran’s market just prior to the trade deadline, and the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported that the Mets weren’t willing to move any of McLean, Tong, Sproat, Jett Williams, or Carson Benge.  This quintet are the consensus top prospects within New York’s farm system, and Baseball America has all five players within their league-wide top-100 prospects list.  Minnesota was known to be seeking at least one top-100 type for Duran’s services, and found such an offer from another NL East club in the Phillies, who landed Duran for Eduardo Tait and Mick Abel.

Duran has looked excellent in Philadelphia, while the Mets have gotten mixed result from their deadline bullpen acquisitions.  Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto have both pitched well since coming to Queens, but Ryan Helsley has struggled badly.  Shaky pitching on both the bullpen and rotation has contributed to the Mets’ 7-13 record in August, and the Phillies have pulled out to a six-game lead over New York in the NL East.

In other Mets news, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) on Wednesday that Jose Siri is expected to start a minor league rehab assignment this week.  Siri fractured his left tibia after fouling a ball off his leg back in April, and what was expected to be an absence of 8-10 weeks has now lasted well over four months.  Since he played in only 10 games with the Mets before the injury, Siri figures to need at least a week of minor league action to get fully ramped up for a return to the active roster.

This makes him a candidate for an IL activation once rosters expand on September 1, though Siri will be returning to a more crowded outfield picture.  New York went into the season planning to use Siri and Tyrone Taylor in a center field timeshare, but the deadline acquisition of Cedric Mullins has now created a more traditional lefty-righty platoon up the middle with Taylor.  A player with Siri’s elite glove always has value on a roster, of course, so the Mets could use him as something of a defensive specialist if nothing else.

Mets Select Travis Jankowski, Option Luisangel Acuña

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The Mets announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported signing of left-hander Richard Lovelady. The Mets announced his name as “Dicky Lovelady” and Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that the southpaw has indeed requested that name change. The Mets also selected the contract of outfielder Travis Jankowski. To make room for those two, the club optioned right-hander Tyler Zuber and infielder Luisangel Acuña to Triple-A Syracuse. The Mets had one 40-man vacancy but opened another by transferring outfielder Jose Siri to the 60-day injured list.

It’s the second time in as many days that the Mets have shaken up their roster by optioning a young player who has previously been getting regular playing time. Catcher Francisco Alvarez was sent to Syracuse yesterday and now Acuña is following him upstate. Acuña held his own earlier this year with a .288/.342/.356 line and 102 wRC+ through the end of April. However, his production has tailed off badly since then, with a .194/.244/.208 line and 31 wRC+ since the calendar flipped to May.

Those struggles have cut into his playing time, with Acuña getting just five starts in the past month. Rather than languishing on the bench, the Mets have decided to send him to the farm, presumably hoping that regular starts down there are better than sitting on the bench in the majors. For parts of this season, Acuña has been the only viable backup to shortstop Francisco Lindor but Ronny Mauricio is now healthy and capable of filling in there, making it more plausible for Acuña to depart the major league roster.

His roster spot will go to Jankowski. The 34-year-old veteran signed a minor league deal with the Mets a couple of weeks ago. He has spent over a decade in the majors as a speed and defense specialist. His playing time has been sporadic over the years thanks to his inconsistent offense, but he’s capable of strong glovework and double-digit steals if he in the lineup regularly.

On the whole, he has a .236/.318/.305 batting line and 76 wRC+. That has occasionally spiked to around league average but has also been well below at times. Between the White Sox and Rays, he has hit .244/.286/.289 for a 64 wRC+ this year. Since signing that minor league deal with the Mets, he has hit .200/.263/.286 in Triple-A. He will likely be serving as a pinch runner and defensive replacement off the club’s bench.

As for Siri, he’s already been on the IL for more than 60 days due to a left tibia fracture. He was originally given a timeline of eight to ten weeks but hasn’t healed as quickly as hoped. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement so he’s eligible for reinstatement at any time.

Photo courtesy of Scott Taetsch, Imagn Images

Mets Notes: Siri, Winker, Senga, Montas, Raley

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Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza each provided several injury updates when speaking with reporters (including Newsday’s Laura Albanese, The Athletic’s Tim Britton, and the New York Post’s Mike Puma) on Friday.  The most unwelcome bit of news concerned Jose Siri, whose recovery from a left tibia fracture will be delayed since tests showed the tibia hadn’t healed as well as expected over two months since the initial injury.

Siri last played on April 12, when he fouled a ball off his left leg during his first plate appearance in the Mets’ 3-1 loss to the Athletics.  The initial recovery timeline was set at 8-10 weeks, though in the wake of this latest setback, Siri will now be shut down from baseball activities for a few more weeks until he undergoes a fresh round of imaging tests.

Even if those tests reveal better results, Siri will need to ramp his rehab back up and play in multiple minor league games, so it may be optimistic to expect Siri back on New York’s big league roster before July is over.  It’s a frustrating setback for Siri, who seemed to be making progress by taking part in live batting practice sessions and doing some running drills in recent weeks.  Instead, it now looks like he’ll miss over half of the season on the injured list, leaving the Mets without a key member of their outfield.

Acquired from the Rays in a trade last November, Siri was meant to add some power and (most pressingly) defensive stability to the Amazins’ center field mix.  His absence has made Tyrone Taylor more or less the everyday center fielder, and while Taylor has held his own with the glove, he is hitting only .234/.300/.332 over 205 plate appearances.  The left-handed hitting Jeff McNeil has been spelling Taylor in center field when McNeil isn’t at second base, and Jose Azocar, Brandon Nimmo, and Luisangel Acuna have made a few cameos in center when the situation has warranted.

It was already expected that the Mets would be looking for some outfield help at the trade deadline, and the possibility that Siri might not even be back by July 31 only underlines the outfield as a target area.  Perhaps if the Mets are okay with the Taylor/McNeil platoon in center field, the club might just look to add a bat in general to help out in the infield or in the DH position.  Designated hitter Jesse Winker is recovering from a Grade 2 oblique strain that has kept him out since early May, and Stearns said that Winker will still need multiple weeks before a minor league rehab assignment is considered.

Kodai Senga’s hamstring strain created a big hole in New York’s rotation this week, though Mendoza said tests revealed that Senga had only a Grade 1 strain, or the least severe variety.  The current plan is for Senga to be shut down for two weeks and then the club will explore plans for a throwing progression and a minor league rehab assignment.  Given the timing, it seems possible Senga might be able to pitch again before the All-Star break, but in all likelihood the Mets will play it safe with their ace and hold him out through the break to give him a few more days of rest.

The Mets’ rotation has been plagued by injuries ever since Spring Training, yet the staff has greatly exceeded expectations by still leading all of baseball with a 2.78 rotation ERA.  Senga’s 1.47 ERA over 73 2/3 innings has been a big part of that success, as the right-hander has returned in top form after missing virtually all of the 2024 season.

Paul Blackburn will move from a long relief/swingman role into the rotation to fill in for Senga, while Britton suggests that Frankie Montas might move into the bullpen in Blackburn’s role (rather than into a starting job) when Montas is activated from the 60-day injured list.  After missing the entire season due to a lat strain, Montas has made five minor league rehab starts, and June 22 will mark the end of the allotted 30 days for Montas’ rehab assignment.

While in-game results are usually less important than fitness and mechanics during these rehab outings, Montas’ 13.17 ERA over 13 2/3 innings with high-A Brooklyn and Triple-A Syracuse is hard to ignore, as the veteran righty is clearly still not on track.  Stearns said that Montas will make one more start in the minors, and that Montas “is still searching a little bit” after such a long layoff.

“Physically, we are trending in the right direction and now it’s just getting him back into the rhythm,” Stearns said.  “This is very similar to a Spring Training ramp up where you try not to focus on results too much early and then as you get a little bit later in the ramp up you want to start seeing outs.  That is where Frankie is right now.”

In even longer-term injury news, Brooks Raley could be starting a rehab assignment within the next week.  Raley underwent a Tommy John surgery in May 2024, and with the knowledge that he’d miss most of the 2025 season, the Mets inked the veteran reliever to a one-year free agent deal that guarantees Raley $1.85MM ($1.5MM in 2025 salary, and a $300K buyout on a $4.75MM club option for 2026).

Several other performance bonuses are available both this season and next depending on how many appearances Raley can make, though the first order of business is simply getting the southpaw back in action.  Britton notes that Raley will likely need the full 30-day rehab window in order to get back into game shape, so if all goes well, Raley could be an option for the Mets’ bullpen before the end of July.

Jose Siri To Miss 8-10 Weeks

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The Mets will be without Jose Siri for 8-10 weeks, president of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters on Monday (link via Tim Healey of Newsday). It was clear that the center fielder would be out for a while after he was diagnosed with a left tibia fracture last week. He suffered the injury when he fouled a ball off his leg.

It had been a frustrating start for Siri even before the injury. The righty-hitting outfielder collected just one hit in his first 20 at-bats. He has drawn four walks and stolen a couple bases, but he’d punched out eight times over 24 plate appearances. Siri’s glove is much more his calling card. He’s coming off a .187/.255/.366 showing over a career-high 130 games as a member of the Rays. The Mets acquired him in an offseason trade despite those numbers because he’s one of the best defensive center fielders in the game.

Tyrone Taylor has taken over as the primary center fielder. He’s out to a very tough start offensively, batting .211/.237/.298 through 59 trips to the plate. Taylor is a solid defender, albeit not to Siri’s level. The Mets called up speedster José Azocar as a fifth outfielder. While Azocar isn’t likely to push for regular playing time, the Mets could turn to one of their middle infielders on the outfield grass. Luisangel Acuña has been a full-time infielder in the majors but topped 250 innings in center field in Triple-A last season.

More interestingly, the Mets are toying with the idea of getting Jeff McNeil some center field reps. He’s getting work in at the position during his minor league rehab assignment. McNeil could be back from his season-opening IL stint by the end of this week. He has 16 career innings as a center fielder. He’s unlikely to play there on a regular basis but could be part of a larger timeshare.

“I imagine Jeff is going to do what he always does,” Stearns told reporters (via Healey). “He’s going to bounce around. He’s going to play some second. He’ll fill in for the corner outfielders when needed. We’ll see how the center field thing goes; I think he’s excited about that. So there are plenty of at-bats to go around here, and Jeff will certainly get his share.”

Siri is on the 10-day injured list for the time being. The Mets can move him to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot whenever that need arises.

Mets Select José Azócar

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The Mets announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder José Azócar. Fellow outfielder Jose Siri has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left tibia fracture. The club also optioned right-hander Justin Hagenman and recalled right-hander Max Kranick. The 40-man roster already had a couple of vacancies, so no corresponding move was required in that department.

It was reported late on Monday that Siri had a fracture and would be placed on the injured list but the Mets delayed the move until today. That was seemingly a conscious decision the club made in order to take advantage of a roster technicality. A pitcher optioned to the minors cannot be recalled for 15 days, unless they are replacing an injured player.

Yesterday, the Mets recalled Hagenman to work a spot start of sorts, optioning Kranick out to make room for him on the roster. The scheduled starter was Griffin Canning but he had come down with an illness and was pushed by a few days. Hagenman didn’t technically start, as Huascar Brazobán served as an opener, but Hagenman did eat 3 1/3 innings after that. By delaying Siri’s IL placement until today, the Mets were able to bring Kranick back just one day after optioning him, as he is technically taking the place of an injured player.

While that sequence of events helped them out on the pitching side, the position player group has been short-handed, with Siri taking up a bench spot while unable to play. Now they can finally get back to full strength with today’s moves.

Azócar, 29 in May, was claimed off waivers from the Padres in September and mostly kept on optional assignment. But he exhausted his final option year in 2024 and was therefore out of options going into 2025. He didn’t make the club’s Opening Day roster and was designated for assignment on Opening Day, but he passed through waivers unclaimed and stuck around as non-roster depth until today.

Broadly speaking, he’s been a speed-and-defense outfielder thus far. He stepped to the plate 397 times with the Padres over the 2022-24 seasons but hit .243/.287/.322 for a 74 wRC+. However, has stole 18 bases, though also got caught 9 times. In 1,011 outfield innings, he’s been credited with two Defensive Runs Saved and eight Outs Above Average.

The Mets have Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo in the outfield corners but center field has been a weak spot thus far. Siri hit .050/.208/.100 before fouling a ball off his leg and suffering his aforementioned fracture. Tyrone Taylor, who has been splitting the spot with Siri, has a .163/.200/.209 line on the year.

As mentioned, Azócar hasn’t hit much in his major league career, but the minor league numbers have generally been better. He has a .283/.333/.434 line and 93 wRC+ dating back to the start of 2021. That includes a .244/.367/.366 showing and 109 wRC+ so far this year. He could try to push Taylor for some playing time or just serve as a solid bench guy who can do some pinch-running and/or defensive replacement work. As mentioned, he is out of options, so he would have to be pushed off the 40-man if the Mets want him off the active roster when Siri gets back.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Mets Getting Jeff McNeil Reps In Center Field

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The Mets recently lost outfielder Jose Siri to a fractured tibia that will sideline him for a yet-to-be-determined (but obviously significant) period of time. That leaves Tyrone Taylor, Brandon Nimmo and infielder Luisangel Acuña as the three players on the roster with center field experience. Taylor and Nimmo have both played the position extensively in the majors, of course. Acuña has logged 299 minor league innings in center but has primarily been a middle infielder. Outfielder Jose Azocar, who has nearly 6000 professional innings in center (442 in the majors), is down in Triple-A but not on the 40-man roster.

Though they have plenty of candidates to help cover Siri’s absence, the Mets are apparently considering an outside-the-box possibility to further bolster their center field depth. Manager Carlos Mendoza announced today that Jeff McNeil’s next start during his minor league rehab assignment will come in center field (video link via SNY).

“He’s off today. He’s going to play center field tomorrow in Port St. Lucie,” Mendoza said. “This is nothing new for him. He’s played there before. We wanted to take advantage of this opportunity in the minor leagues. He’s on board with it. … We’ve also got Acuña, we’ve got Tyrone, but we just felt like since he’s down there now, why not use this opportunity to get him some exposure?”

McNeil does indeed have some experience in center, but it’s fleeting at best. He’s logged three partial big league games at the position — a total of 16 innings. He handled all six fly-balls that went his way without issue. McNeil has had some sporadic center field appearances in the minors as well, but he’s totaled only 28 innings there in his entire professional career. He’s surely had additional reps in non-game settings, but it’s not exactly a familiar position for him. McNeil has more than 2200 total innings of corner outfield work under his belt between the minors and the big leagues, however.

Asked if getting McNeil some occasional time in center with the big league club was a real consideration, Mendoza replied: “Well, there’s a reason we’re doing it.” It seems unlikely that McNeil would be installed for regular center field work, but there’s little harm in expanding an already versatile position player’s skill set in the wake of a notable injury — particularly when it can be done organically while on a minor league rehab assignment.

McNeil has missed the entire season thus far after straining his right oblique late in spring training. The two-time All-Star and 2022 NL batting champion is coming off a pair of down seasons, at least relative to his prior standards. McNeil has been a league-average hitter dating back to 2023, slashing a combined .257/.323/.381 over his past 1120 trips to the plate in the majors.

In place of McNeil, the Mets turned to Acuña and Brett Baty to handle second base in the season’s first few weeks. Baty had enjoyed a monster performance in spring training but has gotten out to a dismal start while playing second — a position that’s still largely unfamiliar to him. The 25-year-old former first-rounder is a third baseman but has begun to see time at second in the wake of Mark Vientos’ breakout last year. However, Baty is struggling once again in what’s now his fourth season with at least some time in the majors; he’s received 36 plate appearances but turned in a .139/.139/.222 slash. Acuña, despite being on the short side of a would-be platoon, has seen an uptick in playing time as a result and is batting .265/.359/.353 in his own small sample of 39 plate appearances.

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