Mets Who May Soon Be Designated For Assignment
With the Mets protecting Andres Gimenez, Jordan Humphreys, Ali Sanchez, and Thomas Szapucki from the Rule 5 Draft, the 40 man roster is completely full. With the Mets needing to address a number of areas of this team, this means ever trade, waiver claim, and free agent signing is going to require a player coming off the 40 man roster.
Obviously, Drew Gagnon was the first casualty, but he is not going to be the last. Here is a look at some of the other players sitting on the bubble:
Tyler Bashlor
2019 MLB Stats: 0-3, 6.95 ERA, 24 G, 22.0 IP, 1.727 WHIP, 7.0 BB/9, 8.2 K/9
The success Bashlor has had in the minors has not translated at all to the majors. In fact, his control issues have only been magnified, and he has not been able to blow his fastball by anyone. This left him hittable, and he has been hit hard.
Sam Haggerty
2019 Stats: 11 G, 4 PA, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K
Haggerty was a September call-up with the Mets looking to add some late game speed as they were making a push for the Wild Card. With the current roster crunch, the Mets are too heavy on infielders. With Luis Guillorme firmly establishing himself as a Major League caliber utility player, Haggerty’s spot is all the more tenuous, and he’s very likely the first position player designated for assignment in the event a non-catcher is signed.
Chris Flexen
2019 Stats: 0-3, 6.59 ERA, 9 G, GS, 13.2 IP, 2.049 WHIP, 8.6 BB/9, 6.6 K/9
After struggling as a two pitch starter in his brief Major League appearances, Flexen was finally moved to the bullpen where he had fleeting success. You could argue with his stuff he could succeed next year in a bullpen role, but it’s very possible the Mets don’t see that happening as he was not called up last September. His being out of options may only accelerate a DFA decision.
Franklyn Kilome
2018 MiLB Stats: 4-9, 4.18 ERA, 26 GS, 140.0 IP, 1.343 WHIP, 3.9 BB/9, 8.0 K/9
Kilome is a promising prospect who has control issues and is coming off Tommy John surgery. So far, the Mets have indicated things are going well in his rehab, and he should be ready to pitch early in the 2019 season. That said, if he has a setback, he could be moved off the roster in short order.
Chris Mazza
2019 MLB Stats: 1-1, 5.51 ERA, 9 G, 16.1 IP, 1.592 WHIP, 2.8 BB/9, 6.1 K/9
Mazza was a 29 year old rookie who finally made his debut with the Mets last year. While he was on the September roster, he did not pitch in a meaningful game although he did pick up his first Major League win on the final game of the season.
Tomas Nido
2019 Stats: .191/.231/.316, 5 2B, 4 HR, 14 RBI
Nido got his chance to be a defensive minded back-up, and he worked well with pitchers like Noah Syndergaard. Still, he effectively hit like a pitcher at the plate, and his framing numbers, albeit good, were not at the point where you could justify keeping him in the Majors with the way he hit. With him being out of options, and the Mets looking to upgrade, he has the most tenuous spot on the 4o man roster.
Stephen Nogosek
2019 Stats: 0-1, 10.80 ERA, 7 G, 6.2 IP, 2.100 WHIP, 2.7 BB/9, 8.1 K/9
Nogosek seemed to turn a corner getting his control under wraps in Syracuse, but those issues would resurface in his brief Major League appearances. There is promise in his arm, but his control issues may eventually make him expendable.
Corey Oswalt
2019 Stats: 0-1, 12.15 ERA, 2 G, 6.2 IP, 2.250 WHIP, 8.1 BB/9, 6.8 K/9
Oswalt was added to the 40 man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft after he was the 2017 Eastern League Pitcher of the Year. Since that time, he has struggled, and it was partially the result of how the team left him sitting dormant for stretches and asking him to pitch on very short rest. He also dealt with some nagging injuries last year. In July and August, when he was healthy and finally giving a stretch of starts, he pitched well posting a 1.98 ERA in 10 starts which will probably save his spot on the 40 man roster. Still, with his not getting a September call-up, it’s not a guarantee.
Paul Sewald
2019 Stats: 1-1, 4.58 ERA, 17 G, SV, 19.2 IP, 1.068 WHIP, 1.4 BB/9, 10.1 K/9
Last year, Sewald was designated for assignment, and yet again, despite the odds, he pitched his way back to the Majors. In fact, at the end of the year, he was arguably the most reliable right-handed reliever in the Mets bullpen not named Seth Lugo. He has a low walk rate, good strikeout rate, and had a better FIP than ERA. One thing which may save him is his still having a Major League option remaining.
Daniel Zamora
2019 Stats: 0-1, 5.19 ERA, 17 G, 8.2 IP, 1.731 WHIP, 5.2 BB/9, 8.3 K/9
Zamora is an interesting case. In his career, he has posted reverse splits, but he has a very good K/BB ratio against LHB flashing a wipeout slider. With MLB enacting rules effectively eliminating the LOOGY role, a pitcher like Zamora could actually have increased value, but for that to happen, he needs to harness himself better. Fortunately, he has options remaining.
Half of these players should have already been designated so
that they could have protected more of the prospects they will
lose in the Rule 5 draft…a number of them in their Top 30
including #8 Newton. I understand their can’t protect everyone,
but losing 4-5 prospects is not the way to build a farm system.
Most of our AAA starters have shown they are NOT ML material.
Exposing Newton is a reasonable gamble
@nickel7168 — Agreed! It’s shocking that the Mets farm was so bad the FO had to go out as early as May 2019 and trade a minor leaguer with potential for someone like Wilmer Font as their opener and long reliever, and pluck Aaron Altherr off the waiver wire (AA had been DFA’ed TWICE in nine days, and he was still better than anyone in Syracuse). If you don’t have real prospects who might turn into useful starting pitching in your upper levels, that’s when you go in the offseason to the scrap heap, sign guys who have failed or been released and see if you can resuscitate them. Sometimes split contracts are the way to go, where if a guy doesn’t return to form, you’re paying him a modest milb salary, but if he gets it together and gets called up, he might make a mil or two. It works for both player and organization, but Wags had no idea how to work this. I don’t think he still does–if you look at his minor moves to date, he seems to have learned very little. We’ll see, I suppose.
It’s one of the perils of picking a complete novice GM. Instead of hitting the ground running, he hits the ground with a Splat! and has to figure most things out from scratch: such as who to protect in the Rule V, how to adjust Korean league stats, how to tailor the draft to fit with the 300 guys who cycled through the Mets farm system… There’s a lot to learn. Does Beltran know any of the details of building an organization? I don’t think he’s a detail-oriented guy; at least, he never speaks as if he is. That’s where a guy like Girardi or especially Showalter could have been a huge help.
bring back turk wendell
Sure
There are:
FIVE Mets Prospects At Risk in Rule 5 Draft
https://metsmerizedonline.com/2019/11/five-mets-prospects-at-risk-in-rule-5-draft.html/
all of them good…arguably better than the AAA relievers that have already crashed and burned who are on our 40-man.
You do realize I wrote that article for MMO
Flexen’s a fringy guy who K’s enough with enough control that he should be at least useful as one of the AAAA guys you bring up in June so that you don’t have to give innings to the Buddy Bauman’s of the world. That Callaway and the FO failed with nearly all of their Flexenlike guys speaks volumes.
Bashlor should have some modest success in the pen. What are the Mets doing to these guys to cause them to detonate in MLB? Bash struck out 12 per 9 in the minors while keeping the ball in the park. He gets to the majors, loses the K’s, and gives up 5 times as many HR. It’s bizarre.
As for Haggerty, only the Mets would have McNeil on hand, go get Cano and Lowrie, then deal a decent backup MLB catcher for a package that featured Haggerty, whose only use is at 2B, who was old for the minors, and who will contribute nothing, ever. That the other player for Plawecki was Walker Lockett, who couldn’t K 7 per 9 in the minors, is some sort of sick prank played by Cleveland on the Mets novice GM.
It would be unfortunate to see Kilome leave the club. He was a decent return for Asdrubal, a stringbean two-pitch starter whose main skill, durability, was wiped out by TJS–so we’ll have to see what he has left. If he can come back, though, he wouldn’t be the first two-pitch pitcher to have success at the back of a rotation. At this point, by the time he learns a 3rd pitch as a starter well enough for hitters to have to look for it, he’ll be something like 27. Maybe he’ll have to settle in as a relief guy, but he didn’t really have the stuff for that.
The only way the Mets part with Kilome is he has a setback in his return from Tommy John. Unfortunately, with that possibility still on the table, he is on the bubble.