Mets sign Shintaro Fujinami.
A starter in Japan, was signed by the As last year for 3 million, but struggled big time in a 4 starts (14.40 ERA) and was converted to a reliever, then later traded to the O's His numbers as a reliever weren't awful, but kind of back of the bullpen numbers.
For the A's out of the pen he pitched 33 innings and had a 6.03 ERA but 3.87 FIP. For Baltimore, 29 innings and a 4.85 era and 4.13 FIP. He's 6'6 and he throws hard and he has options remaining, so I think there's enough there that teams would be interested, but Baltimore, who has a lot of young pitchers, cut him. Mets signed him for 3.3 million with incentives that could push it to 4.2
Because he joined the As when he was 28, I think he's avoided the arbitration years, so he's basically a free agent, though he has options remaining and the Mets can send him to AAA if he struggles. Too many walks, but 6'6 and being a hard thrower is fun. I think he'll be fun to watch. He's listed 6'6 and 180 lbs, so he's a stringbean.
Word on the street is, the Mets are done signing pitchers. The only question remaining is whether they'll upgrade the DH spot.
For 3.3 million, this feels like a good gamble to me. There's some upside and while his Japan numbers were mixed, and his best season in Japan was at 21 (in 2015), his returning to being a starter, which he was in Japan might be just barely possible, but I think bullpen is much more likely where he stays.
The mets will probably try to work with him and make some adjustments and time will tell and this is another low cost, short contract, with potential upside, which I applaud the Mets for doing. Keeps things flexible for 2025 and 26.
Diekman apparently has a vesting option in his contract so if he pitches enough innings, his contract becomes guaranteed for 2025, at which time he'll be 38, so I understand the older player wanting the vesting option. I still haven't seen what Diekman signed for.
They'll have to cut 2 guys from the 40 for these 2 moves. Probably pitchers. No idea who those 2 will be.
- -
So Diekman gets 4 million guaranteed in 2025 if he makes 58 starts this year. I'd guess his 2024 deal would be around that much.
So, back of the order / hit or miss relief pitchers get 3-5 million now. Good set up men get 10-11 million. Closers get nearly 20. That's just the economics these days.
Diaz - closer
Ottavino/Raley - 8th inning guys I assume - lefty/righty
Diekman - the other lefty
Fujinami - hardest thrower - will try to "fix him" or 7th inning/potential more than one inning type.
Jorge Lopez - 23 saves and solid numbers in 2022, bad 2023 (3 teams) - another fix it project
Michael Tonkin - decent, not great last year, 80 innings in 45 games, so a bit of a long man.
Drew Smith - if he can get back to who he was 2021/22 - he's probably the setup man. Good stuff. Health issues have hurt him. Mediocre last year with too many walks.
Phil Bickford, another one who struggled in 2023, was better in 2021/22.
That's 9 arms for 8 spots, and potentially 7 spots if Megil or Peterson win an opening day bullpen spot, so it's too many arms right now. I don't know how many of those guys have options, so we could see some movement between now and Opening day, or there's always the chance of injuries and DL, whether real or just convenient timing.
They also have Reid-Foley, but I kind of don't want to count him. 17 innings in the last 2 years. Last year his numbers were just odd. 7.2 innings, 4 hits, 6 walks, 16 Ks. But so small a sample size . . . I just don't know what to predict for him. He was a top 100 project 6 years ago, so maybe there's a chance, but he might also get cut from the roster and passed through waivers with the last 2 signings.
I'm sure nobody wants Peterson out of the pen, but he wasn't any worse than some of the above last year and he's a lefty.
And there's like 5 or 6 others on the 40 man roster, but some of those will be cut to make room for the recent signings. I'll list them in case anyone knows anything about them or wants to make predictions:
Austin Adams (was waived and not picked up, so the hit-batter record setter will start in Syracuse)
Reed Garrett
Grant Hartwig
Max Kranick
Yohan Ramirez
Josh Walker (who I think is more of a starter) and some of those guys will be gone in a week.
That's a lot of names. A lot of projects, iffs, hopes and maybes, but it's a decent collection of potential. I think the Pen could go either way and they also have a few guys in AAA who could be added during the year. Heffner, as pitching coach, has his work cut out for him, but maybe he can work some magic.
Off the 40, AAA options include: Vasil, Hamel,
Lavender, Orze, Scott (who they probably see as a potential starter, but he could see bullpen time in 2024), and their mix of starters, again, not sure who has options with Peterson, Megill, Luchessi, and Butto (who has options). I think they want to keep Megil and might carry him in the pen and use him as a spot starter. Peterson and Luchessi are harder to predict and I could see them traded if they're options are gone.
So it's kind of trying to find 7 or 8 good arms from 14 or 15 choices. It might work.
The starting pitchers are set, unless something unexpected happens and the position players are mostly set too, with some hope that the kids will take a step forward.
h
3rd base probably going mostly to Baty and DH split between DJ Stewart and Mark Vientos. and Marte could be in that mix as well depending on his health, his glove and his bat.
The OF will depend on who hits, and Marte's health, with Nimmo in left and the other 2 spots being filled by a mix of Marte, Bader & Taylor, with DJ Stewart possibly in the mix when he's not DHing. A mid-season callup of GIlbert wouldn't surprise me.
I don't hate what the Mets have done this off-season, but there's going to be a lot of mixing and matching to see who wins some of the openings. It would have been nice if they'd added another bat, but maybe giving Vientos & DJ Stewart the DJ spot and Baty 3rd base isn't a bad way to go.
9 days till Pitchers and Catchers (Feb 13).
Adding a brief write-up on a few players including Nate Levander
https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/02/11/mets-director-of-player-development-prospects-spring-training-drew-gilbert-luisangel-acuna/amp/(too long?)
Embiid wanted to win so badly, he deliberately injured Mitchell Robinson.
Classy.
