NEW YORK – A tricky week of list juggling has led to the departure of three Mets players, including a prominent member of the 2020 bullpen.
The Mets appointed Brad Brach on the right for the mission to release 40 people on Thursday, completing a series of transactions that also saw DFA, pitcher Corey Oswalt and catcher Ali Sánchez.
When a player is designated for assignment, that player is immediately removed from his club’s 40-man roster and from the 25-man roster, if any. The Mets have seven days from the date of each DFA to change those players, place them on direct waivers, or release them.
Designating players to make room for acquisitions is not uncommon, and it was necessary for the Mets; they bought them on Albert Almora’s pitch, Jonathan Villar’s pitch and Khalil Lee’s prospectus in less than a week, forcing them to drop three more from their 40-man roster.
Less common is the appointment of a person with a guaranteed contract, such as Brach. A 2019 commercial acquisition from the Cubs, Brach subsequently signed to New York for one year with the 2021. player option. He later exercised that option, which rose to $ 2.075 million due to a series of proportional incentives.
As such, Brach considered resuming his role in the Mets Bullpen in 2021. But the team later acquired relievers Trevor May and Aaron Loup, among others, reducing Brach’s role.
Born in New Jersey and a lifelong Mets fan, Brach also struggled in 2020, missing most of the summer camp and the first two weeks of the season due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. The right-hander posted an ERA of 1.50 over his first 11 appearances, but ended his season with three ugly outings, which included eight walks, six runs and one recorded outing.
If the Mets are unable to change Brach, any team that claims him to give up could sign him for the Major League Minimum; The Mets would be on the hook for the difference. Even before designating Brach for the award, the Mets would have sought to continue to improve their bullpen with additional depth signatures.
The Oswalt DFA should affect the Mets’ initial launch in a similar way, with their acquisitions of Joey Lucchesi, Jordan Yamamoto and Sean Reid-Foley covering his potential departure. Oswalt spent the last three seasons as one of the Mets’ replacement rotation options, but struggled in that role, posting an ERA of 6.19 over 13 starts and 10 appearances in relief. He was much more efficient at Triple-A Syracuse, where he posted an ERA of 2.91 over 16 starts in 2019.
Sánchez, a defensive captivist, made his Major League debut last summer, but entered 2021 buried behind James McCann, Tomás Nido and Patrick Mazeika on the depth chart.