Right-hander Chris Flexen is set to join the Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization, reports Marc Carig of the Athletic (via Twitter). The Mets designated Flexen for assignment yesterday to make way for Brad Brach.
The terms of the deal aren’t yet known, but Flexen will presumably take home significantly more with the Bears than he would’ve had he cleared waivers and remained in the Mets’ system. The 25-year-old has made 27 appearances (11 starts) at the big league level for New York since 2017. They’ve not gone well, as Flexen has a cumulative 8.07 ERA with 49 strikeouts and 54 walks in 68 innings.
Disastrous MLB results aside, Flexen was solid this season with Triple-A Syracuse. In 78.2 innings across 26 games (14 starts) in the hitter-friendly International league, he worked to a 4.46 ERA with a strong combination of strikeouts (26.7%) and walks (6.1%). He also showed a velocity boost in his brief big league time in 2019, averaging 94.54 MPH on his four-seam fastball, up from 93.31 MPH the year prior, per Brooks Baseball.
Between his youth, arm speed and high minors results, it’s easy to see why the Bears are intrigued by Flexen. He’ll need to demonstrate better control in the KBO, but Flexen’s certainly young enough to pop back up on MLB teams’ radars in the future.
Flexen had a great year by his strikeout to walk rate in AAA. He could be replacing Lindblom or Frankoff
OMG He isn’t a met!!!! THANK YOU.
Does that matter to you? It seems like you are more of a Rangers fan. All my former baseball teammates have always taught me that rooting for multiple teams is bad luck. I.e.: the Mets and Rangers may have to face off during interleague play or even during the World Series so anything bad for the Mets during the offseason is at least potentially good for the Rangers. That may be overstated to a degree but they also taught me that a true fan of any team only roots 1 team out of thirty that could win the world series. Otherwise you are rooting for competition. I mean I root for the NFL Detroit Tigers because of Stafford and former player Calvin Megatron for playing in Georgia but I only root for them during the regular season and only during games that can help or at least not hurt my Falcons. Otherwise, they are the enemy. Are you a Rangers fan, a Mets fan or just half a fan of each?
And yes, I know Calvin Johnson is retired. That’s not for the person I am responding to but all the spell check people that come out later to try and talk trash. He played for Georgia Tech and spent his entire career with Detroit so I root for them especially because Stafford played for Georgia.
You had me until NFL Detroit Tigers… it’s Detroit Lions
The Texas Rangers are my second favorite baseball team next to the Braves and my dream is that they both match up in the WS. I guess what I mean though is that even though the Rangers are my 2nd favorite team, I hope only bad things happen to them until they face my Braves enemies. A true fan should only have 1 MLB team in their heart. Otherwise, you aren’t giving all of your heart to any team.
He’s most likely a fan of the New York rangers and not the Texas rangers. Or he’s a park ranger?
Careful…he could be a Poewr Ranger!
Careful…he might be a Power Ranger☠️
Since he hadn’t yet cleared waivers, is there an arrangement with the KBO where the Bears would owe the Mets money?
This move should put Doosan’s own Bears over the top.
flexen was awful with the mets glad they got rid of him
Every time they brought him up I asked WHY.
Every time they brought him into a game I asked WHY. Never understood what they saw in him when on the MLB roster.
It’s all well and good for the Doosan Bears rotation but who they gonna use as a late defensive upgrade at the keystone?
KBO is signing tons of MLB fringe guys lately
They’re just flexen on the other teams in the KBO