The Mets announced that four players — corner outfielder/first baseman José Martínez, utilityman José Peraza and right-handed pitchers Robert Stock and Corey Oswalt — have all cleared outright waivers. Each of that quartet elected free agency.
2021 was a completely lost season for Martínez, who tore the meniscus in his left knee in Spring Training and missed the entire year. He set out on a minor league rehab assignment in August but apparently wasn’t healthy enough to return to the big league level, as he didn’t play in either a major or minor league game after September 10.
Martínez kicked off his big league career with a couple very productive seasons with the Cardinals. He’s never been a strong defender at either first base or in the outfield, though, and his bat ticked down to around league average from 2019-20. Now 33 years old and coming off a lost season, he might be limited to minor league offers this winter. He should be an intriguing no-risk flier for some team, though, assuming an offseason of rest enables a full recovery from his knee issue.
Peraza was a one-time top prospect, but he’s settled into a utility role over the past couple seasons. An everyday middle infielder with the Reds during the early stages of his major league career, Peraza showed plus speed and bat-to-ball skills but was held back by an aggressive approach and lack of impact power. He hit .225/.275/.342 with the Red Sox in 2020 and posted only a marginally better .204/.266/.380 line over 154 plate appearances for the Mets this past season.
The 27-year-old Peraza still runs well and saw a fair amount of action at each of second and third base in Queens. He shouldn’t have much issue finding a minor league deal with a Spring Training invitation on the open market, but it never seemed likely the Mets would retain him on a projected $1MM arbitration salary.
Stock has bounced around over the past few seasons, playing for the Padres and Red Sox from 2019-20. He began the 2021 season with the Cubs but landed in New York on a waiver claim in June. Previously a full-time reliever, Stock started his three MLB outings this year but only tallied nine combined innings. He owns a 4.71 ERA in 72 2/3 big league frames going back to 2018.
Oswalt is a career-long Met, having been in the organization since they selected him in the 2012 draft. He tossed 64 2/3 innings of 5.85 ERA ball back in 2018 but hasn’t topped thirteen MLB innings in any season since then. Passed through waivers in February, Oswalt earned his way back to the majors in June but landed on the injured list with right knee inflammation after three outings. Like Martínez, Oswalt played in some rehab games in September but never returned to the big league active roster.
They’ve all also withdrawn their names from consideration for positions in the Mets front office.
I wonder if any of them want to be their next president of baseball ops…probably not but it’s worth a try!
Remember when Peraza was supposed to be the future at 2B for the Braves?
Pepperidge Farm remembers…
I do. Wish for his sake he could have lived up to his prospect rating but he isn’t the first top 100 who didn’t make it.
Oswalt is the only one there that could provide some value next year, maybe out of someone’s pen.
Lol
That 5.89 career ERA and 1.8 HR/9 aren’t too encouraging.
He was terrible as a starter his rookie year. Take that out of the equation and the stats are very different. He’s been better since then, and is just not a starter in general. He’s a decent back end bull pen arm potentially.
36 to go.
35. DeGrom is a keeper.
deGrom, Alonso, Nimmo and, ummm, uuuh….
Ok, deGrom and Alonso. Nimmo is a free agent in 2023 and will get maybe six million in 2022. So I am ok with that but would likely dump him for a prospect at mid-season.
Actually, I would trade Alonso to Padres for CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and Robert Harrell.
Hassell not Harrell.
If the Mets are out of it by mid season, all expiring contracts should get dumped.
Are you a Padres fan you must be who in his right mind would trade Alonso for 3 minor leaguer’s
This article goes so hard, feel free to screenshot
Is Oswalt Roy Oswalt’s kid?
Edit just googled it he sure is. Really hope the kid puts it all together
Corey and Roy are not related.
Where are you seeing that? He’s not, and baseball reference puts all notable relatives at the bottom of their bio
He’s not related to Roy Oswalt.
Lol
No he is not related. You may want to recheck. His father is Greg Oswalt.
Of course Robert Stock didn’t get claimed…he’s ‘Untouchable”….
(many, many years ago)…..
I know, it’s an “Unsolved Mystery” why no one did…
Yeah.. Stock = proof positive that throwing the ball 100mph doesn’t always translate into success, only that some organization will give that guy a chance.
Robert Stock is a very interesting story. He was considered THE top amateur player in the country two different years as teenage catcher. I can only imagine he has an extremely unique perspective that could lead to a very successful career as a coach or manager.
Any Mets fans know where this team is payroll wise, and how much they have to spend this offseason?
Stroman, Syndergaard, Baez, Conforto all free agents I believe? Not sure .. what do they do with those guys ?
Conforto walks. Syndergard QO
Stroman and Baez extensions
That’s what I would try
Agreed. Conforto is a nice guy, but even at his best he is very streaky. He’ll want too much. I think Villar did well at 3rd. Hit well and much better defender than I thought. Re-sign him and he can hold the fort with JD until Baty or another propect comes up. You can then spend that money saved on Conforto on extending Stroman and perhaps Baez.
Of all Mets free agents, I’d like to see Pillar and Villar resigned. Both can start every day if needed and bring quality depth and insurance.
From the pitching side, I’d like to see Stroman come back and let Syndergaard walk. I just see him imploding like Harvey did. He’s just not dependable, physically, can’t hold runners on, can’t throw his slider for fear of injury and it’s only a matter of time until he hurts himself in the weight room again.
@MetsFan22: I can totally get behind this. I was never a big fan of Conforto’s glove. I remember early on, he would bobble almost every ball down the line in the corner. I would cringe every time I saw it happen. Obviously he’s gotten much better than that as the years went on, but he’s no Golden glove recipient. One caveat I would apply when they let him walk, is that they absolutely guarantee they get a power hitting corner outfielder in his place. Otherwise what’s the point of letting him walk, other than his a-hole agent asking an astronomical price for him regardless of his recent season stats.
Edit: @JimStem: I agree with you as well.
(Channeling every Mets fan on this site)
We have so much money to spend. We don’t care about the luxury tax in Queens. We’ll land every free agent we want, trade for Trout, and win the World Series next year in 4 games.
It’s just one Mets fan. Most aren’t like that, take cosmo2 as an example
As a realistic Mets fan, they should consider blowing past the luxury tax this year. It’s one of the few advantages the organization has given their past. Eventually, they’ll build up the farm and improve the coaching/analytics throughout the system, but take what you can get for now.
Sign free agents on shorter-term deals, especially w/o qualifying offers, and limit trading prospects this off-season.
If I was GM, I would try to bring back Stroman if the money is reasonable. No QO for Thor.
Agree with you on Stroman. I’d offer Thor a relatively cheap two-year prove-it deal, and have a QO to fall back on. I’d also consider the market around Conforto and if he’s really gung-ho about getting a massive contract, offer the QO for the draft pick. At this point, I’m ok with getting a more consistent right fielder.
QO Syndergaard and Conforto. Hope that Conforto walks and Syndergaard stays. Resign Baez and let Stroman walks
Team is probably less than 20 million under the threshold to start with before considering any QOs or extensions. BRef has them just under 200 million as of now. Not good. This is my point about how Cohen’s willingness to spend doesn’t mean as much as folks think. Lots of holes to fill just to tread water.
@Cosmo2 oh wow… Sounds awful. Guessing all free agents could be gone then, maybe Conforto, and Syndergaard could be back on cheap deals. Probably isn’t wise to be over the threshold?.. hmm.
I think they kind of have to go over the threshold. Question is, how much? But none of this is very wise at all. It’s the hole they’re in and Cohen is holding a shovel, so to speak.
Signing Conforto and Syndergaard makes no sense. Mets will not be competing for Division need year. They should try to bring in your cheaper players who will peak by 2024.
I’m not a Mets fan, so these are genuine questions.. but what about the rotation ? Wasn’t Degrom injured again? And is he going into his final year on his contract? Will he be ready for spring training or at least April ? How is that rotation looking as of now for 2022?
deGrom is theoretically good to go for spring training, but obviously a huge risk there. Rest of the rotation is, as of now, Carrasco, Walker, Peterson and a series of even more mysterious question marks than those three. Team has a lot of holes to fill as well as the perennial problem of imbalanced construction to solve. It’s an uphill battle. More so than many fans think. A lot of fans are banking on a 275+ million dollar payroll, which is stupid ridiculous. In short, ugh.
Oh damn.. I get the frustration. Ridiculous. Really is.
@Cosmo. Don’t forget Megill. They also have two kids advancing through the minors and believe both have already recovered from TJS.
Still, it wouldn’t shock me to see them sign three starters.
Do they commit to Nimmo in center or risk waiting too long to see if Lee is ready come spring?
Do they trade Davis, McNeil and Smith for CF and pitching? We have 1 true major league outfielder, even though Smith has held his own.
How big a distraction and roadblock is Albatross Cano?
If we do manage to retain Baez, there HAS to be some serious payroll reduction. Mets need starters who can be counted on for 30 starts, guys who know how to protect and care for their arms.
Yea I forgot Megill
Are you including Thomas Szapucki?
They were 8 games under .500 with some guys having bad years and a whole bunch of injuries. Fill a few holes and stay healthy and they’ll be OK next year. And try to draft and sign some better prospects.
Conforto is the most overrated outfield in baseball. Say goodbye. That’s why the Mets will try to resign the bum.
Oswalt is finally free and will win 15 games next year in another organization
Now get rid of Castro and Gsellman
Why? Neither of those guys are part of the problem. Both had ERAs well below 4.00… In fact they’re good guys to have at the back end of the bullpen. They need better frontline pen guys though.
Check there periphials, Castro walks or hits a batter almost once per inning. Hes awful and if you have watch Met games you would know this. Hes only usable when the Mets are down or up by 7 runs and its the 8th or 9th inning. Gsellman is basically used when there are men on base. He always gives up hits with guys on but his Era looks nice because those arent his runners. Hes awful
Plenty of fans who watch games would agree with me on those two. But, you may have a good point when you mention peripherals, stick to that argument.
@MetsIn7: Excellent points made, and completely agree with cutting them both loose. Here’s a fear of mine: Is *anyone* in the Mets FO scouting the league’s farm systems for B+ outfielders and pitchers we can trade for (i.e.: Kahlil Lee)? I feel like they haven’t done much of anything in that area. After all, they traded away Pete Crow-Armstrong right after saying they were going to build up the farm system, so that really pissed me off. We need youth, speed and dependability. And their trainers & coaching staffs – I’ve had it up to here with their inability to stay on the field for months at a time without injury.
They all stink
Great moves, on their way to a successful championship 2022 season. Go LOLMets!
The José Martinez injury absolutely killed the Mets season. What could’ve been…
LGOMets! I like it
I personally would like to see them possibly resigning peraza on minor deal, good depth bench guy.
There’s plenty of better players than Peraza out there. Career OPS+ of 79. No thanks, he’s terrible.
They were 8 games under .500 with some guys having bad years and a whole bunch of injuries. Fill a few holes and stay healthy and they’ll be OK next year. And try to draft and sign some better prospects.
8 games under .500 is a long way from contending.
Fill in a few holes, stay healthy, have fewer guys have bad years, sign or resign a few starters and bullpen options, draft and sign some better prospects, get a good POBO, GM, manager, and coaching staff and they’ll be somewhat close to contending for that last wild card spot next season.
sign Bryant [can play anywhere]
Marte, Center
Gausman and Greinke.
You’re asking for 4 major high profile acquisitions. What are the odds of even one or two of them happening?
280 million dollar payroll, one major injury away from last place. That’s the plan you e laid out as far as I see it. Plus, it digs a hole the team won’t be able to escape for a half decade.
Excellent.