The Mets have agreed to a minor league contract with first baseman/corner outfielder Daniel Palka, according to Palka’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. The left-handed hitter has appeared in a pair of major league seasons, suiting up with the White Sox from 2018-19.
The bulk of Palka’s playing time came in the first of those years. He tallied 449 plate appearances with the South Siders in 2018 and popped an impressive 27 home runs, showcasing big power potential that had made him an interesting prospect coming up through the Diamondbacks’ and Twins’ systems. Yet he also struck out in 34.1% of his trips to the dish, and his resulting .240/.294/.484 slash line was only a touch above the league average.
Palka’s strikeout troubles continued the following year, and he was eventually outrighted off Chicago’s 40-man roster. The South Carolina native signed with the KBO’s Samsung Lions in 2020 but hit just .209/.272/.367 over 217 plate appearances there. He returned stateside last winter, signing a minor league deal with the Nationals.
Assigned to Triple-A Rochester, Palka had an impressive showing in 2021. He hit .256/.364/.472 with 18 homers in 420 attempts. That was the latest quality minor league showing from Palka, owner of a .260/.350/.480 line over five seasons at the minors’ top level. Yet the Nationals never gave him a big league look, and he elected minor league free agency after the season. He’ll now try to crack the roster of the division-rival Mets, although New York already has a strong group of corner bats (Pete Alonso, Dominic Smith, J.D. Davis, Brandon Nimmo, Mark Canha, etc.) due for regular playing time, barring trades.
Miss this guy from when he was on the Sox. Good luck brother!
Cheap depth. Keep it coming.
The Mets know as well as anyone how fast a roster can be depleted and depth tested by injury.
Everybody Palka!
“You can have her
I don’t want her
She’s too fat for me-e
She’s too fat for me-e…..”
I don’t want him, I don’t want him, he strikes out to much for me, way to much for me. Anyway, I wish him good luck. I also remember him on the Southsiders. Palka reminded me of the White Sox version of Kyle Schwarber.
They need to sign a bunch of past their prime relievers that used to have success to minor league contracts instead of this guy. Guys like Watson, Tommy Hunter, Boxberger, Workman, Hembree, Clippard, Hand, etc. They should be in on all of those guys. Their relief staff consists of Edwin Diaz, Seth Lugo, Trevor May, and everyone else stinks or is not a major leaguer (Castro, SRF, Ried). They should of kept McWilliams, I think he still has potential if he can fix his walk issues
I agree with your general idea here, although I don’t see how anyone can say that Castro stinks and Reid-Foley was a pleasant surprise last year. But they need some arms for the pen for sure.
Agreed. Castro doesn’t stink, but he had trouble with consistency. SRF and Y. Diaz provided the Mets some value out of the Matz trade
Castro does stink, he doesnt have any control over his pitches and ever since the substance ban he couldnt throw a strike
Another player chooses the Mets over the rest of baseball.
We’re the best team next year by 25 wins.
The rest of MLB should be afraid.
Bad decision by Palka and his agent. The Mets have way too many advanced bats on their roster already for Palka to have a reasonable chance of cracking their major league lineup. The only way he does so is if the Mets have an abundance of offensive injuries in 2022, or perhaps he gets a few chances as a Covid replacement player but that’s about it. He should have held out for a minor league opportunity with one of the ‘lesser’ teams like Pitt, Baltimore or Arizona, or maybe even Miami since they have a big need for offense on their major league roster.
I’m guessing the Mets were the first team this offseason to offer him a minor league deal, but his agent should have done a better job here and marketed him to the Baltimores of the world where he could actually have a legitimate shot of contributing in the major leagues, regardless of his age or historical strikeout rates. Maybe the Mets gave him a high minor league salary and that’s why he accepted, but it’s not a good place for him to be if his goal is to make it back to the majors. I do wish him nothing but the best. Who knows, maybe he does so well in AAA that the Mets will have no choice but to call him up. If he does that then Baltimore, Pittsburgh, etc will be calling with trade offers for him. Maybe that’s the master plan, or perhaps he wants to get into coaching and feels that he can showcase his baseball mind in the Mets organization better than anywhere else? Only time will tell.
P.S. – You can tell how bored I am, writing a 2 paragraph response to a Mets minor league signing article. This lockout is killing me…can’t wait for some real, post-lockout transactional news!
Just wondering why the Nationals never called last year. He is minor league depth, and maybe the right hitting coach can unlock the talent and keep it unlocked.
It’s the Mets. Half the roster will be injured by mid May and Palka will be hitting cleanup.
He’s the guy that made those horrible fielding blunders for the Sox in 2018
He was also the only guy worth watching that year.
Whoah- the defensive metric stats are pretty ugly for him, he really must’ve made some blunders
-9 DRS in right field in only 333.2 innings is impressively bad. In 1000 innings, that -27 DRS.
-13 career DRS in 691 innings in the outfield. Yet not a single error. That has to make him one of the worst defenders ever to not make an error, right?
Not a fan of the sarcastic personality of Palka… especially when he goes 0-40
He is one of the replacement players that will take the field during the lockout.
Once the Mets package and ship off Smith and Davis he will add depth and some pop like Billy McKinney; about the same BA.
BA means nothing. Just ask every Nimmo fanboy.
Considering Nimmo hit .292 last year and .280 in 2020 that’s a silly argument.
Failed in KBO. What more is there to say. Not a replacement level player.
Palkamania!
I just noticed he was worth -1.4 WAR in only 30 games and 93 plate appearances in 2019. I’m legitimately impressed by how horrific that is.
He did have a 1 wRC+ in 93 plate appearances with awful defense. Weirdly enough, that wasn’t the lowest non-pitcher wRC+ in 2019 in at least 90 PA’s, that being Zack Cozart with -17 in 107 PA’s.
Planning for DH depth. They can’t seriously think that they can fix his fielding problems. Eppler must have been impressed in 2018…
Well he has some hitting problems too. The main one being that the ball hasn’t been connecting with his bat all that often in recent times.