The Mets have claimed reliever Yoan López off waivers from the Marlins, according to announcements from both teams. To clear space on the 40-man roster, New York placed left-hander Joey Lucchesi on the 60-day injured list.
López continues to bounce around the league — and more specifically, the NL East — via waivers. Designated for assignment by the Braves early in the offseason, he was claimed by the Phillies just before the lockout. Since the work stoppage, he’s gone from Philadelphia to Miami and now to Queens on the waiver wire.
Despite having been a member of four NL East teams within the past six months, the only big league club for which López has ever suited up is the Diamondbacks. A high-profile signee by Arizona out of Cuba, he was one of the better pitching prospects in the D-Backs system for the next couple years. López reached the big leagues briefly in 2018 and found a bit of success early in his career. He pitched to a 3.41 ERA over 60 2/3 innings during his second MLB campaign, but an underwhelming 17.1% strikeout rate indicated he might have trouble continuing to keep runs off the board.
That proved to be the case, as he’s posted a 6.19 mark in 32 innings over the past two years. His 19.6% strikeout percentage and 10.1% walk rate in that time are both worse than average. That said, the 29-year-old has actually had some success missing bats on a pitch-by-pitch basis. He’s generated swinging strikes on nearly 13% of his offerings in each of the past two years, about a point above the 11.7% league average for bullpen arms. López has also averaged north of 95 MPH on his fastball and has posted slightly better than average ground-ball marks.
Traded from Arizona to Atlanta in May, López spent the majority of last season with the Braves’ top affiliate in Gwinnett. He had much better results there than he’s had in the big leagues, posting a 3.03 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate in 32 appearances. Between his Triple-A performance and pair of remaining minor league option years, López has clearly piqued the interest of a handful of teams. None have yet been willing to devote him a permanent spot on the 40-man roster, but the Mets can stash him at Triple-A Syracuse as a depth option for the next couple years were they to keep him on the 40-man.
Lucchesi’s 60-day IL placement was an inevitability whenever New York needed a roster spot. The southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery last June and will miss most or all of the upcoming season recovering.
Nats next
Rooting for this!
Your name is a big yes from me
He’s going on tour
Career FIP over 5.00. Good luck with that
Great pickup for the Metsies! Stick it to Miami for dropping him for Nance. Even MarlinsFanGirl was puzzled by that move!
Dude. The Mets need lefties and as pwndroia mentioned, this is not only a righty but one with a 5.12 FIP. Cohen might be good at throwing money at star over 30 players, but it remains to be seen whether he can actually win.
This is a filler move. If all goes right he gets released before ever throwing a pitch. If a lot goes wrong he’s depth for the depth that’s all. Y’all act like they’re expecting much out of him.
Not expecting much but depths can be better filled. It’s worth a shot but still…
LMAO how many times is this poor guy gonna get bounced around???
Tell that to Billy McKinney…
Meh. Cost them nothing to have him throw at AAA.
Low risk, high reward. Not bad.
Not sure where you’re getting the high reward part. Seems like low risk low reward.
more like Low Risk Low Reward
No risk, hope we never need him but signed him just in case
Wow, if Lopez is low-risk/high-reward, I wonder what Tommy Nance is.
Who did the Phillies and Braves drop him to make room for? Those guys must be awesome too.
As a fan of the team Lopez has thrown the most innings at, I can say for sure the high reward doesn’t exist. He lacks the mental fortitude to succeed at the MLB level.
He’s doing the Bruce Chen…playing for the entire NLE.
Great pickup! Keep it coming!
Taking hand me downs from the Marlins is really bad.
Meh. Minor league filler. Teams do this all the time. I never get when fans criticize these tiny, yet necessary moves.
Nothing to criticize or praise here.
The Marlins have a really good pitching staff.
Why sign Tony Watson when you can have Yoan Lopez? SMH
If the Mets can somehow pry Josh Hader from the Brewers then they are the favorite to win the division. We need a dominate lefty out of the pen
That would cost the Mets a hefty haul. I’m all for it, just not sure what it would take to pry him away
Less need for LH specialist with the DH in NL Need guys that can get both Lefties and Righties out and the Mets have a few solid bp guys that can do it all
Career ERA of 4 and a quarter….not sure what the Mets see in him
Depth
Depth move. Maybe they can tweak something and get some big league innings if he is effective in AAA.