11:29am: Leone’s deal with the Mets carries a $1.5MM base salary, tweets DiComo. Once prorated for the remaining number of days on the calendar, that comes out to about $1.22MM. The Mets are paying a 90% luxury tax on any payroll additions at this point. Between that prorated base and heavy tax, the signing of Leone will ultimately cost them about $2.313MM.
10:05am: The Mets have formally announced Leone’s signing. Catcher Omar Narvaez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. New York also reinstated ace Justin Verlander from the injured list, as expected, and optioned both Muckenhirn and John Curtiss to Triple-A Syracuse. Butto has been returned to Syracuse after operating as the 27th man in yesterday’s doubleheader.
9:43am: Veteran right-hander Dominic Leone, who opted out of a minor league deal with the Rangers earlier this week, has a locker set up in the Mets’ clubhouse this morning, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Leone is represented by ACES.
The team hasn’t made a formal announcement just yet and will need to clear a 40-man spot, but Leone is in the clubhouse and in uniform already. Lefty Zach Muckenhirn has been optioned to Triple-A to open a spot for Leone on the active roster, per DiComo, but the team will still need to announce the corresponding 40-man move.
Leone, 31, opened the season with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate and wasn’t added to Texas’ big league roster by his opt-out date — despite an outstanding run to begin the year. In 11 2/3 innings at Round Rock, he posted a 1.59 ERA with a 15-to-2 K/BB ratio and 46.7% ground-ball rate.
This will be Leone’s seventh big league team and the tenth Major League season in which he’s pitched. The right-hander spent the 2021-22 seasons with the Giants, for whom he notched a tidy 2.71 ERA with a solid 23.1% strikeout rate and elevated 10.4% walk rate over the life of 103 innings. Leone’s fastball sat 95.5 mph in his two years with the Giants, and he delivered impressive swinging-strike and chase rates of 15.7% and 38.4%, respectively.
On the whole, Leone has 356 innings of Major League experience. He’s logged a 3.69 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate, 9.8% walk rate and 1.06 HR/9 mark in that time. ERA alternatives like FIP and SIERA both peg him at exactly 3.91, and he’s tallied 53 holds and seven saves in his career, so he’s no stranger to pitching in leverage spots if need be.
The Mets’ bullpen is taxed after yesterday’s game, which saw long reliever Jose Butto throw 42 pitches, right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis throw 36 pitches and setup man Adam Ottavino toss 24 pitches. With that trio likely unavailable and Muckenhirn optioned to Syracuse, the Mets were a bit light on relief options. Leone will give them a sixth fresh arm to slot into the bullpen for today’s game, and given his broader track record, he figures to have a decent chance at carving out a spot in the ’pen for the remainder of the season if he performs well.
First pitcher in when Verlander gets knocked out in the 4th inning today
Can’t wait in a couple hours when Verlander throws 6 shutout innings
Most likely somewhere in between our predictions..5 inning 3ER lol
was close – 5IP 2ER
He didn’t have a shutout for 6 minutes.
He was on a pitch count and was great after getting his feet wet in the 1st
This is a good idea. May not work out but the minor league numbers are very good and he could just bounce back this season. Why didn’t Rangers just call him up?
Rishi: Exactly what I was thinking. I don’t know what more he could have done at AAA than he did. Maybe the Rangers have too many good pitchers and don’t anticipate any injuries so they don’t need him.
Why does Ian Kennedy get a chance over him? I get that Kennedy was good for the Rangers in 2021 but since he left he was garbage and is still pitching poorly. Meanwhile this dude had a sub 2 era in 2021 (the whole season, not just Kennedy’s half good season). So from his standpoint he had to see this as unfair.
Not to mention one of them is 38 years old
Maybe Kennedy has some dirt on Chris Young or something because a 1st place team carrying a reliever with an ERA north of 7 while letting a reliever with an ERA under 2 walk is a head scratcher
I love it when an opt out comes together!
LOL They will sign anyone with a pulse!
Way to go Eppler you totally ignored the bullpen when there were tons of relievers out there to sign
Robertson has been one of the best closers in baseball. Starting pitching has surprisingly been the Mets issue.
Oh wow Von you’re so knowledgeable that you knew how good Robertson has been. What a joke this site is. Its always the most foolish posts that get the most likes from other casuals
7 casuals have liked the post thinking it’s an epic own to point out Robertson has been good, as if that wasn’t obvious
Hilarious how seven newbies liked the vonhayes post because they think pointing how David Robertson has been good represents deep knowledge of the game
It never ends the oblivious minds that are everywhere
Von likes to play it cool, but he actually has 10 accounts.
The Mets BP had the 3rd lowest ERA in the league.
I think there’s a huge perception problem with what an acceptable BP performance entails. Fans tend to always expect perfection while the reality is that maintaining a solid BP is a constant struggle throughout the league. Everyone seems to think their team has a horrible BP when reality the expectation levels are just severely off. If you really think about it, allowing a baserunner every inning is considered elite. Giving up a run every 3 innings is above average.
This same perception issue occurs with offense from the C position as well. Most people just don’t realize how putrid the offensive numbers for catchers are throughout the entire league.
No no no. The Mets bullpen is bad. I don’t ever look at the stats. Many of the arms in the pen are AAA level based on just watching them pitch
It’s not sustainable long term
And I know all about what you mention. Other bullpens having problems, etc.
There are 4 spots in the Mets pen filled with AAAA types because Eppler didn’t bother adding major league relievers
It is exactly my point that you kick 3 or 4 million to the solid (but not spectacular) relievers on the market
I don’t know why it’s so hard to give a reliever, for example Aaron Loup in 2021, a three year, $12 million deal
Don’t give me “volatility of the reliever market” arguments. When you have a solid reliever you should lock him up to two or three year deals
Loup has a negative WAR since signing with the Angels. If that’s not volatility, I don’t know what is…
Your example of Loup is a bad one. Last year he was okay-ish. Even if you say this year is a small sample, his history has plenty of volatility in it. Denying the reality of volatility of relievers would just tie you to bad contracts. The fact is, very few relievers produce three years of consistent, “solid” results.
The Mets still suck. You can throw money at the top players but you still need to know how to draft and evaluate
Eppler deserves to be fired for his ineptitude. How is this guy even in baseball anymore?
The Mets won 101 games last season, and are chillin around .500 v early this season. That doesn’t spell fired to me.
@suicide_squeeze 400 million dollar payroll. The problem with the Mets is that they way over achieved last year. They only won 101 games because Diaz was absolutly perfect. Without him the entire team has taken a hit. The team overachieved and then spent even more money. You can spend tons of money but not put together a good team. The Rays have a 6th of the Mets payroll and they are doing a lot better than them. I’ve been saying since last years trade deadline how bad of a GM Billy EFFler is. Worst GM in all of sports
This site has become awful thanks to the commenters. Cohen’s plan isn’t just spend a bunch of money and win. He’s trying to do what the Dodgers did 10 years ago, bump the payroll up over 100M more to supplement the current team while rebuilding the organization from the top down including drafting, scouting, development, and analytics. It’s a long term plan. Whether it eventually works out as well as LAD did is to be seen, but they still have kept their prospects. And by the way dude, it’s MAY. What did the NL East look like at this time last year? How did it end up? Yeah exactly. Chill the f out and take some Xanax or something. The fact that i have to actually keep repeating this to people, let alone actual Mets fans is astonishing. Try living through the early to mid 90s, or 2001-2004. Those were awful years. Jesus dude, get a hold of yourself.
Wrong.
I’m not a Met’s fan per se, but winning 100 games in your first year with the team, generally keeps a GM “in baseball”
He failed the team by not trading for the impact bat they needed at last year’s deadline. He deserves to be fired for the Ruf trade alone. That trade is arguably worse than the Scott Kazmir for Victor-Freaking-Zambrano trade.
I can pretty much say, that NO GM EVER was FIRED after his team won 100+ games in his most recent season.
James Click wasn’t “fired” literally but he was pretty much dismissed after winning 106 games and a World Series title.
Ok, kid. We shall see. I don’t speak in absolutes. Enjoy that.
I can pretty much say, that NO GM EVER was FIRED after his team won 100+ games in his most recent season.
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You’re really in uncharted territory now. How many recent GMs have had a $377M payroll? If I got woken up in the middle of the night, and had one hour to put together a $377M team, I think I (and everyone else in here) would do pretty well.
@Dr. VN,
I did not know his middle name. Thank you for that!
But Eppler made that GREAT trade with the Giants for Darin Ruf giving up J D Davis who leads Giants in HRs(6) and RBIs(17) and has been SPECTACULAR gold-glove style at third( a big surprise from what we heard from Mets fans) and also 3 VERY GOOD young pitchers doing well in AAA. What a trade!!!
Yeah, I’m not one of those out with pitchforks but that trade was an Eppleric fail. At the very least, that package should have landed Wilmer Flores instead of Darin Ruf.
Eppler himself admitted it was a mistake
Lol Mets,
The problem with the Mets is their SP which has a high ERA and is only good for 4 or 5 IP with age, injury and underperformance issues. The bullpen has been solid but even with rotating bodies will be fried by Summer. Bad job by the Mets FO wasting Steve Cohen’s $.
100% the impact on the bullpen is going to take its toll.
@Robrock30 the bullpen has not been solid. Their bullpen era is low because these guys come in low stress situations (blowouts) and pitch well. In close games almost every game has been blown this year. Robertson and Ottavino are their only reliable relievers. Drew Smith should be released, hes one of the worst pitchers I’ve ever seen in close games. Blows 9/10 games when theres something on the line
@LFG seriously are you a Braves fan or something? Have you watched Drew Smith pitch? The bullpen has been overworked and hasn’t been bad.
Strike up that Hugo Montenegro tune when Leone comes out of that bullpen gate!
I have no idea why the Rangers didn’t call Leone up. Their bullpen isn’t as good as people make it out to be
400 million dollar .500 team. Been saying this before the season started and everyone thought I was crazy. Guess I was right again. All this is on one man, Billy EFfler, because he EFs everything up. Worst GM in all of sports
Y’all bein’too RUF on Eppler!
I still think you’re a crazy. The seasons not over yet you’re declaring that you were right. Are you going to admit you were wrong when they win 90+ games? Or will you disappear or make excuses?
@mookie1 I have them winning around 85 games. They aren’t winning 90. I think they will make the playoffs as the last wildcard spot. If they fire Eppler right now I think 90 wins is possible
They’re not going to fire Eppler mid-season. The Mets have a 90-95 win roster, things will even out. The bullpen has mostly been good, the starters will do better, and the offense will come around. “Ya gotta believe”
actual Met fans might remember 2006 when an 83 win Cards team beat the Mets to advance to and win the World Series. Phillies were NL champs with how many wins last year? Hint: less than 90. Oh, and by the way, it’s May. Ask Phillies fans how they felt last May.
@sfes You’re not wrong. The Mets usually choke in September. Crumbling now may get it out of the way. The Braves are going to slump eventually, but at this rate, the NLE isn’t looking too exciting. At the beginning of the year I would have I assumed both Wild Cards would come from the NLE. Now I’d be surprised if even one of them did.
There’s plenty of time for the Mets and Phillies to turn it around, but Scherzer looks like a problem, and a lot of the teams you’d expect to trade away talent are winning, so the trade deadline may not help.
@sfes
Oh, I remember that Cardinals team, with all the RH starting pitchers. The Mets were vulnerable to LH pitching and the Cards had none. I was feeling really good about that matchup.
@vonpurplehayes I’m with you on this – if Scherzer is what he’s been this year they are in a lot of trouble. ATL looks like they started working their devil magic early. And we went into the season lacking another power bat for the 2nd straight year. But again, it’s May. We’re not winning 101 games again but like I said earlier, it’s not just about this year. It’s a long-term plan trying to rebuild the org the Wilpons left in shambles. Not saying they’ll be as successful as LAD, but it’s smart to at least use their blueprint. The East on paper had 3 playoff teams again this year. I don’t think the Angels would have the sack to trade Ohtani, but if they do imagine the league-wide bidding war that would cause
@mookie1 and that Endy Chavez catch – hard to lose after a moment like that
I was there. First row in the Loge seats. I thought Shea Stadium was going to collapse it was rocking so hard.
@Dr van nostrand As much of a dump as it was, I had some of the best times in my life at Shea. Home to a lot of great baseball and playoff moments. Love the Seinfeld reference btw.
Thanks – Citi Field is beautiful, but it will never get as loud as Shea did at times.
@LFFMets. You have them winning 85 games but than proceeded to brag about how right you are because RIGHT NOW they are .500? So they just had to be .500 just once and you’re ready to take your Mensa admissions test? That’s a pretty low bar to clear for being so right.
@SalaryCapMyth Billy Eppler is the worst GM in baseball, I have no faith in him fixing the Mets needs. They aren’t getting any better
@LFGMets
You sure have extreme opinions. Eppler is the worst GM in all of sports, Drew Smith is the worst reliever, Carrasco is the worst starter, the bullpen is the worst. I’m sure you mentioned others, can you refresh my memory?
He gets more and more delusional with each post
Statistically speaking, the Nets are not the worst in anything.
I remember reading this website in 2005 or 2006 when I first found it. The comment section has turned into a dumpster fire.
…Errr I meant the Mets. The Nets kind of suck.
…so do the Mets, so no worries.