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.
