The Rays announced that catcher Francisco Mejía has been reinstated from the injured list and designated for assignment. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the DFA prior to the official announcement.
Mejia, 27, landed on the injured list about a month ago due to a left knee MCL sprain. He began a rehab assignment just over a week ago but the club evidently didn’t want to bring him back and have cut him loose instead. Since he has more than five years of major league service time, he can no longer be optioned to the minors without his consent.
Once one of the top prospects in the league, Mejía hasn’t been able to live up to the hype at this point. Through 355 career games, he’s hitting .239/.284/.394 for a wRC+ of 87. That includes a fairly similar line of .227/.258/.400 here in 2023. He also hasn’t been graded particularly well on defense, with -3 Defensive Runs Saved so far, as well as negative grades from the framing metrics of FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus.
It’s surely not what was expected during his time as a notable youngster, with Baseball America having ranked him as one of the top 35 prospects in the league in three straight years starting in 2017. Originally signed by Cleveland, he went to the Padres in the 2018 Brad Hand trade before being one of four players sent to the Rays in the Blake Snell deal. Though the Rays have a reputation for winning just about every trade they make, this one hasn’t worked out so far. Luis Patiño struggled for years and was recently flipped to the White Sox for cash. The other two players in the deal, Cole Wilcox and Blake Hunt, could still give Tampa something but neither has reached the majors yet.
With Mejía on the injured list of late, the Rays have been using a duo of Christian Bethancourt and René Pinto. The latter has just 37 games of major league experience to this point, but the Rays evidently like the early results enough to ride with him instead of Mejía. Pinto is hitting .276/.300/.379 this year in a small sample of 30 plate appearances. He’s considered a solid defender and has generally performed well at the plate in the minors.
With the trade deadline now past, the Rays will have no choice but to put Mejía on waivers in the coming days. Though he has struggled in his career thus far, he is still young and isn’t too far removed from being a highly-touted prospect. If any club were to put in a claim, they could retain him for one more season via arbitration. Though if Mejía clears, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while retaining that remaining salary. In that scenario, the Rays would stay on the hook for the money while Mejia would be free to sign with any club for the prorated league minimum, with that amount subtracted from what the Rays pay.
Huh. Pinto is better defensively and has some pop, still…Mejia showed so much promise. Just couldn’t be consistent. And oy vey that Snell trade…yes, still some pieces stashed away in the lower minors, but the two big pieces are both gone now (well, Mejia may be gone). So can we stop hearing about how the Rays never miss on a trade??? (this coming from a Rays fan!)
Patino was traded to the White Sox at the trade deadline, might as well get Mejia too.
Rays seem to win more than they lose on trades, this is probably one of the few that didn’t work out. That’s definitely what you want from your front office.
No one with any sense said that the Rays never miss on any trade. However, their track record is far above other front offices regarding trades. Sure, maybe it looks that way now, but that’s only because it took a couple of years for Snell to gain his footing. They scored twice on the Austin Meadows trade, getting him, Glasnow and Baz for a washed up Chris Archer, then moving Meadows for a potential future star in Paredes.
Rays do well on trades because nearly all their trades take the same form: Pitchers they have developed for a package of prospects. Being an outlier on pitching development is by far and away the best skill for a team to have. It just gives you a constant refresh of prospects as you keep some and trade others. And if you can’t develop pitchers, you’re kind of screwed if you can’t sign free agent pitchers for tons of money. Nearly all trades involve major league pitchers these days.
Nick pinto ?
So is Mejia better or worse than Kelly? Asking for a POBO.
No one’s gonna pick him up most likely. For one he’s not back from his knee injury yet. For another he’s a free agent in a month. And for a third catchers almost never change teams mid-season (you have to learn a whole new staff on the fly). He’ll likely go through waivers and declare free agency a month early, maybe see if he can beat the crowd and sign early, too.
I remember when he was coming up through the CLE system. He absolutely destroyed minor league pitching, but his defensive skills are what led to his being dealt to SD. Those were the days, though.
Kid was a top prospect. Amazing how they can fall from the perch they were placed on and not materialize as envisioned. Goes to show some of those prospect trades are quite risky.
He had that 50 game hitting streak or whatever and he was quickly anointed a top prospect. However, he hadn’t hit much up to that point, and didn’t hit with a lot of power during the streak. I thought it was wise to trade him, though they should have traded him sooner.
Catchers who show signs of being able to hit in the minors are going to get hyped bc that position is typically considered a defensive first position
He is out-OPSing and out-WARing Seby Zavala. Please replace him.
This. I need to never see Seby Zavala ever again.
Mejia was one of the two big pieces the Padres traded for Snell. Even though I didn’t like the trade at the time, it looks like Preller knew what he was doing.
Mejia was just DFA’d, Patino flamed out because of injuries, Wilcox had a 5.57 ERA in AA this season, and Hunt has been doing backup catching duties in AA and AAA this season.
Even though I usually condemn Preller for his awful trades, I have to say it seems he won his one, along with the Musgrove and Darvish trades.
The Darvish trade was pretty much a win for San Diego immediately. All four prospects were literally lottery tickets, Epstein and Hoyer made that trade on an impulse and it shows.
I mean Owen caissie is a top 100 prospect, list literally came out from ESPN a week ago. I suppose it’s okay to just say random things that aren’t true though. Anyways, the padres have not been put over the top by darvish and won’t even make the playoffs, and the cubs meanwhile are vying for a spot, along with (one of their many) top 100 prospects, in caissie, ready to come up soon. Like I said, it’s cool for randos like you on here to just say anything off the top of your head to sound smart but when it’s just blatantly wrong I feel obligated to respond
The Cubs should have gotten more, especially when they paid a portion, I don’t remember how much so won’t throw a number out, and none of the prospects they got at the time were top 30 prospects. If this one prospect works out, great but it’s still looking like Preller fleeced the Cubs.
Caissie was named top power hitter in those rankings if I’m not mistaken.
That actually makes me feel better, that at least one of those lottery tickets is working out to be valuable because I hated that trade when it happened.
I still think that those 3 years of Darvish + cash for a top 100 prospect is a win, tbh. I know Snell was more expensive than that and that one became a win as well. Unless one of those guys goes bonkers, I don’t think it changes that much.
How about the Tatis deal. Do the Padres get any credit for that deal?
Maybe the Cronenworth trade too. Trades take time to play out when prospects are involved but really, right now the Soto trade is definitely a win. It may turn out down the road as a win for both teams. Prospects are suspects until they prove it.
Rays shouldn’t deal with the Padres. Four recent major trades:
– Wil Myers and spare parts for Stephen Souza, Jake Bauers, Rene Rivera and a prospect for Trea Turner and Joe Ross. Maybe the Rays didn’t end up worse than the Padres, but they could have had Turner and Ross instead of Souza.
– Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth for Hunter Renfroe and a slapdick prospect. Cronenworth was kind of a throw in at the time, but still a huge win for the Pads. Renfroe only lasted a season before getting nontendered and Xavier Edwards was traded for not much last offseason.
– Blake Snell for Patino, Mejia, Wilcox and Hunt. The two biggest pieces on the Rays side were busts. Wilcox and Hunt will probably both be in the 11 – 20 range of the Rays prospect list this off-season assuming they get added to the roster before Rule 5, but Wilcox is still recovering from TJS and Hunt is far from a sure thing. Overall very likely this is a win for the Pads, but the jury is still out.
Pagán for Manuel Margot and Logan Driscoll. Looking like a win for the Rays, though they overpaid Margot to lock him in and Driscoll is unlikely to get added to the 40-man in advance of Rule 5.
Overall, the Padres have come out on the winning side here.
@Longtimecoming How is the Soto trade a win when Padres fans on here and other sites are already hankering for Preller to trade Soto?
What difference does it make that any fans are calling for his trade? I’ll bet there’s a lot more Padre fans hankering for them to extend Soto until he’s 30 years old.
First, he has produced more wins for the mlb club than any of the players traded have produced for Washington’s mlb club.
I should stop there because that was the goal of the trade.
Second, none of those players traded would have helped Padres be a better team in 22, 23 or 24 than Soto does – again, the purpose of the trade.
Third, the term fan being short for “fanatic” and you can always find a group of fans that are on the opposite side of a fence in sports if you just open your eyes.
He is having a down year for his historical averages but still his numbers are top of the sport level.
Take a poll of all mlb GM’s: would you rather have Soto or your current LFer. Sure there are a few bit the vast majority would prefer Soto.
Only way Soto is signing an extension until he’s 30 is if it’s with a player opt out after 2028 and then the rest of the contract runs into the 2040s decade.
Of course none of those players would have helped more than Soto in 2022-24. If they would have then there would have been no point in trading them and four others for one guy who is a FA after 2024 (Bell and Voit cancel each other out). But if the point if the trade was to make the current team better why do so many Padres fans want to trade Soto this offseason? Soto was not a “fix and flip” candidate like 2016 Drew Pomeranz or Fernando Rodney were.
If the Padres trade Soto, they lost the first trade. Full stop.
What I’m saying is that fans don’t make the decisions in MLB. And what LFer in MLB has better numbers? And at 24 years old who has more potential? And whose jersey is making more money than LFer Juan Soto? The Padres are averaging more than 40,000 tickets sold everyday. Soto is part of the reason for that. Trading for him was a win for the Padres and possibly for the Nationals. Time will tell. Now if the Padres can light a fire under Machado and the rest maybe next year will be better. This year is over.
Me – I explained fans go back and re-read before asking me to explain why fans think what they think!
I don’t need to reread your post. My post wasn’t just written to you. I think we agree on Sotos value.
No LF has better numbers. If Soto is traded, the Padres automatically lose the first Soto trade. That’s all I’m saying.
I should also point out that I am NOT for trading Soto but many Padres fans on here are.
He was DFAd only because he probably wasn’t going to be available much more this year. He’s due to be a free agent after this year. Makes complete sense.
Preller’s prowess isn’t a factor here. He drew to an inside straight and hit it that’s all. AJ needs to take his “Rock Star” philosophy down the road. Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you
Quick DFA question… can a DFA be canceled? Say a team DFAs a shortstop and then the other ss gets hurt, can the DFA be pulled back?
No….once designated, the team must trade, release, or if not claimed, sent down. He’s hurt and will be a FA. He’ll be released after this year. They needed the roster spot.
Welcome back to Cleveland
I know swinging at everything has never worked for anyone else but I thought for sure it would work for him.
Please LAD. Need a bridge that’s not Austin Barnes.
The problem is the pitchers like throwing to Barnes as he’s been there forever. Dodgers aren’t dumping Barnes unless it’s in the offseason
This has Marlins name written all over to get him.
Marlins really need this pickup.
Halloween is back !
Switch hitting Catcher with some pop. Someone will claim him and think they can fix him
Wrong Wilcox linked!
Here ya go:
baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=wil…
Excellent, thanks!!!
Another good lesson in why you trade your prospects when their value is high rather than hoarding them as some people believe to be the ideal approach.
So should the Orioles trade Jackson Holliday right now?
What a hunk.
Franco is 100% getting railroaded. What he’s being accused of is common practice in poorer nations and is really much ado about nothing. He got caught in a shakedown and now he’s the bad guy somehow.
It being common practice doesn’t make it right.