The Mets announced this afternoon that five players — infielders Jonathan Araúz and Danny Mendick, outfielder Rafael Ortega, catcher Michael Pérez and right-hander Vinny Nittoli — went unclaimed on outright waivers. All five players declared minor league free agency. The Mets had waived that group along with left-hander Anthony Kay, claimed by Oakland, last week.
It’s not surprising to see any of the others go unclaimed. Only Mendick held a spot on the 40-man roster for the entire season. The righty-hitting utilityman had signed a $1MM free agent deal after being non-tendered by the White Sox. He spent the bulk of the season on optional assignment to Triple-A Syracuse, where he had a decent .282/.369/.424 batting line. Mendick didn’t produce much in a limited MLB look, hitting .185/.232/.277 in 35 games.
Ortega has the most MLB experience of the group. The lefty-swinging outfielder has appeared for six teams over a seven-season big league run. He topped 100 games with the Cubs in both 2021 and ’22, operating as their starting center fielder and leadoff man for a time. The 32-year-old played most of this past season in Triple-A, hitting .228/.352/.388. He got into 47 games for New York late in the year, running a .219/.341/.272 line over 136 trips.
Pérez has played in nine games for the Mets over the last two seasons. The depth catcher owns a .179/.248/.306 line in 599 career plate appearances between the Rays, Pirates and Mets. Araúz has played parts of four seasons between the Red Sox, Orioles and Mets. The switch-hitting infielder owns a .184/.253/.308 slash in 95 games, including a .136/.203/.288 showing this past season.
Nittoli made three MLB appearances after coming over from the Cubs in a minor trade. He turns 33 next month and has six big league outings between three teams. The Xavier product posted a 4.64 ERA over 42 2/3 innings in Triple-A this year.
Yeah, I’d be jumping ship on a dumpster fire too.
They were thrown overboard
@Bill M
But hey, even if they got tossed overboard, these players might find smoother waters in the minor leagues!
lmao all of these guys are fringe minor leaguers who went unclaimed on waivers. You are clueless.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out lol
A $ 350 MM payroll and these players plus Dan Vogelbach were on the 40 man roster.
Nice job Eppler lol
The sabermetrics yahoo’s think that fat guys who cannot run, field or hit are “valuable” because they take up space…err..I mean “get on base”.
@Robrock30 don’t worry, you have guys on Twitter talking about how Vogelbach is a league average bat based on his OPS+ so hes valuable. Thats what happens when you have all these analytics to justify bad players getting playing time
ANYONE who thinks a fat slob like Vogelburger can help a team needs a full frontal lobotomy. Dude needs 3 hits to drive his fat @$$ in from 1st.
What a waste InEppler was. Good riddance!
LFGMets & JimmyBX,
The only way Vogey belongs in a MLB ballpark is by purchasing a ticket for admission like the rest of us. Lol
Wow my eyes hurt look at the Mets current 40 man roster after the above names were cut
mlb.com/mets/roster/40-man
Not sure what people expected from Vogelbach. He was a platoon DH that put up a 104 OPS+. Being an above average hitter is what he was signed to do and he only cost $1.5 million.
Maybe you need to go back to little league and learn what is valuable in the game.
You’re answering your own question. Players who DH only are expected to have much bigger than league-average bats. Especially those who only hit one-side pitching.
And your description of him is incomplete. He was a platoon DH who could not play the field at all, not even when the starter was injured, and was a liability on the basepaths. His lack of speed, inability to take an extra base, tag up, or score from third on plays that even slower-than-average players normally do means that his hitting is partially negated by that. Furthermore, his stopping at 2nd, instead of going 1st-to-3rd meant that the hitter behind him also did not advance. How many potential runs were missed because of his baserunning? I don’t know. But its enough to make him less than a DH.
Good point.
Money committed less important than roster spot, particularly in Cohen’s world.
Unless DH Vogelbach is a big impact bat (which he is not), he’s not very useful.
That POS couldn’t score from 1st minus 3 hits. He’s WORTHLESS. That’s why he was being paid ONLY 1.5 M. He sucked!
Vogelbach is a slug who made his numbers by walking as much or almost as much as he struck out. Well, that doesn’t s far from good enough on a team hat lost all of its flexibility on the bench because of him.
It had been said that Buck didn’t want him but Eppler and his cronies did. Eppler supposedly had said he liked him since he scouted him before he was drafted. It had also been said that Alonso was his friend and they didn’t want to rock Alonso’s boat.
Well if Pete can’t handle the disappointment of a friend being dropped from the roster then he better grow up.
It’s baseball, meat!
I had called for dripping Stay-Puft since the first of June, bringing up Mauricio to give the team some life and new blood, giving them the flexibility to give him a start at second, move McNeil to the OF, have a switch hitter off the bench with a fLice and some speed, But Eppler never logged on to listen, and the opportunity passed.
So now Mr Stearns, take time and honestly evaluate Megill and Peterson and Butto, develop Vasil and Hamel and Lavenderand Tidwell, give Vientos and Mauricio and Baty some steady playing time (or trade one of them), develop Jeremiah Jackson and Drew Gilbert and Luisangel Acuna.
IF you get 4 solid players out of the 13 I just named, you should be fine in 2025.
People like you, that run their teams on stats alone, is why the sports runs per game has plummeted since analytics became the key driver in the game. He is not a
League average hitter, worst base runner in the game, can’t play defense and only hits against righties. He has zero value in the game but keep using a made up analytics term of OPS+ to justify his value.
Why didn’t Buck stand his ground then and demand Vogey be released? Why did Steve Cohen not intervene? Alot of passing the buck here and being tone deaf to the fans who knew better and have been very vocal about this.
Who could Pham have been calling out about a lack of work ethic and preparation and staying in shape to play? Hmmm
Mendick was our Ohtani. That one is going to hurt.
And Nido was our Piazza. How could they have sent him down?????
My cousin Vinny just signed with the A’s. Or should he say the “Eh’s”?
Paul Sewald 2.0. They will unlock his potential in his early 30’s, away from New York.