December 6: Tonkin will earn $1MM, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. Feinsand adds that Tonkin’s deal is actually a split contract, so the $1MM salary will be prorated over the time Tonkin spends on the big league roster. Tim Britton of The Athletic relays that Tonkin will make $400K in the minors. The Mets also officially announced the deal today.
December 5: The Mets have signed right-hander Michael Tonkin to a Major League contract, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via X).
After posting a 4.43 ERA over 146 1/3 innings with the Twins from 2013-17, Tonkin didn’t play in the majors until resurfacing with the Braves last season. The five-year odyssey saw Tonkin pitch in Japan, the Mexican Leagues, the independent Long Island Ducks, and within the affiliated minors with the Braves, Diamondbacks, and Brewers. That stint with Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate occurred in 2019 when David Stearns was still running the Brewers’ front office, so today’s deal reunites Tonkin with the Mets’ new president of baseball operations.
Tonkin’s return to the big leagues was a success, as he posted a 4.28 ERA over 45 appearances and 80 innings last year. Atlanta often used Tonkin in a multi-inning capacity, giving him a valuable role on a team that often had to figure out how to patch together innings in the wake of multiple rotation injuries. A .241 BABIP did provide some help to Tonkin’s efforts, though his 3.87 SIERA was actually lower than his ERA, and his 7.1% walk rate was well above the league average.
Since Tonkin’s peripherals were otherwise pretty lackluster, that could explain why Atlanta opted to non-tender him, despite a modest $1MM arbitration projection. The Braves were aggressive in moving a lot of arbitration-eligible players who were either obvious non-tenders or only borderline roster candidates for 2024, yet Tonkin didn’t linger in free agency long before catching on with another NL East team.
It would seem like Tonkin’s role in New York will resemble his assignment last year, as he’ll be called on to eat innings for a Mets club that currently has a lot of question marks on the pitching staff. The Mets signed Luis Severino and have been rumored to be pursuing some big-name talent on the free agent market, yet for now there isn’t much certainty in the rotation beyond Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana. The return of Edwin Diaz will fill the biggest hole in the Amazins’ bullpen, yet Tonkin will add a necessary long relief option to the mix. Tonkin joins Austin Adams (who signed a split contact) and minor league signings Cole Sulser, Andre Scrubb, and Kyle Crick as relief signings for the Mets over the last few weeks.
Dam, everyone loves the Tonka truck. I will miss him.
Who dat?
Apparently someone the braves fans will miss. We’ll see if he can retain it in NYM.
A long-man. He’s not terrible. Braves bullpen is loaded, they don’t need him. If he had options the Braves would keep in AAA.
Let them all go AA, I won’t miss him!!
David Stearns should be in jail for robbery. Wtf are we doing. None of the players signed so far are any good. We are the New York Mets not the Dollar Tree. I could do what hes doing, sign some no names and save money. At this point hes signed bad players and one or the worst managers in the major leagues. Tonkin just got released by the Braves, if they don’t want him why woukd we want him? Stearns is one of the worst PoBS in the game
Tonkin did a pretty good job as the Braves long man last season. Not as bad a signing for your Mets as you think. He should be a cheap but solid 7th/8th pen arm. Decent wipeout slider, good high fb w/spotty command, needs to be careful w/his sinker.
Jeff, LFG complains about any move made. He’s an embarrassment to real Mets fans. If he’s this negative here, just imagine how sad his real life is.
Musta joined Mets fans club after leaving White Sox fans club…..Whom dislikes everything with White Sox including ticket takers, vendors, bathroom cleaners…everyone and thing.
Jeff, you are spot on correct. This is actually a really good, cheap signing by the Mets. It very well may end up being a low-key excellent move for the Mets.
I was actually really surprised when AA didn’t keep him. Tonkin did an excellent job over and over again when one of the Braves’ starters had a poor outing or had to leave a start early.
It isn’t easy to come out of the pen and consistently have to pitch more than an inning of work. That is especially when you’re being asked to keep your team in a ballgame that’s already out of reach.
Even so, you could tell that it didn’t take Tonkin long to earn the respect of the coaching staff and the players around him.
Now, Tonkin did have a couple of rough stretched throughout the course of the season, but more often than not he got the job done and performed admirably.
There were times when Tonkin would get in a groove and he would be flat out dominant, and he would consistently induce weak contact from hitters getting a bunch of easy outs.
If Tonkin can stay within his mechanics, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him become one of the Mets better bullpen pieces.
Some Mets fans might be irritates right now, but I think when the year is over they will be looking back on this signing very fondly!
Yep, totally agree w/you richard. Tonkin’s a good sign for them.
@NashvilleJeff I disagree, I saw Tonkin pitch agaisnt the Mets a lot and personally I thought he was terrible from what I saw. I don’t even remember if he pitched bad vs us, I just remember not liking his stuff. It looked kind of like batting practice
I get that you disagree. I’m a lifelong Braves fan. Probably saw every pitch Tonkin threw this season. Didn’t tell you he’s a back end of the pen option. Said that he’ll likely make a good 7th or 8th man out of the pen guy for your Mets. He pitched well in long relief for the Braves in 2023. He’s easily worth a $1M split option deal. Kind of pitcher every ML team should be signing as depth for their pens.
LFGMets (Metsin7) #ConsistentlyBannedBaseballExpert
Disagreements are part of life, however, your analysis is not very good.
Tonkin pitched very well for the Braves in tough situations, and for the record up until the end of August his ERA was 3.39, it only climbed above 4 on Sep 18 against Philadelphia when he had to do 3 innings and gave up 3 runs when the Braves didn’t want to tax the pen, then on Oct 1 he also gave up another 3 when there was nothing on the line, so 2 games more or less brought his ERA up over 4. His K/9 is ok, and his WHIP was 1.088. He did a lot of ‘hackwork’ for the Braves, 67% strike rate for a reliever is quite ok. But then again, as soon as he does something wrong you’ll be rubbishing him just like you already have done so here, not because he is rubbish, it’s more likely because he’s coming to the Mets from the Braves.
Last but not least, I don’t know how you can complain when the Mets were last in NL in relief pitching, Tonkin is better than a lot of what the Mets had on the roster last year, and I’d take Tonkin over a majority of those players every day of the week.
@Fred McGriff HR While I do agree that Tonkin is better than 80% of the Mets relief staff last year, that doesn’t really say much. Other than Robertson and Ottavino, everyone was either below average (Brooks Raley) to single-A level (Dennis Santana, Drew Smith). I want guys who are better than Tonkin on my staff. The Braves got rid of Tonkin despite these stats you are posting. Do you know why? Because they know that hes not that good. Not all ERA’s are the same in terms of sheer numbers. I’d argue Drew Smith was the worst reliever on the Mets last year even though his ERA is in the low 4s. This is due to him consistently blowing every close game he was put in. His ERA went down in garbage time (up or down by 6 runs). I know good players and so does the Braves organization, he is at best a below average reliever and should be relegated to mopup duty if he does make the roster
@lfgm
most don’t like your stuff…..
TONKIN will join that trash of a Mets staff & no doubt upgrade? it. lol
I like the signing. The more casual fans think every signing has to a shiny object. The more quality (even low quality) you can get cheap, the more money you have to spend on key players.
As an aside, as a RS, I’d prefer the NYM spend on pitchers like the Cards did, to make them less of a threat on YY.
The problem is Cohen spent like Nieman Marcus last winter only to finish 9 games behind the 99cent store in the standings. They are obviously taking a different approach this time around.
It’s also worth noting that this is usually what happens when small market guys take over big market teams–they act like they are still in the small market
They’ll sign any player Cohen wants.
LFG you act like the offseason is over and this is all we’ve got. Have you seen all the top free agents signed yet, because I haven’t? Pop a mood stabilizer and calm down. Your negativity is poisoning every Mets post.
@DaOldDerbyBastard Stearns has consistently demonstrated so far that he’d rather sign lightening in a bottle type players and keep whatever core we have over signing big name free agents. The amount of money spent doesn’t concern me. What concerns me is who the money is being spent on. I’ll give you some examples. Severino got paid 13 million. I’d rather of paid someone like Wade Miley, Trevor Bauer, or even someone like Zach Davies as I have always liked these players thoughout their careers and I still think they have something left in the tank. The relievers we have sign to minor league deals like Tonkin, Crick, Scrubb, Adams, and Cole Sulser do not impress me at all. There are guys that could/could of be had on the cheap like Brad Hand, Adam Kolarek, Alex Reyes, Adam Cimber, etc. that I would of prefered instead. The point is I’d rather get players that have had success in the past (Severino hasn’t been good since 2018). These moves are awful and I garentee that all these relievers signed so far will be off the team by June
Get into a fantasy league and put your team together.
As of this writing, one big name pitcher, Nola, has been signed. Everyone else is still out there. Patience is a virtue.
@Jdt8312 I don’t care about the free agents as much as I do the trade market. Would I be happy with guys like Giolito, Bauer, Yamamoto? Yes. The problem is there are great pitchers out their like Shane Bieber and Corbin Burnes that the Mets can trade for and then extend to a long term deal. I know that they want to hold on to their prospects but some of these FAs come with qualifying offers attached so it wouldn’t really matter anyway
I’ve kept LFG off mute for the lols, but this isn’t even funny.
That’s all well and fine, but teams, just like free agents, are going to take their time and wait for the market to develop to maximize their return. If a team waits to make a trade until a few big free agents sign, the price goes up for who they have to offer.
like Shane Bieber and Corbin Burnes that the Mets can trade for and then extend to a long term deal.
==============================
The trends for both pitchers are very weak. I would not extend either one of them.
@LFGMets
Relax. It’s kinda early to be blowing your stack over back end pen/depth signings of pitchers with minor league options. It’s December 6th. Mets have signed two relievers with split contracts and several others on minor league deals. There’s plenty room on the 40 to add big signings, and players who could be DFA’d if more space is needed.
I can assure you I’ve been a Mets fan far longer than you and have experienced far more disappointments.
FYI, I like the Severino signing. And Mets owner, Steve Cohen Met with Yamamoto in Japan. Mets aren’t sitting on the sidelines for some big tickets. Almost all are still available.
Severino and his 6.65 ERA? Wasn’t you on here blasting White Sox for signing Fedde? Severino? LMFAO
I’d vote for Billy Beane being the worst GM, they never wrote the sequel to “money ball” when he had the worst drop in standings in major league history. I’d also give stearns a little more time to see what he can do for the real starting pitching, like Yamamoto or possibly Snell, or the likes, before the week is out. I’ll be really disappointed if he doesn’t land some impact guys.
Billy Beane is not the worst GM in MLB history. But he hurt himself, and his market by putting his process out there for other teams to adapt.
With all of these cheap, no names really, they must be going BIG with Ohtani and Yamamoto , or at least 1, if not, it’ll be a bust of an off season so far.
Tell us you know nothing about putting together a team without telling us you know nothing about putting together a team.
Boy what a load of haul got when they missed out on Fedde, yeah Mike Tonkin will be annointed the great free agent signing by METS fans among others. The steal of the FA class. lol ballyhoo lmbo
Regardless of how things work out, Tonkin sure has some really memorable life experiences to go along with his baseball career.
Minnesota Twins to Japan to Mexico to Independent League pitching on the East Coast to the playoffs with the Braves and now in the Big Apple. That has to be a heck of a colorful life for a 34 year old guy who is also already a millionaire, haha.
Here’s hoping he’s able to keep things going for another year!