3:20pm: Gamel will make a salary of $1.2MM in the majors or $35K per month at Triple-A, per Joel Sherman of The New York Post.
11:55am: The Mets have signed veteran outfielder Ben Gamel to a minor league contract, per a team announcement. The Wasserman client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee during spring training.
It’s the latest in a lengthy series of minor league deals and waiver claims of veteran depth options for the Mets this winter. The 31-year-old Gamel has appeared in eight big league seasons, spending the majority of his time with the Mariners and Pirates. He’s a career .252/.332/.384 hitter with strong plate discipline but minimal power. Gamel has walked in 10.1% of his career plate appearances, including an 11.8% clip since 2021 (838 trips to the plate). He’s never topped 11 homers in a season, however, and his career .131 ISO (slugging minus batting average) is well shy of average.
Defensively, Gamel has played all three outfield positions in the big leagues, but he’s best suited for left field work. Between the majors and minors, he’s played more than 2600 innings in center, but he’s only appeared at the position for one inning over the past two seasons. He’s also appeared sparingly at first base, giving him a bit of extra versatility.
There’s no immediate path to a roster spot for Gamel, as the Mets have the trio of Brandon Nimmo, Harrison Bader and Starling Marte slated to handle regular work, plus outfielders DJ Stewart and Tyrone Taylor on the 40-man roster. Gamel seems likely to join Trayce Thompson as a depth option in Triple-A Syracuse, where he’ll be the most experienced outfielder. That could make him the first man up in the event of an injury that creates a need for either an extra outfielder or a left-handed bat off the bench.
Wow
Nothing wrong with these sort of depth signings
Meanwhile, Red Sox fans in the comments on the Lucas Luetge article were ready to boycott the team over a minor league deal
Yeah that was a head scratcher. Luetge was a pretty solid signing and if he is healthy will get MLB innings. Gamel is pretty much a 5th OF on a MLB team that will give you a solid shot at a man on 1st when you really need one.
Am I the only one who finds this portion of the offseason intense? Seeing which random free agents get another shot with some teams and which players had their final career game some time last season and we didn’t even know it? Anyway, congrats Ben Gamel!
BToBT
“Am I the only one”
Whenever a sentence starts like this, the answer is basically always “no”.
“Seeing which random free agents get another shot with some teams and which players had their final career game some time last season and we didn’t even know it?”
I find nothing intense about that. It’s fine that you do. It’s cool to Remeber Some Guys though.
Ben there.
The Mets have been trying to collect former Yankees like Pokemon this year. Anyway, it’s unlikely he will make the team. There isn’t a massive market for very light-hitting OFers who are below average fielders.
LOL who?
Luis Severino, Harrison Bader, Adam Ottavino, and now Gamel so far.
@deej
Depends if your team is trying to tank or not.
I’d be willing to bet my house that the 10 plate appearances Gamel got with the Yankees in 2016 was less of a motivator than the two years he spent in Milwaukee on Stearns’s team.p
They have had an interest in former Yankee players and coaches, but it’s also understandable.
He always had a nice beard. That’s important. Especially since the Mets don’t have Guillorme anymore.
But how good is he at catching rogue bats headed for the dugout?
There’s only one LG.
And the braves got him, the last time we had a guillorme on our team, we won the world series, he was g. Heredia though and he fought with foam swords, maybe Luis g. can be the same type of bench hype guy, except he’s fighting with flying bats instead of foam swords.
With or without LG, I expect your team to run away with the division again. I liked LG, just wished he wasn’t so slow.
Mets are now bottom feeders with Stearn.
For now until next season when the big contracts fall off
Maybe. We will have to see if he can swim in the deeper end of the pond. Bloom couldn’t.
This comment is a reductive misunderstanding in my opinion
“Misunderstanding in my opinion”…It’s the novices & newbies, that really don’t understand how MLB works, that call the team that recently ran the highest payroll in MLB history “bottom feeders”. Their “knowledge” of MLB ends at bright shiny objects and overpaid free agents.
Hey mlb fan, if you want to disagree – fine. Save insults for your family. The Mets did say they were scaling back this year, but intended to contend for a playoff spot. They’ve picked up a lot of scraps, save a few possibilities for legitimate players who can contribute. It would have been stupid for them to bid for Ohtani or Bellinger, etc, but a legitimate DH with power would have been nice.
lol So you make a snarky, emotional comment and then want to go all indignant when someone calls you out? then you make a serious comment? good one mate.
Yeah mate, I get snarky when I get called stupid. I’m funny that way.
“When I get called stupid”…I get body-checked on this site at least once a week for comments I make. Get used to it my friend and I’ve never once called anyone on this site “stupid”, because I hate the people who just insult anyone who disagrees with them.
Agreed, plus Yamamoto would have been especially nice, but he ended up exactly where he wanted to end up. I suppose the Mets will see what Stewart and Vientos can do. No matter what, that is bound to be an upgrade over last year. And who knows, maybe a Soler or Bellinger will become willing to accept a one year deal, and the Mets will be willing to pony up on a one year.
Bellinger had a qualifying offer and signing him would cost a top draft pick. No team is going to give up that pick on only a 1-year deal. And reports state that Soler has already gotten 2-year offers, but is holding out for a 3-year deal. Even if he comes down off of his demand, it seems unlikely that he would have to take a 1-year deal.
Mets needed to pick up important pieces this winter to build a playoff team for 2025 – its just impossible to put together a playoff team in one offseason – but it can be done in 2 – considering the amount of holes needing to be filled its just more lies to us as next winter we will hear someother excuse – it will take alot to match Atlanta and Philly
Yeah, I overlooked the Bellinger QO. Was thinking Snell was the last QO FA, but haven’t reviewed who the remaining QO FA’s were for a while. So you’re right on Bellinger with a QO. Bur maybe Soler would take a high AAV one year offer over a lower AAV two year, and go back to being a FA again next year with (hopefully) two good years in a row. Maybe …
Or maybe they do a one year with JDM. But it does sound like the main plan is to let Vientos hit and see what he has at this level.
100%. Cohen and Stearns are lying through their teeth when they saying they are building the team to compete next year. Not one move was made this year for the future. By the way they have no rotation and when Alonso walks, also goes the middle line up power threat.
Pete will be gone by the AS break – and Diaz will go this upcoming winter – Mets will then tell us they are going into rebuild mode
At least the pirates are signing possible trade deadline players, Mets are signing buy one get two free leftovers.
And former Pirates to boot.
@ Mrski Completely baseless, uninformed comment. Manaea, Severino, Houser, Bader, and a bunch of relievers are all possible trade deadline players. That doesn’t preclude them from also signing some minor leaguer depth pieces, which all teams are doing.
@geofft The problem with Severino, Manaea, and Houser is that they all project to below league average ERAs for 2024 and the Mets b/t MLB, AAA, and AA already have a literal dozen of those guys after Senga and Quintana—and it cost them $32m. More if you figure in the value of Manaea’s opt-in for 2025 if he’s terrible this year.
None are at all likely to bring anything of note at the deadline, and they do very little to move the needle for a Mets team that needed a lot of luck to make the 3rd wildcard.
A lot of money, in short, for those three, Add Bader, add $12m for three old, marginal bullpen arms that all project as replacement level, and Stearns & Cohen, with penalties, spent more than $100 million just on “Don’t Embarrass Us” insurance and, admittedly, to bring back someone’s #23 and #26 prospects at the deadline.
agree these players wont bring bk much
Can Julio Teheran be far behind? He is a recently former Milwaukee farmhand, but more importantly, a former 2023 El Paso Chihuahua like Ben Gamel, Taylor Kohlwey, and Jose Inglesias, all signed to Syracuse contracts and invited to Spring Training.
At least the Mets did NOT bite on the 2023 El Paso Chihuahua Jurickson Profar, who is too much of a crap shoot to guess as to how good or bad he will be in 2024.
This is the move that puts them over the Braves and Phillies; what a signing
Insert mal-informed, unoriginal and/or obnoxious post right here. Points if you disparage RBI, BA but hype xFIP OPS+.
Looks like you nailed the first part all on your own.
Wow I had no idea…hahahaha
Could be worse. Gamel’s been a hair below replacement level for four years now, but there’s nothing wrong with that if your alternative is Abraham Almonte.
32 year old whose AAA numbers in 2023 were strong, though that walk rate was that of a cunning 31 yo sitting on minor league pitching, rather than a guy who’ll bring anything close to that .400 OBP to the majors in 2024.
You can do worse, I guess, though there are no pleasant surprises left in Ben Gamel.
He’s competing with Trayce Thompson and Taylor Kohlway for the 7th OF position, 8th if you include McNeil’s versatility. It is what it is.
Gamel is a Hunter Pence type player. Very scrappy. Too bad he sucks. Goes to show you that putting on your game face and trying as hard as possible gives you chances
Love Gamel, solid 4th outfield option. Good glove, decent speed. Quality dude. Miss him in Seattle.