The Mets have given out their first major league contract of the offseason, signing right-handed pitcher Dylan Covey to a one-year deal. The team announced the news this afternoon.
The terms of the deal have not yet been announced, although it’s presumably not a very high guarantee. Indeed, it’s somewhat surprising to see Covey land a big league deal at all considering his limited track record and lack of MLB success. He made his debut with the White Sox in 2017 after they selected him from the A’s in the Rule 5 draft. Over three seasons in Chicago, largely as a starting pitcher, he produced a 6.54 ERA and 5.16 SIERA in 250 1/3 innings of work. It was hardly a surprise when the White Sox cut him over the 2019-20 offseason and he elected free agency.
Over the next few years, Covey bounced from the Rays to the Red Sox to the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. His performance over two seasons with the Rakuten Monkeys convinced the Dodgers to offer him a minor league deal before the 2023 season. Yet, after just one appearance for L.A., he was designated for assignment. The Phillies, in need of a mop-up man, claimed Covey off of waivers and put him in their bullpen. In his first chance at regular MLB playing time as a reliever, he was rather effective, albeit in a low-leverage role, pitching to a 3.69 ERA and 4.53 SIERA over 39 innings.
However, Covey did not pitch in the majors at all in 2024. He sat out the first four months of the season recovering from a right shoulder strain, and the Phillies removed him from the 40-man roster and sent him outright to Triple-A upon his return from the IL. Nonetheless, the Mets must have liked what they saw over his 15 appearances with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. After giving up a solo home run to the very first batter he faced at Triple-A in 2024, the right-hander did not allow another run for the rest of the season. He struck out 27.6% of the batters he faced. The Mets have several open spots on their 40-man roster, and they will use one of those spots to slot Covey into the bullpen picture for 2025.
Stearns will soar this offseason
Headscratcher here
What’s confusing you?
Seems like he might have been available on a minor league deal, but obviously not.
Cost isn’t much so if he gets DFAed and then resigns a minor league deal, what’s really the difference to Cohen? If Stearns saw something in him to ink him now, who are we to argue?
Trying to build a cheap bullpen ? With him and Devenski , ok than spend the real $$ on Soto and SP’s than
Bullpen of lotto tickets. Really enjoy the approach.
Dylan Covey has easily the best shredded wheat beard in MLB.
the Mets have found there new ace
The Covey Chronicles begins NOW.
Stearns never learns. The bad bullpen that we had costed us a trip to the World Series. This guy is Reed Garrett light. This is not what we need. This move reminds me of similar moves to rectify the bullpen like last years offseason. The bullpen was one of the worst in baseball until Stearns traded for somewhat proffesional relievers. Overall, I’d have to give Stearns a D- on his bullpen construction. Everything else (Offense, Defense, and Starting pitching) I’d give a B, as in nothng he has done really stands out to me and I believe the Mets were just hot at the right time
Brother it’s November 1 we don’t need a 250 word essay over a Dylan covey signing. And by the at the mets were best team in baseball for about 3 months. How can you still be this clueless about Stearns ?
@demar5516 The Rangers, who won the world series in 2023, did nothing to improve their bullpen which was one of the worst in baseball that year. They were hot at the right time. Guys like Sborz and Leclerc are not major league relievers. They did add Yates who was good but the rest of the relief staff was terrible. They got complacent. Their bullpen blew so many games for them this year. You need to improve clear weaknesses, not ignore them
What a weird hill to die on but I guess it’s on brand for you
This comment is mind numbingly dumb
Jeremy Hefner will make this a very strong Bullpen he is one of the best pitching coaches in getting other teams bad pitchers to make them better pitchers
I’m not so sure this isn’t a deal for a #9 or #10 starter. Dylan Covey has started in the past, and his AAA and AA numbers work for a depth starter, not so much for a reliever. He also doesn’t fit anything like the high K profile Stearns aims for with fringy bullpen pickups.
Could be one of the many MIRPs Stearns will pile up with an eye to improving a couple of them enough to free up Megill for the #6 SP slot, or Butto for the #5 SP slot.
OTOH Stearns realizes that with so little in the way of starting pitching, with Senga’s injury and once-a-week history in Japan, and Peterson probably limited to 100-125 innings, as usual, Stearns is likely to need many, many MIRPs. Grooming Covey as a 2-3 inning reliever also makes sense.