3:50pm: Hagenman’s deal is a split contract, per Will Sammon of The Athletic on X. He’ll make $850K in the majors and $225K in the minors.
3:05pm: The Mets announced that they have signed right-hander Justin Hagenman to a major league contract. He had just elected minor league free agency earlier this month. The club’s 40-man roster count jumps to 34.
Hagenman, 28, cracks a major league roster for the first time. He was drafted by the Dodgers back in 2018 but when to the Red Sox as part of the 2023 deadline trade that sent Enrique Hernández to Los Angeles. The Sox never added Hagenman to their roster, so he qualified for minor league free agency after 2024 as a player with seven seasons of minor league experience. However, the Mets apparently saw enough to give him a 40-man spot today.
Over the past four years, Hagenman has thrown 302 2/3 innings on the farm with a 4.19 earned run average, 25.7% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. He has primarily been a reliever in his career but served more of a swingman role in 2024 without his rate stats changing much. He tossed 91 2/3 Triple-A innings this past year with a 4.91 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. The home run ball seemed to be an issue, as he allowed 21 this year, a rate of 21.4% per flyball.
The Mets need plenty of help on the pitching staff. Each of Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino, Ryne Stanek, Phil Maton, Joey Lucchesi and Drew Smith became free agents at the end of 2024, opening a few holes in both the rotation and bullpen. Hagenman gives the club some depth for both and can theoretically do so for quite some time. Since this is his first time on a big league roster, he still has a full slate of options and no big league service time.
At last some of the big names are starting to drop. Wait who?
lots of roster spots open. ERA ballooned up last season when BOS tried to move him back into a starter’s role. I can only imagine they want to move him back to the pen, where he had greater success. If it sticks, awesome… if not, no big deal. This isn’t an earth shaker, but I really like the way Stearns is active on the lower end of the market.
Trust in Stearns. Unlikely to be any Wendles this year. Well, hopefully
Will Stearns ever learn that to build a competent bullpen, you need to sign real major league relievers? Its last year all over again. We had the worst bullpen in the first half of the season. It wasn’t until they traded for some major league relievers such as Maton (I didnt think he was that good honestly), Stanek, and Brazoban (he didnt do that well) that the bullpen actually started to be average. Guys like Jake Diekman, Cole Sulser, Andre Scrubb, Yoan Lopez, Alex Young, Danny Young, Reed Garrett, Zack Muckenhern, etc. are not going to win you a World Series. Look at the Dodgers bullpen, elite reliever after elite reliever. Stearns needs to go out there and make a trade for someone like Devin Williams, Ben Joyce or Camillo Doval and sign atleast one of Minter, Scott, or Estevez or else this team is going nowhere
Settle down, Beavis. There’s plenty of time for bigger moves.
Hoyer also always starts out with no depth in the pen and they start out bad. Yeah so he’s good at adding other teams cast offs and turning them into competent relievers. Unfortunately by then they’re ten games back.
Stearns never spent on the Milwaukee bullpen. He pretty much said spending big on the bullpen is unlikely.
Most relievers are very volatile from year to year. It basically becomes like stock predictions at that point. There’s no point in spending a ton of money on one when you can find a cheap stock that you feel will quadruple in price to invest your money. And Stearns is very good at that sort of stuff.
Joyce isn’t going anywhere, so you can knock that nonsense right out of your head.
@kellin Angels are going nowhere. They won’t be competative for another 4 years. Joyce isn’t in their timeline. A package of Baty, Tidwell, and a lower level prospect like Parada easily gets the deal done
@lfg. Ben Joyce is 24. Four years from now he’s 28. He would require a king’s ransom to acquire him. meaning he’s going nowhere.
@rex Lots of delusional commentors on this site, aren’t there? He’s also in their plans for their “young core” for the next four years.
@kellin. I feel like half the time it’s the same person with different accounts. Joyce would be around a Mason Miller package, and his price was deemed too high. Like i said it will take a ridiculous offer that won’t happen. Also rangers won 60 games, and won a world series two years later. These predicted timelines are a joke.
Complains about guys signed, some helped get them within a couple games of the World Series. Then suggests they trade for Doval, freshly ousted from his closer role.
Reed Garrett was solid for most of the time he was up. It’s a crapshoot with relievers. Not every reliever is going to get closer money so you have to hope for the best.
@phenomenalajs I disagree. After the first month he was getting blown up, especually in close games. The playoffs exposed him. He can’t be used in any high leverage situation
Totally this is what you get with a small market GM. Trash heap and dumpster diving to build a bullpen. Then you wonder why the Mets couldn’t stop dodgers from scoring immediately after the Mets put up runs.
Why isn’t this a split contract?
NM.
Not gonna lie, at first glance I thought his last name was Hangman…
Stearns must know something the rest of us don’t.
Nothing seems to ever happen in November
So many people act like these small ML deals or split contracts prevent a team from signing a more established player or are a sign they’re not going to give a big contract.
Relax folks, the Mets have plenty of money to do whatever they want. Plus, when was depth ever a bad thing?
It amuses me to no end when people whine about depth moves. They’re depth moves. They either pan out, or they don’t, they don’t generally move the needle
@kellin. Key word whine. It’s either because it’s minor league moves or they over spent a million over the projection. The projection is a guess the team probably knows the price.
Robertson and Chapman, not all-stars at this point but still pretty solid. Then build around that.