Eickhoff, 33 next month, returns to affiliated ball in search of an eighth big league season. A former Ranger draftee who was sent to the Phillies in the Cole Hamels trade, Eickhoff broke in as a decent back-of-the-rotation arm in Philadelphia. He struggled between 2017-19 and has only gotten brief looks in the last two seasons.

After making five appearances with the Mets in 2021, Eickhoff took a lone start for the Pirates last year. He was hit hard in those stints, surrendering 34 runs in his last 24 MLB innings. Eickhoff had spent most of last season in Triple-A with the Bucs, posting a 4.96 ERA with solid strikeout and walk numbers (22.5% and 6.3%, respectively) through 114 1/3 frames. He’d been pitching in the independent Atlantic League this year, allowing a 6.16 ERA over 49 2/3 innings.

Smith made 30 appearances for the Diamondbacks between 2020-21. He owns a 5.04 ERA over 85 2/3 MLB frames. The LSU product spent last season in the Rockies’ system. An assignment to Triple-A Albuquerque, a brutal environment for pitchers, didn’t go well. Smith allowed an 8.06 ERA through 92 2/3 innings.

Whether Norris will join Eickhoff and Smith in Columbus remains to be seen. The veteran has more than enough service time to decline the assignment in favor of free agency. Norris signed a minor league contract in Spring Training. He posted a 6.93 ERA with middling strikeout and walk rates in 14 outings (nine starts). The Guardians called him up for a two-inning big league appearance earlier this week but quickly took him back off the roster thereafter.

None of these are a surprise, to be clear. Any player who is not on his team’s 40-man roster at season’s end but has three-plus years of Major League service time, multiple career outright assignments and/or seven-plus seasons in the minors has the right to elect free agency. Everyone in today’s group of players falls under that umbrella. The majority of the group will likely find minor league deals over the winter, although a few of the players in question could potentially find a big league deal as a bench piece or middle-inning reliever.

There will be several more waves of players of this ilk, and we’ll make note of them in bunches over the coming weeks as we await the launch of Major League free agency, when all unsigned players with at least six years of Major League service time will reach the open market. For now, here’s the first of what will likely be several waves of newly minted minor league free agents:

Catchers

• Taylor Davis (Pirates)
• Dustin Garneau (Tigers)
• Andrew Knapp (Giants)
• Pedro Severino (Brewers)

Infielders

• Willians Astudillo (Marlins)
• Johan Camargo (Phillies)
• Michael Chavis (Pirates)
• Matt Davidson (Athletics)
• Dixon Machado (Giants)
• Richie Martin (Orioles)
• Josh VanMeter (Pirates)
• Tyler Wade (Yankees)

Outfielders

• Greg Allen (Pirates)
• Lewis Brinson (Giants)
• Jaylin Davis (Red Sox)
• Jonathan Davis (Brewers)
• Jackson Frazier (Cubs)
• Brett Phillips (Orioles)

Pitchers

• Tyler Beede (Pirates)
• Austin Brice (Pirates)
• Miguel Del Pozo (Tigers)
• Jerad Eickhoff (Pirates)
• Luke Farrell (Reds)
• Paul Fry (Diamondbacks)
• Eric Hanhold (Pirates)
• Travis Lakins Sr. (Orioles)
• Mike Mayers (Angels)
• Daniel Mengden (Royals)
• Juan Minaya (Nationals)
• Sean Newcomb (Cubs)
• Dillon Peters (Pirates)
• Dereck Rodriguez (Twins)
• Cesar Valdez (Angels)
• Aneurys Zabala (Marlins)

• Right-handed pitcher Jerad Eickhoff was outrighted by the Pirates earlier this week. As a player who had previously been outrighted in his career, he had the right to reject that outright assignment and elect free agency. However, Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review relayed last night that Eickhoff was with Triple-A Indianapolis, indicated he’s accepted. He started last night’s game for Indy, throwing five innings with two earned runs, seven strikeouts and one walk. He now has a 4.73 ERA at Triple-A on the year, but struggled mightily in his lone MLB appearance, allowing ten earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. He’ll stick around as depth for the club, who could potentially trade some arms between now and the August 2 deadline.
• The Rangers announced that right-hander Demarcus Evans cleared outright waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A Round Rock. Evans does not have three years of MLB service time and hasn’t previously been outrighted in his career, meaning he will head to Round Rock and try to earn his way back onto a roster spot. In 26 1/3 MLB innings this year, he has a 5.13 ERA with a strong 27.5% strikeout rate but worrisome 13.3% walk rate. In Triple-A, the control problems are even more pronounced, though in a small sample of just 12 innings. His ERA at Round Rock this year is 7.50, along with a 29.8% strikeout rate and 24.6% walk rate.

Banda has been in Pittsburgh for a bit shy of a year, having been claimed off waivers from the Mets last August. He made 25 appearances down the stretch, tossing 26 1/3 frames of 3.42 ERA ball. That came with middle-of-the-road strikeout and walk numbers, but Banda was successful enough to hold his roster spot over the winter. He broke camp this season and went on to make 23 more appearances, but the 28-year-old didn’t have nearly as much success keeping runs off the board.

Through 19 2/3 innings, Banda owns a 6.41 ERA. He’s posted slightly below-average marks in both strikeout rate (22.4%) and swinging strike percentage (9.4%), although that’s come with career-best control. Banda has walked only around 5% of opponents, and he’s averaging a personal-high 95.3 MPH on his fastball. Opposing hitters have an unsustainably high .463 batting average on balls in play against him in spite of a general lack of hard contact.

Those better underlying traits could entice another club to roll the dice on Banda over the coming days. The Bucs will have a week to trade him or try to run him through waivers. He’s out of minor league option years, so any team that acquires him would have to keep him on the active roster or DFA him themselves.

Hembree heads to free agency after being designated for assignment himself last week (ironically to accommodate Eickhoff’s selection to the 40-man roster). That’s little surprise, as the veteran reliever is playing this season on a $2.125MM salary and is amidst a down year. He posted a 7.16 ERA with more walks than strikeouts in 20 appearances for the Bucs, but he’s only a season removed from punching out 34.2% of batters faced. That’ll at least generate some minor league interest now that Hembree’s back on the open market; a signing team would only owe him the prorated portion of the $700K minimum salary for any time he spends in the majors, with the Pirates on the hook for the rest of the money owed.

Eickhoff has the right to join Hembree in free agency, having been outrighted on multiple occasions in his career. He made just one MLB appearance, serving up ten runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Cubs. The veteran righty has otherwise spent the season in Indianapolis, tossing 48 1/3 frames of 4.84 ERA ball.

Eickhoff, 31, appeared in just one game for the Pirates and was torched for 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Cubs this week. Remarkably, that’s the second consecutive big league appearance in which Eickhoff has been tagged for 10 earned runs; he also yielded 10 runs (in 3 1/3 frames) to the Braves in his final outing of the year with the Mets last season.

Those two outings have combined to help balloon Eickhoff’s career ERA to 4.50 and mark the continuation of a recent decline in Eickhoff’s overall performance. While he was a solid rotation option with the Phillies from 2015-17, pitching to a 3.87 ERA over 376 1/3 innings during that time, Eickhoff has totaled just 87 2/3 Major League innings from 2018-22 and pitched to a collective 7.19 ERA along the way. The Pirates will have a week to trade Eickhoff, release him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he chooses.

Brice, meanwhile, will join the big league bullpen on the heels of a sharp 3.04 ERA through 26 2/3 innings in Triple-A Indianapolis. He’s posted strong strikeout and ground-ball rates in Indy (27.2% and 50.7%, respectively), but has also issued a walk to 11 of the 114 batters he’s faced (9.6%) and plunked another three. Brice is a veteran of parts of six Major League seasons — the best of which came with the 2019 Marlins (44 2/3 innings, 3.43 ERA). Overall, he carries a lifetime 5.17 ERA in 162 big league innings.

Eickhoff, 31, is a veteran of six big league seasons, most of which have come with the cross-state Phillies. He spent the 2021 season in the Mets organization and made a handful of spot starts for an injury-depleted rotation, serving up 19 runs in 19 2/3 innings. The majority of the damage against Eickhoff came in his final outing, though, when the Mets left him on the hill to take a 10-run shellacking in 3 1/3 innings versus Atlanta.

Prior to last year’s rough stint in Queens, Eickhoff had been a generally solid contributor in Philly. His numbers dipped in his final year with the club, but Eickhoff nonetheless notched a 4.15 ERA over the course of 459 2/3 innings as a member of the Phils, striking out 21.4% of his opponents against a strong 6.8% walk rate.

Those big league numbers with the Phillies fall closely in line with Eickhoff’s career marks at the Triple-A level (4.29 ERA, 22% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate). That includes a 2022 season in which he’s logged 48 1/3 innings foe the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. In that time, Eickhoff has posted a 4.84 ERA with strikeout and walk rates close to his career norms. He’s made seven relief appearances and six starts so far in Triple-A, though he hasn’t topped 81 pitched or completed six innings in any single outing this year.

There’s no obvious 60-day IL candidate for the Pirates, who have a a full 40-man roster after acquiring Eric Stout from the Cubs earlier today. Pittsburgh also has infielder Tucupita Marcano and righty Duane Underwood Jr. on the Covid-related IL, and they’ll need a pair of spots once that duo is cleared for reinstatement. Based on Eickhoff’s forthcoming promotion and that pair of IL usages, it would seem there’s a decent bit of roster maneuvering on the horizon for the Bucs.

Eickhoff was a capable back-of-the-rotation starter between 2016-17 with the Phillies, but he hasn’t pitched much over the past few seasons. The Indiana native logged 63 2/3 frames between 2018-19, then didn’t appear in the bigs during the shortened 2020 season. He bounced on and off the Mets’ big league roster a few times this year, ultimately working 19 2/3 innings over five outings.

That big league showing didn’t go well, as Eickhoff surrendered 24 runs, including a staggering nine homers, with 13 strikeouts and 10 walks in that limited time. His production with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse was more respectable, as he posted a 4.86 ERA with solid strikeout and walk rates (23.9% and 6.1%, respectively), although he also struggled with the longball at the minors’ top level.

Players can qualify for minor league free agency in a few ways. The most notable of these include: players with 3+ years of MLB service time who have been outrighted off their teams’ 40-man rosters this season, players who have been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in their careers, and unsigned players not on a 40-man roster who have spent parts of at least seven seasons on a minor league roster or injured list.

Many of these players won’t officially reach free agency until the start of the offseason, but some were let go by their teams a few weeks early once the regular season concluded. Each of the following players has elected minor league free agency within the past week, according to the MLB.com and Triple-A transactions trackers:

• R.J. Alaniz (Reds)
• Albert Almora Jr. (Mets)
• Travis Bergen (Blue Jays)
• Jesse Biddle (Braves)
• A.J. Cole (Blue Jays)
• Jairo Díaz (Rockies)
• Jerad Eickhoff (Mets)
• Michael Feliz (A’s)
• Trevor Gott (Giants)
• Dany Jiménez (Blue Jays)
• JaCoby Jones (Tigers)
• Ryan Lavarnway (Indians)
• Derek Law (Twins)
• Kyle Lobstein (Brewers)
• Luis Madero (Marlins)
• José Marmolejos (Mariners)
• Shawn Morimando (Marlins)
• Taylor Motter (Red Sox)
• Joe Panik (Marlins)
• Adam Plutko (Orioles)
• Austin Pruitt (Marlins)
• Nick Ramirez (Padres)
• Roel Ramírez (Mets)
• Austin Romine (Cubs)
• Adrián Sánchez (Nationals)
• Scott Schebler (Angels)
• Chance Sisco (Mets)
• Wilfredo Tovar (Mets)
• César Valdez (Orioles)
• Hyeon-jong Yang (Rangers)

3:39 pm: The Mets are planning to select the contract of right-hander Akeem Bostick prior to this evening’s game against the Braves, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (Twitter link). The 26-year-old will be making his major league debut if he gets into a game.

Bostick was a second-round pick of the Rangers back in 2013. The Astros acquired him in January 2015, and he spent the next few seasons in the Houston farm system. Bostick never made the majors with the Astros, though, and was let go in 2019. He signed with the Cardinals but didn’t make an official appearance with the St. Louis organization because of last year’s cancelled minor league season.

New York signed Bostick to a minor league deal in May. He’s spent the year with Triple-A Syracuse, tossing 37 2/3 innings of 6.21 ERA ball across ten appearances (eight starts). Bostick’s peripherals aren’t much better, as he’s struck out a below average 16.8% of batters faced while walking an elevated 13.3% of opponents.

It hasn’t been a banner season for Bostick, but he is at least stretched out. He’s worked up to five innings in a few starts for Syracuse. With the Mets pitching staff hit hard by injuries, New York has tried to patch things together on the mound in recent days. Jerad Eickhoff was re-signed to start last night’s ballgame but didn’t fare well, allowing ten runs in 3 1/3 innings.

It’s been a tumultuous year for Eickhoff with the Mets. He’s been designated for assignment twice and elected free agency both times — only to quickly re-sign a new deal with the Mets and return to the MLB roster. Tonight will mark his third stint and fourth start of the season with the Mets. To this point, he’s given then 16 1/3 innings of 4.96 ERA ball with nine strikeouts and five walks. Given the Mets’ current search for rotation options and the looming return of Carlos Carrasco, it’s possible this will be another short stint for Eickhoff.

Speaking of short stints, the 26-year-old Ramirez was claimed off waivers from the Cardinals just six days ago. He made only one appearance with Triple-A Syracuse, yielding a pair of runs in an inning of work. He was a depth pickup for the Mets but will now likely hit waivers again within the next week following today’s DFA (if he’s not traded prior to Friday’s deadline).

It’s the second time this season New York has designated Eickhoff. The veteran starter was selected to the big league roster last month, re-signed with the organization after being passed through waivers, and was again brought back to the majors two weeks ago. Between his pair of stints, Eickhoff has tossed 16 1/3 innings of 4.96 ERA/5.71 SIERA ball. He’s thrown strikes at a strong rate, but Eickhoff hasn’t missed many bats and he’s been tagged for six home runs in his limited work.

The Mets will have a week to trade Eickhoff or expose him to waivers. If he clears outright waivers — as he did in June — he can reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.

Eickhoff was previously selected to the big leagues last month. He was designated for assignment not long after and passed through outright waivers. After electing free agency, Eickhoff quickly re-signed with New York on a minor league deal and made it back to the majors.

The 31-year-old has made two starts for the Mets this season, tossing ten innings 0f five-run ball with six strikeouts and four walks. That was his first big league action since his 2015-19 run with the division-rival Phillies. He initially looked like a solid back-of-the-rotation starter, but his results with the Phils tailed off over the last few seasons.

Eickhoff has spent the majority of 2021 at Syracuse. He’s tossed 46 frames with the Mets’ top minor league affiliate, working to a 5.09 ERA with decent strikeout and walk percentages (22.4% and 6.8%, respectively) but an elevated home run rate (2.15 HR/9).

9:27 am: Right-hander Jerad Eickhoff went unclaimed on waivers and has elected free agency in lieu of an outright assignment to Triple-A, per the transactions log at MiLB.com. He can now sign with any club (or re-sign a new minor league deal with the Mets).

Eickhoff, who turned 31 on Friday, returned to the big leagues with a pair of starts for an injury-depleted Mets club last month. The righty saw Major League time with the Phillies each season from 2015-19, pitching to a combined 4.15 ERA with a 21.3 percent strikeout rate and a 6.8 percent walk rate. His best work, however, came in the first two years of that span, when he posted a 3.44 ERA in 248 1/3 frames. Eickhoff’s final three seasons with the Phils were marred by injuries — most notably surgery to address carpal tunnel syndrome in his pitching hand.

Eickhoff split the 2020 season between the Padres and Rangers organizations after signing a minor league deal with the Padres. San Diego even selected his contract to the MLB roster early in the 2020 campaign, but he was sent out before appearing in a game. He later inked a minor league pact with his original organization, the Rangers, but didn’t make it back to the big leagues before season’s end.

The 2020 season marked the first since 2015 in which Eickhoff didn’t pitch in the Majors. He’ll now look for a new opportunity after yielding five runs on 11 hits and four walks with six punchouts in 10 innings for the Mets. Four of the hits surrendered by Eickhoff in his brief time with the Mets’ big league club were home runs, which is cause for some concern, as are the struggles he had in Triple-A Syracuse before being called to the Majors: 44 innings, 5.32 ERA, 22.1 percent strikeout rate, 7.0 percent walk rate, 11 home runs allowed.

It’s the first big league call for Szapucki. New York’s fifth-round pick out of a Florida high school back in 2015, he’s been regarded as one of the more promising pitching prospects in the system for the past few years. Szapucki carved up low minors hitters over his first few pro seasons, drawing praise from scouts for low-mid 90s velocity and a pair of quality breaking balls. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery in July 2017, knocking him out of action for almost two seasons.

Szapucki returned in 2019 and performed well across two levels of A-ball before earning a brief promotion to Double-A at the end of the season. Obviously, he didn’t log any game action last year due to the COVID-19 forced cancelation of the minor league season. Instead, he spent all of 2020 at the alternate training site, where reports suggested his velocity had fallen into the high 80s.

The injuries and diminished velocity took a small hit to Szapucki’s prospect status. He entered 2021 as Baseball America’s #16 farmhand in the organization, while Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted him tenth in the system. Both outlets offered continued praise for his curveball, and Longenhagen noted that Szapucki’s velocity had bounced back into the low 90s during Spring Training 2021. He’s tossed 34 2/3 innings with Syracuse this season, working to a 4.41 ERA with a decent 23.8% strikeout rate but an elevated 13.8% walk percentage. Szapucki could be an option for a Mets rotation that lost Joey Lucchesi to Tommy John surgery last week.

When Lucchesi first went down, the Mets turned to Eickhoff. They were plenty familiar with the 30-year-old, who pitched for the division-rival Phillies from 2015-19. Eickhoff looked like a competent back-of-the-rotation starter early in his Philadelphia tenure, but he struggled over his last three seasons there and didn’t pitch in the majors last year.

Eickhoff’s return with the Mets lasted just two starts. Across ten innings, he allowed five runs on eleven hits (including an alarming four homers) with six strikeouts and four walks. The Mets will have a week to trade him or place him on waivers. Should Eickhoff clear outright waivers, he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment and become a free agent.

Eickhoff signed a minor league deal in December that will now pay him $1.5MM for reaching the big league roster.  The righty (who turns 31 in July) has spent his entire MLB career in the NL East, having pitched with the Phillies from 2015-19 and initially looking like he could be a solid member of the rotation.  Injuries overshadowed Eickhoff’s last three years in Philadelphia, however, and after being cut loose by the team, he inked minors contracts with the Padres and Rangers in 2020 but didn’t see any big league action.

After a doubleheader against the Nationals yesterday and another doubleheader set for Monday against the Braves, the Mets will give Eickhoff a quick opportunity to take the ball.  Eickhoff could receive a start in one of Monday’s two games, unless he is needed to relief duty in today’s game against Washington.  Since New York has yet another doubleheader coming up on Friday against the Phillies, Eickhoff might find himself in line for another outing over that weekend series against his old team.  Joey Lucchesi just went on the 10-day IL, leaving the Mets a little shorthanded for pitching depth during this busy week.

Williams hit .212/.297/.333 in 37 plate appearances after his contract was selected by New York in late May.  Once a top prospect coming up in the Yankees’ farm system, Williams has only played sparingly over parts of seven MLB seasons with the Yankees, Reds, Orioles, and this year’s action with the Mets.