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Mets Sign Jose Bautista

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The Mets have signed Jose Bautista to a one-year, Major League contract, the team announced via Twitter.  The veteran slugger has already been added to the Mets’ roster and is available for tonight’s game; Phillip Evans was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move.  MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reported earlier today that the two sides were progressing towards a contract, and FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reported that an agreement had been reached.  The deal will pay Bautista a Major League minimum salary, Heyman tweets.

With Yoenis Cespedes and Todd Frazier both on the DL, Bautista provides a right-handed bat capable of playing both third base and in the corner outfield.  Bautista could also spell Adrian Gonzalez and Jay Bruce (both lefty swingers) at first base, to boot.  The Mets’ media release about the signing (as noted by The Athletic’s Tim Britton) made particular mention of Bautista’s .913 OPS against southpaw pitching during his recent stint with the Braves, so it could be that New York will specifically deploy Bautista as a lefty masher.

Bautista only hit .143/.250/.343 overall during his brief time with Atlanta, with his success in 20 PA against lefties counterbalanced by a measly .308 OPS against right-handed pitchers.  It’s hard to draw too many conclusions from such a small sample size, of course, though given that Bautista didn’t get a proper Spring Training (he only signed with the Braves in mid-April) and he is coming off a sub-replacement year with the Blue Jays in 2017, it certainly seems like the 37-year-old might best be suited for part-time duty at this stage in his career.

This is technically Bautista’s second stint in the Mets organization, as he was initially acquired by the team back on July 30, 2004 in a trade with the Royals for righty Justin Huber.  On that very same day, however, Bautista was dealt as part of a three-player package to the Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger.  One can’t really fault for the Mets for not knowing what they had at the time, as it wasn’t until 2010 that Bautista broke out as one of the game’s premier sluggers with a 54-homer season for the Blue Jays.

That was the first of six superstar-level years for Bautista in Toronto, and he was still a solidly above-average bat as recently as 2016, though he was starting to show some of the signs of the decline that led to his ruinous 2017 campaign.  Since the Mets needed some right-handed hitting, though, there isn’t much risk on the team’s end in signing Bautista to the low-cost deal to see if he can recapture any of his old form, particularly if Bautista’s exposure to right-handed pitching is limited.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/4/17

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Here are some of the day’s notable minor moves:

  • Right-hander Deolis Guerra has elected free agency, as per the Angels’ official Twitter feed.  Guerra was outrighted off the Halos’ 40-man roster on Thursday.  The righty posted a 4.68 ERA, 7.9 K/9 and 1.83 K/BB rate over 25 relief innings for Los Angeles last season
  • Infielder Phillip Evans is heading back to the Mets on a minors deal that includes a spring invite, per a club announcement. He made it up to the majors for the first time and had some success in a brief run. Evans spent the bulk of the year at Triple-A — his first action at the highest level of the minors — and ended with a .279/.341/.418 slash over 510 plate appearances.
  • Outfielders Shane Robinson and Eric Young Jr. have elected free agency, the Angels announced. Both will likely end up with minor-league deals and camp invites, though perhaps Young in particular could land in a situation where he may have a shot at earning a bench role in camp. Robinson has struggled in his limited MLB time over the past two seasons, though he slashed .319/.379/.425 in 385 trips to the dish at Triple-A. Young had a productive run in a 125-plate appearance sample in the majors, slashing .264/.336/.418 while swiping a dozen bags. Like Robinson, he also showed well in precisely 385 plate appearances for Salt Lake, posting a .305/.375/.449 bating line while hitting the ball out of the park at an unprecedented personal rate (eight dingers in about half a season of work).
  • Former big leaguer Ryan Feierabend will continue to pitch for the KBO’s KT Wiz, according to a Yonhap News report. The southpaw appeared in three-straight MLB campaigns beginning in 2006 (when he was just twenty years of age), but didn’t make it back until a brief showing in 2014. From there, it was on to the KBO. The 32-year-old emerged in 2017 as the league-leader in ERA. He’ll earn a bit over $1MM after providing 160 frames of 3.04 ERA ball with 7.4 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9.
  • The Marlins have added lefty Miguel Del Pozo to their 40-man roster. Miami is evidently interested in protecting the 25-year-old lefty from minor league free agency (and the Rule 5 draft). Del Pozo returned from Tommy John surgery this year and briefly reached Double-A for the first time. He spent most of the season at the High-A level, where he allowed only one earned run while striking out 17 and issuing five walks in 16 2/3 frames.
  • Likewise, the Nationals moved young right-hander Wander Suero onto their 40-man. Fresh off of being named the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year, the 26-year-old could conceivably compete for a pen spot in Spring Training. He worked to a 2.48 ERA, with 9.0 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9, over 65 1/3 innings of pitching in the upper minors in 2017.

Mets Outright Five Players

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The Mets began their offseason roster maintenance on Wednesday, outrighting five players off their 40-man roster, per a club announcement. Among the cuts were right-handers Tyler Pill and Erik Goeddel, outfielders Travis Taijeron and Wuilmer Becerra, and infielder Phillip Evans.

The 27-year-old Pill came up from Triple-A Las Vegas to support an injury-ravaged pitching staff. In 22 innings (four relief appearances and three starts), Pill logged a 5.32 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 49.3 percent ground-ball rate. Pill, the younger brother of former Giants first baseman Brett Pill, posted a solid 3.47 ERA in 80 1/3 innings in Las Vegas’ extremely hitter-friendly environment, though his 5.6 K/9 mark and 2.5 BB/9 mark there suggest that he benefited from some degree of good fortune.

Goeddel, 28, has spent parts of four seasons with the Mets but has not replicated the promise he showed from 2014-15, when he posted a 2.48 ERA with a 40-to-13 K/BB ratio in 40 innings out of former manager Terry Collins’ bullpen. Over the past two seasons, Goeddel has seen his control and velocity worsen, with the ultimate results being a 4.87 ERA in 64 2/3 innings of work. He still averaged 9.6 K/9 in those 2016-17 seasons, but Goeddel also served up 13 homers in that time — an unacceptable average of 1.8 homers per nine innings pitched.

Taijeron and Evans, meanwhile, both received September cameos that marked their respective MLB debuts. The 28-year-old Taijeron mashed in the aforementioned hitters’ haven of Las Veags (.272/.383/.525, 25 homers, 32 doubles) but hit just .173/.271/.269 in 59 big league plate appearances. Evans, 25, batted .279/.341/.418 in Vegas and spent at least 140 innings at each of left field, second base, shortstop and third base. He hit .303/.395/.364 in a tiny sample of 38 MLB PAs.

The 23-year-old Becerra went from the Blue Jays to the Mets alongside Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud in the widely panned R.A. Dickey swap and for a couple of years rated as one of the Mets’ more promising farmhands. However, Becerra batted just .267/.332/.335 this past season as a 22-year-old in his second trip through the Class-A Advanced Florida State League.

Minor MLB Transactions: 9/8/17

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Here are Friday’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Brewers outrighted right-hander Aaron Brooks to Triple-A, per a club announcement. He had been designated recently. Teams are obviously intrigued by his arm, as he has bounced around on waivers in recent years. But Brooks just hasn’t performed this year at Triple-A, where he owns a 6.12 ERA with 6.6 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 — as well as 29 home runs allowed — over 145 2/3 innings.
  • The Mets are set to promote infielder Phillip Evans to the Major League roster, Newsday’s Marc Carig reports (on Twitter). New York recently lost Wilmer Flores for the rest of the season due to a broken nose, so the 24-year-old Evans can provide some additional infield depth. Evans isn’t on the 40-man roster, so they’ll need to make a move to formally select his contract, though New York can accommodate him by moving any of its injured players currently on the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL (e.g. Steven Matz, Zack Wheeler, T.J. Rivera, Michael Conforto). Baseball America ranked Evans 25th among Mets prospects last winter, noting that the 2016 Double-A Eastern League batting champ has enough bat to profile as a utility infielder in the Majors. He’s better suited at second or third, per that report, though he’s primarily been a shortstop in the minors. Evans hit .279/.341/.418 with 11 homers in his first Triple-A season this year.

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