Club tenders everyone else, including Blackburn
The Mets have been proactive in strengthening their bullpen during the early offseason with a series of minor transactions. On Friday, they made further adjustments to that group.
They signed right-hander Sean Reid-Foley to a new one-year contract, thus avoiding arbitration, while choosing not to tender contracts to righty Grant Hartwig and lefty Alex Young, making them both free agents. The team also released Alex Ramírez, a once-promising outfield prospect within the organization.
Although Ramírez and Hartwig weren’t eligible for arbitration, their exit creates additional spots on the 40-man roster for the Mets.
The team extended contract offers to all other arbitration-eligible players, which includes pitchers Paul Blackburn, Tylor Megill, and David Peterson, catcher Luis Torrens, and outfielder Tyrone Taylor.
Reid-Foley, 29, had a strong showing last season, striking out 25 batters in 21 2/3 innings with a 1.66 ERA over 23 appearances. However, he started the season on the injured list due to a right shoulder impingement that recurred in June, causing him to miss the entire second half of the year. His injury issues have limited him to an average of just 13 1/3 innings per season over the past five years.
Young, 31, posted a 3.29 ERA in 14 games after being claimed off waivers from the Giants, having switched organizations five times in the last four years.
Ramírez, 21, seemed to be on the rise after a strong showing across two Class A levels in 2022, but has struggled since, posting OPS figures of .627 and .590 over the past two seasons.
Hartwig, 26, played in 32 games for the Mets over the last two years but had to sit out the latter part of this season after undergoing surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee.
Friday marked the deadline for teams to tender contracts to players not under guaranteed deals, which includes those with less than three years of service time making close to the Major League minimum and arbitration-eligible players with two to six years of service. Non-tendering can occur when teams believe that the cost of arbitration exceeds the player’s value.
The only other notable non-tender candidate for the Mets was Blackburn, who might not be ready for Opening Day after undergoing surgery in October to fix a spinal fluid leak. As he enters the last year of team control, he is expected to receive a salary increase from the $ 3.45 million he earned last season. Tendering him was seen as a risk, but the Mets felt the need for depth in starting pitching outweighed concerns about budget.
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