SAN DIEGO — The Mets promised to stay lively within the beginning pitching market and so they made good on their promise Wednesday morning, agreeing with veteran left-hander Jose Quintana on a two-year, $26 million contract, pending a bodily.
They additionally added left-hander reliever Brooks Raley in a commerce with the Tampa Bay Rays, bringing in a extra established reliever to go along with a bunch of younger, optionable bullpen arms. Keyshawn Askew, a left-hander drafted by the Mets within the tenth spherical of the 2021 draft, went to Tampa Bay within the deal.
These strikes got here two days after the Mets got here to phrases with veteran ace Justin Verlander. The membership will not be finished and will additionally find yourself signing Japanese pitcher Kodai Senga. General supervisor Billy Eppler talked earlier within the week in regards to the want for beginning pitching depth over a full season and the Mets now have seven starters to make use of all through the season, although it’s attainable three of the back-end starters find yourself within the bullpen.
Quintana is a 33-year-old veteran who spent final season with the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. He went 6-7 with a 2.93 ERA and a 2.99 FIP. Over 11 seasons the Colombian is 89-87 with a 3.75 ERA and a 3.62 FIP.
Quintana spent a lot of his profession in Chicago with the White Sox and the Cubs and was named an All-Star in 2016 with the White Sox. He’s additionally pitched for the Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants.
He joins Verlander, Max Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco and a back-end group of Tylor Megill, David Peterson and Joey Lucchesi. However, solely Megill, Peterson and Lucchesi are beneath contract previous the 2024 season.
The Mets will not be but happy with this rotation, however figuring out a contract with Senga stays sophisticated due to the potential size of the deal. A 3-year contract is likely to be the specified size for a pitcher who has not but proven he can deal with an MLB workload, however it’s believed that Senga and his agent, Joel Wolfe, are in search of a five-year deal.
Raley is coming off of a profession 12 months with the Rays and has wonderful numbers towards left-handers. Last season, Raley went 1-2 with six saves and a 2.68 ERA. He walked 15 batters and struck out 61 in 60 appearances. The 34-year-old Texas A&M product held left-handed hitters to a .155 common final season and a .482 OPS. Lefties have hit .171 towards him for his profession.
Raley checks all the the bins for the Mets when it comes to what they desired in a reduction pitcher.
“People that have experience and leverage, we’re going to try and gravitate towards that if we can,” Eppler stated Tuesday. “But at the end of the day, we want to see the tools there too, so that’s going to be a better proxy because that’s going to be a better proxy for that pitcher’s ability to get out a good hitter.”
The membership didn’t have a real left-handed specialist within the bullpen final season, as a substitute utilizing right-hander Seth Lugo towards lefties. Lugo departed as a free agent with the need to land a beginning position. The three-batter minimal rule lessens the necessity for a conventional left-handed specialist and the Mets have been open to utilizing one other righty in that position, however wished somebody who had good splits towards each proper and left-handed hitters.
Raley has higher numbers towards lefties in his profession however was stable towards hitters from either side of the plate final season.
“A lot of times what we see is some of the opposing lineups, they’re putting some space in between the left-hander,” Eppler stated. “So if you’re going to get a lefty, you want to feel pretty good about their ability to get a right-hander out, or at least limit damage against a right-hander.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com