Catch me up in 30(ish) seconds…
Trevor Fevor: The Mets signed another Trevor, but not Bauer, this one is side-armer Trevor Hildenberger to a minor league deal (more in a bit).
Winter Meetings: Steve Cohen is keeping fans updated via Twitter of progress in the Winter Meetings, saying “things are developing slowly.”
Bet the farm: Meanwhile, ESPN insider Buster Olney is “just about ready to bet the family farm in Vermont” that the Mets end up with George Springer. And fellow insider Jeff Passan is willing to bet his Honda CRV that the UConn product ends up in Queens.
Signing: The Mets are reportedly signing right-hander Jared Robinson to a minor league deal (more in a bit).
Parting ways: Mets are moving on from outfield and baserunning instructor Marlon Anderson.
Sad news: Dodgers scout Jairo Castillo passed away due to COVID-19 complications. He was only 31-years-old. He played in the Dominican Summer League as part of the Mets organization before becoming a scout. A GoFundMe page has been set up to support his family. He leaves behind two young boys and a loving family.
Calling All Trevors
Entering this offseason, unless you knew someone named Trevor who was an acquaintance, co-worker, friend, family member, significant other, or person you are in a relationship with that you don’t want to or know how to label, as a Mets fan, you’ve had limited exposure to Trevors.
In fact, if I had to rank the Mets-related Trevors in my life, the list would probably look something like this:
1) Trevor Noah, because all funny people like the Mets.
2) Trevor Hoffman, because Mike Piazza once did this to him:
3) Trevor Moawad, who?! You know, the “mental skills” coach Brodie Van Wagenen hired in 2019.
And that’s it. That’s the list of Trevors, because there has never been an actual player named Trevor who has played for the Mets until now, or until the bullpen door swings open and one of the recently-signed Trevors comes running onto the field next season.
After inking set-up man Trevor May last week, the team is reportedly signing another Trevor, and it’s not the one some people might be hoping for, but a sidearm reliever who many fans who don’t play fantasy baseball or watch the American League have probably never heard of: Trevor Hildenberger.
Hildenberger?! Yes, the last name is made to be mispronounced by a grumpy manager in a made-for-TV baseball movie. But he’s a real pitcher. And he was actually really good back in 2017 and parts of 2018 before hitting a wall and falling off the map.
So that's two Trevors signed by the Mets. Both with connections to pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. Neither a starting pitcher with a Cy Young on his mantle.
What are the Mets getting in Trevor Hildenberger?
Hildenberger is a sidearm reliever who looked like he was going to build a career working out of the back of the bullpen when he first came up for the Twins in 2017. But things turned ugly, quickly. He ended up being non-tendered in 2019 and spent this past year with the Red Sox, although he never made a big league appearance.
Sidearmers are fun from an aesthetic standpoint for the fan, but not so fun from the opposing hitter’s perspective, as you can catch a glimpse of below.
After switching from a traditional overhand approach in college, Hildenberger found great success during his rookie campaign with Minnesota, pitching to a 3.21 ERA with impressive strikeout (9.4 K/9) and walk (1.3 BB/9) rates. He used several arm angles to keep hitters off balance. By 2018, he had become the Twins’ closer, and he was quite effective with a 2.80 ERA and .207 batting average against in his first 45 innings before the music stopped. Over the second half of that season, his ERA ballooned to 9.00 as he allowed 7 home runs in his final 27 innings.
What happened? Hildenberger could no longer command the arm-side movement of his sinker and changeup, as described in the 2019 Baseball Prospectus Annual (which I literally pulled from my bookshelf to manually copy the text below while pushing up my glasses that have tape around the bridge).
“Very few of the great things Hildenberger showed in his rookie campaign carried over to 2018. His control deserted him, largely because he lost the feel for both pitches (his sinker and his changeup) that move to the arm side. He did flash the grounder-inducing quasi-dominance of 2017 during the late spring and early summer, but he wore down from there and batters began sitting on his slider, then elevating and blistering it.”
The 29-year-old tried to regain his form in 2019, but continued to struggle. He made only 22 appearances as his ERA continued to climb, ending at a disastrous 10.47 mark. After adjusting his mechanics last offseason, he never got a chance to prove himself with the Red Sox in 2020. He will now receive an opportunity with the Mets.
Meanwhile, we will have to wait and see if a more newsworthy Trevor comes to New York…
Oh wait, I got my signals crossed; that’s the Jets fan in me coming out (it’s also the second newsletter I have snuck in a meme of an athlete sweeping back their long hair which must be some kind of useless record).
Pitching Depth
FIRST PITCH
On Monday, the Mets signed right-hander Jared Robinson to a minor league deal that includes a Spring Training invite.
WORKING THE COUNT
A theme is starting to emerge from some of the Mets’ offseason signings: find relievers who throw the ball really hard and offer the potential to strike people out.
Right-hander Jared Robinson joins Sam McWilliams and Trevor May as bullpen arms who have been recently added to the roster and who offer fastballs that tick toward the upper 90s and generate swings-and-misses at a high rate. McWilliams upped his velocity working with Tyler Zombro in Tampa last spring, but never reached the active roster, so it remains to be seen if his new stuff translates to missing bats, but the potential is there.
Robinson, 26, struck out 97 batters in just over 70 innings of work in three levels of the Indians’ farm system in 2019, while holding opposing hitters to a .217/.317/.349 slash line. He recorded more than three outs in 26 of his 40 appearances.
He also comes from an organization with a strong reputation for developing pitchers, as Robinson noted last spring training after receiving his first big league invite.
“You can tell this organization does really well in developing minor-league pitching,” Robinson told The Athletic. “You look around and see all these great arms and you’re like, ‘Man, what’s their secret?’”
New York hopes Cleveland’s secret sauce is baked into Robinson’s young arm as they try to bolster a thin farm system. The California native ranked 40th on the most recent Indians’ prospect list published by FanGraphs. He’s far from a top-level prospect, but he gives the Mets an arm with upside.
THE PAYOFF
Mets continue to fill an organizational gap by adding relievers who are major league ready but still have their full service time and option years remaining.
Rule 5 Draft
It’s December, so a busy time for complicated baseball transactions, such as the non-tender deadline and the Rule 5 Draft. Maybe you’re a baseball nerd, which is why you subscribe to this newsletter, so these things aren’t that complicated to you, but if you’re a casual fan and you sort of know these transaction periods exist but never spent the time to learn exactly what they mean, I will give you a quick overview.
Basically, the Rule 5 Draft allows players, who have been part of an organization for a while but haven’t cracked the 40-man roster, an opportunity to find a roster spot on a new team. Eligibility to be included in the draft is defined as follows:
Players first signed at age 18 must be added to 40-man rosters within five seasons or they become eligible to be drafted by other organizations through the Rule 5 Draft process. Players signed at age 19 or older have to be protected within four seasons.
To “protect” a minor leaguer from being selected in the Rule 5 Draft, teams must move players to their 40-man roster by the end of November. The Mets were the only team not to protect anyone this year. Why? As Jacob Resnick of Metsmerized explained:
“With 11 of the Mets’ top 13 prospects (according to MLB Pipeline, the other two being Thomas Szapucki and Franklyn Kilomé) too young for Rule 5 selection, the highest-ranked eligible players fall in the ‘interesting, but not an automatic add’ category.”
The Mets have 34 players on their 40-man roster, leaving six open roster spots, which could make them a candidate to select a player in this year’s Rule 5 Draft, which takes place tomorrow, December 10 at 12:00 PM EST. In order to add a player, clubs must have space on their 40-man roster.
Teams pay $100,000 to select a player in the draft, and if that player doesn’t stay on the active roster for the full season, he must be returned to his former team for $50,000. The Mets have the 10th pick.
If you want to look at a long list of players who could be selected, Baseball America came up with 50 names. There are three Mets on the list: RHP Marcel Renteria, RHP Michael Otanez, and SS/2B Shervyen Newton. If you’re thinking about who the best players for the Mets to target might be, here are a few from the BA list from different positions:
Garrett Whitlock, RHP, Yankees
Marshall Kasowski, RHP, Dodgers
Raymond Kerr, LHP, Mariners
Kyle Holder, SS, Yankees
Alfredo Rodriguez, SS, Reds
Payton Henry, C, Brewers
Buddy Reed, OF, Athletics
If anything happens related to the Mets, I will provide more coverage on Friday.
Call to the bullpen
I’m going to try out a new section that offers an article recommendation for those of you who read to the end of the newsletter and are still looking for more to fill their baseball fix. Today’s “call to the bullpen” for additional reading is from Tom Verducci on recent Mets’ signing Sam McWilliams.
How Come the Mets Gave a Major League Deal to a Lifetime Minor Leaguer?
“Who is Sam McWilliams? And why in a slow free-agent market during a pandemic did half the teams in baseball engage in a bidding war for a 25-year-old pitcher with no major league experience and an 8.18 ERA in Triple A in 2019, when he last pitched competitively? And why did the New York Mets hand him a major league roster spot and more money than they paid Pete Alonso after his historic rookie season?”
Thanks for reading! More to come on Friday!
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