With the 2018 minor league season complete, it’s time to shift the focus towards the offseason calendar. This includes the dates that free agents become free, and players eligible for selection in the Rule 5 Draft need to be protected. Looking at the current organizational rosters, 24 players are scheduled to become free agents, while another 61 will be Rule 5 eligible. The names below have been confirmed by official sources.
Unless the Mets add a prospective free agent to the 40-man roster on or before the fifth day following the World Series, all 24 players will be free to sign with any team. While those players are technically Rule 5 eligible as well, the deadline to protect the remaining 61 is November 20.
Of course, the Mets will not have to make a decision on all 85 players, as many will be released before the aforementioned dates. However, the current statuses can be broken down into the following groups. The format of this article was adapted from the good folks over at TheCubReporter.com.
Players Eligible for Minor League Free Agency:
Rule 55 “Six-Year” Minor League Free Agents
RHP Nabil Crismatt
RHP Nicolas Debora
OF John Mora
RHP Logan Taylor
OF Jhoan Urena
The six players above simply weren’t able to conquer the minor league beast before their contracts expired. Taylor was the Mets’ 11th-round draft pick in 2012, Becerra was acquired in the Noah Syndergaard trade with the Toronto Blue Jays that same winter, while the others were signed as international free agents (Debora, Mora, and Urena from the Dominican Republic and Crismatt from Colombia). There was an outside chance that Crismatt could have been added to the 40-man roster to prevent him from walking away, but after running into a brick wall in nine starts in Las Vegas, that seems less likely now.
Rule 55 “Second Contract” Minor League Free Agents
INF Cody Asche
LHP Buddy Baumann
INF Christian Colon
RHP Matt Gage
RHP Zac Grotz
RHP Cody Martin
OF Levi Michael
LHP Matt Purke
OF Kevin Taylor
An inordinate amount of injuries at the upper levels in 2018 forced the Mets to sign 15 players to minor league contracts before and during the season. There were bright spots, like Michael, the former first-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins who finished fourth in the organization in hits (121) despite missing the last month of the season with a jaw injury, and Borenstein, whose 25 home runs were second among Mets minor leaguers to only Peter Alonso.
Post-2018 Article XX(D) Minor League Free Agents
RHP Chris Beck
OF Bryce Brentz
RHP Scott Copeland
INF Ty Kelly
These five were outrighted off the 40-man roster in 2018 for the second time in their careers, meaning they can elect free agency a bit earlier than the others, from October 2 through the 15th. den Dekker received the most playing time of the group, recording 21 major league plate appearances in his second stint with the organization. Brentz was claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates right before the start of the regular season and was immediately removed from the roster.
Players Eligible for Selection in the 2018 Rule 5 Draft:
First-Time Eligibles
INF Giovanny Alfonzo (Second contract player signed for 2019)
INF Dale Burdick
RHP Yeudy Colon
LHP Seth Davis
INF Edgardo Fermin
RHP Harol Gonzalez
LHP Daniel Guzman
LHP Taylor Henry
RHP Carlos Hernandez
INF Kenny Hernandez
LHP Joel Huertas
RHP Chase Ingram
RHP Jurgen Jimenez
RHP Nelson Leon
RHP Gabriel Llanes
INF Domingo Martinez
RHP Thomas McIlraith
OF Jose Medina
INF Hansel Moreno
RHP Jose Moreno
INF Oliver Pascual
LHP Kyle Regnault
RHP Luc Rennie (Second contract player signed for 2019)
INF Yoel Romero
RHP Joe Shaw
RHP Corey Taylor
INF David Thompson
INF Dylan Tice (Second contract player signed for 2019)
RHP Joshua Torres (Second contract player signed for 2019)
Non-First-Time Eligibles
RHP Matt Blackham
INF Jose Brizuela (Second contract player signed for 2019)
INF Luis Carpio
INF Andrew Ely
INF J.J. Franco (Second contract player signed for 2019)
RHP Mike Gibbons
RHP Mickey Jannis(Second contract player signed for 2019)
RHP Ricky Knapp
RHP Kevin McGowan
RHP Marbin Montijo
INF Dionis Paulino
RHP Josh Prevost
RHP Darwin Ramos
INF Walter Rasquin
LHP David Roseboom
RHP Ronald Sanchez (Second contract player signed for 2019)
RHP Luis Silva
OF Champ Stuart
LHP Blake Taylor
RHP Adonis Uceta
It’s difficult to envision a scenario in which the Mets actually add minor leaguers to their 40-man roster this offseason. That’s because they’ll need to subtract from it to get under the limit by the fifth day after the end of the World Series when the 10 players on the 60-day disabled list need to be reinstated. Since the Mets only have six pending free agents, they’ll have to make up the difference by way of trades, releases, or outright assignments.
Draft-Excluded Players
During the course of the 2018 regular season, the Mets have selected the contracts of Copeland, den Dekker, Phillip Evans (two times), Drew Gagnon, Eric Hanhold, Kaczmarski, Kelly, Jose Lobaton (three times), Tim Peterson, Drew Smith, Bobby Wahl, and Daniel Zamora to the major league roster. Because Hanhold and Zamora were selected after August 15 and would have been eligible for the 2018 Rule 5 Draft, they cannot be sent outright to the minor leagues from five days after the end of the World Series until 20 days prior to opening day in 2019.
