The New York Mets were the only team in Major League baseball that hadn’t signed a player to a minor league deal thus far this offseason until they inked right-handed reliever Ben Rowen and Cory Burns Thursday night.

They have lost six players to minor league free agency (Eric Campbell, Andrew Barbosa, Johnny Monell, Domingo Tapia, Roger Bernadina and Derrik Gibson), had two taken in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft (Paul Paez and Adrian Almeida) and traded Logan Verrett to the Baltimore Orioles.

Couple that with the 15 players that became minor league free agents after the year and the roughly 30 minor leaguers they released and they need some minor league depth, specifically for Binghamton and Las Vegas.

The Mets could also use a couple of low-cost options that had previous major league success.

One of the spots, despite yesterday’s signings, that could use more depth is the bullpen and here of the best available minor league free agent right-handed relievers –

Al Alburquerque – The former Tigers reliever has struggled since his strong season in 2014 when he had a 2.51 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and 9.9 K/9 for Detroit in 72 games. The 30-year old pitched in only two big league games in 2016 for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and gave up one run in two innings.

He spent a majority of the 2016 in Triple-A (PCL) where he had a 3.74 ERA and 1.57 WHIP in 33.2 innings. The good news is he still struck out 35 batters in that span but also walked 17. Walks have always been an issue for Alburquerque who does have a career 3.21 ERA and 7.0 H/9 in the majors.

Alburquerque is a two-pitch guy that throws a fastball and slider. The fastball velocity dip from 95/96 MPH to 91/92 MPH could certainly be a reason for his lack of success in 2016. But, you have to wonder, what Dan Warthen could do with a guy like Alburquerque who throws his slider 55-65% of the time.

Cory Rasmus – The younger brother of outfielder Colby Rasmus has pitched in the majors in parts of the last four seasons with an overall 4.17 ERA, 1.33 WHIP and 8.9 K/9. His best season was in 2014 for the Angels when he produced 1.1 bWAR, allowed only 42 hits in 56 innings and struck out 57 in that time.

During the 2016 season, Rasmus pitched 24.2 innings for the Angels sporting a 5.84 ERA, 1.6 WHIP and saw his K/9 dip to a career worst 6.2. He missed three months of the season because he had core muscle surgery in July. He came back in September to pitch in five games.

Rasmus is a rare four-pitch reliever that uses his fastball (91-93 MPH) around 40% of the time, changeup 20% of the time, slider 22% and mixes in a curveball 13% of the time.

Aaron Barrett – Should caveat this with the fact that the 28-year old reliever could miss a good chunk of the 2017 after having surgery in July on a broken elbow in his right arm. He was on the recovery path from a September 2015 Tommy John surgery when he broke his elbow.

Barrett had a much better 2015 season with the Washington Nationals than his 4.60 ERA would indicate. He had 1.19 WHIP, 5.00 SO/W, and struck out 35 batters in 29 innings. For his major league career that spans 70 innings, he has allowed only two home runs (Manny Machado and Kris Bryant).

Barrett uses two pitches to get batters out, a fastball in the mid 90’s and a slider at 86/87 MPH. He throws his slider about 40% of the time and held opponents to a .283 slugging percentage with it in 2015.

Brandon Cunniff – The 28-year old former Brave had a great finish to his 2016 season with 13 scoreless innings, 11 of them coming in the majors. Overall, he had a 4.24 ERA in 17 major league innings and a 3.25 ERA in 55.1 minor league during the 2016 season.

In his major league career, he has a 1.39 WHIP, but that also comes with 9.2 K/9. He’s also limited opponents to only 41 hits in 52 major league innings though he’s walked an alarming 31 during that span.

Cunniff has a big fastball that averaged 97 MPH last season and a slider that he throws 34% and hard at 89 MPH, sounds like a perfect fit for the Mets bullpen.

J.J. Hoover – To say the 2016 major league season was bad for Hoover would be a severe understatement considering he allowed 28 earned runs and nine home runs in only 18.2 innings. The 29-year old was much better in the minors though with a 3.52 ERA and struck out a whopping 50 batters in 38.2 innings.

The former Cincinnati Reds reliever had a much better 2015 season when he had a 2.94 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and held opponents to a .190 average. His biggest problem continues to be walking too many, with an alarming 5.8 BB/9 rate in 2016 and 4.2 BB/9 overall in his major league career.

Hoover uses a three-pitch mix that includes a fastball, slider and curveball. His average fastball velocity dropped from 94.12 MPH in 2015 to 92.60 MPH this past season. Possible that the workload of the three previous seasons (191 games, 198 innings) played a part in the velocity decrease.

Sam LeCure – For the first time since 2009, the 31-year old didn’t make a major league appearance during the 2016 season. He spent the entire year in the minors for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He pitched in 31 games Triple-A including 12 starts (his first since 2011). His numbers were much better out of the bullpen with a 2.97 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and held opponents to a .252/.292/.360 slash line.

In 320.2 major league innings he has a 3.51 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 7.9 H/9 and has struck out 300 batters. He’s also been better against left-handed hitters in his time in the majors, holding them to a .640 OPS compared to a .726 from right-handed hitters.

LeCure throws is mostly a sinker and knuckle curve pitcher while mixing in a slider and split change as well.

Although he a bad 2016 season with the Texas Rangers, my #1 minor league free agent right-handed reliever is Shawn Tolleson. In 36.1 innings he had an unsightly 7.68 ERA (5.24 FIP though), 1.73 WHIP and allowed eight home runs.

So why do I want Tolleson? From 2014-2015 he pitched 144 innings for the Rangers with a strong 2.88 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 9.1 K/9 and held opponents to a .223/.288/.375 slash line. In 2015, he saved 35 games for the AL West champs and finished 10th in the AL Cy Young voting.

Tolleson throws three pitches; fastball that average 94 MPH in both 2015 and 2016, slider that he threw 6% more in 2016 and a changeup that he threw 7% less this past season.

He was also the victim of some tough luck with an abnormally high .372 BABIP against him in 2016 which suggest that he could be a good bounce back candidate.

Ben Rowen was going to be part of this list prior to his signing with the Mets earlier this week.

Velocity statistics via Brooks Baseball