Photo By Ed Delany, MMO

The Mets announced on Wednesday that right-handed reliever Jacob Rhame has been claimed off waivers by the Los Angeles Angels. In a corresponding move, 23-year-old right-handed reliever Ryley Gilliam was added to the Mets’ player pool.

Their pool now stands at 51 players out of the maximum 60. Rhame appeared in parts of three seasons with the major league club, posting cumulative 6.23 ERA over 47.2 innings across 44 appearances.

He was originally acquired when the Mets sent Curtis Granderson to the Dodgers, but unfortunately, Rhame never quite found his footing and was never a consistent force at the highest level.

Despite a 6.05 ERA across three levels in 2019, Gilliam is one of the Mets’ most talented relief prospects. Although not a huge guy at 5’10”, he has enough arm speed to generate a fastball into the mid 90s as well as a high-spin curveball.

Gilliam racks up strikeouts with ease, having collected 87 over 56 innings in his minor league career. His main issue is control and keeping the walks down, but he has proven to be dominant when he can hone his stuff.

While maybe not completely major league ready, Gilliam is certainly a good addition to the player pool and should serve as a valuable depth option should the Mets need to go that far.