Khalil Lee, Photo by James Farrance

The New York Mets have announced the organization has released Triple-A Syracuse right fielder Khalil Lee. He has been released with off the field legal issues and struggles in the field.

As previously reported on MMN, Lee, 25, was facing potential criminal charges for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend in May 2021. The Mets put out a statement they were not permitted to comment until the completion of Major League Baseball’s investigative process.

Lee was invited to spring training despite the pending legal issues. However, he would be designated for assignment and re-assigned to Triple-A Syracuse before the start of the 2023 season. He has struggled to start the season.

In 21 games, Lee was only hitting .185/.299/.323 with six doubles, one homer, and seven RBI. With his 60 wRC+, he was easily on pace for his worst season as part of the Mets organization, and the team opted to make room for other players at Triple-A.

In addition to releasing Lee, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports the Mets have signed Gary Sánchez to a minor league deal. Mets GM Billy Eppler is familiar with Sanchez from when they were both part of the New York Yankees organization.

Sánchez, 30, played last season with the Minnesota Twins after playing for the Yankees for seven years. Sánchez struggled in Minnesota posting an 89 wRC+ while catching 91 games.

The issues with Sánchez have always been defensively. However, per Baseball Savant, he did post a 1 catcher framing run with a 2 caught stealing above average. Still, he struggled blocking balls, which has been his biggest problem behind the plate.

The Yankees and Twins were willing to let Sánchez work through his issues at the plate partially because of his offensive potential. On that note, Sánchez last posted a wRC+ over 100 in 2017. That said, he hits the ball very hard posting elite barrels and hard hit rates.