Mets reliever A.J. Minter left tonight’s sport in opposition to the Nationals partway by means of the eighth inning. After the sport, supervisor Carlos Mendoza revealed that the left-hander exited attributable to soreness in his triceps. Mendoza advised reporters (together with Will Sammon of The Athletic) that Minter will go for imaging and {that a} stint on the injured checklist is probably going.
Shedding Minter for any period of time can be a significant loss for the Mets. When the southpaw signed a two-year, $22MM cope with the membership this winter, some may need been stunned by the scale of the contract he was capable of safe. It tied him with Blake Treinen and Carlos Estévez for the third-largest contract of the offseason for a free agent reliever, and in contrast to Treinen’s and Estévez’s contracts, Minter’s got here with an opt-out after yr one. MLBTR was larger on Minter than virtually every other supply (we ranked him no. 34 on our Prime 50 Free Brokers checklist), and nonetheless, we solely predicted he would ink a two-year, $16MM deal. Even Minter himself implied that he wasn’t precisely anticipating the quantity he acquired, telling Anthony DiComo of MLB.com that he was initially planning to attend to signal till prime free agent reliever Tanner Scott had set the market, however that the Mets made him a proposal that was just too good to refuse.
It’s not that Minter isn’t a gifted reliever. From 2020-24, he pitched to a 2.85 ERA and three.04 SIERA in 243 innings of labor, putting out greater than 30% of the batters he confronted. Nevertheless, he spent about half of the 2024 season on the injured checklist, together with the ultimate seven weeks of the season. It was a hip harm, not an arm harm, besides, season-ending accidents are sometimes unhealthy information for impending free brokers, particularly pitchers on the fallacious facet of 30.
But, over the primary 4 weeks of the 2025 marketing campaign, Minter rewarded the Mets for his or her religion in him. His once-surprising contract shortly began to appear to be a cut price, and the probabilities of him opting out on the finish of the season had been rising daily. Via his first 12 video games, Minter was sitting on a 1.69 ERA and a 2.69 SIERA. His strikeout and whiff charges had been as spectacular as ever, and his 48% groundball fee was his highest since 2020. He was a key cog in Mendoza’s bullpen, main the workforce in eighth-inning appearances to assist set issues up for Edwin Díaz within the ninth. On Saturday, nonetheless, Minter solely made it by means of 9 pitches within the eighth, exiting in the midst of an inning for simply the second time all yr. It’s at the moment unclear how a lot time he’ll miss if he does certainly require an IL stint; presumably, the Mets will know extra after he undergoes testing.
The Mets’ bullpen has performed a crucial position of their red-hot begin to the season. The workforce is 19-8, though the offense has been surprisingly mediocre. Their beginning pitching has been phenomenal (MLB-leading 2.28 ERA), however one motive their starters have been capable of thrive is that they haven’t needed to pitch deep into outings; Mets starters rank 18th in innings per sport. That’s partly as a result of Mendoza is aware of that when he pulls a terrific starter, he has a terrific crop of relievers to select up the place the starter left off. New York’s aid corps ranks third in MLB with a 2.46 ERA and second with a 3.28 Win Likelihood Added (per FanGraphs). Shedding Minter would weaken a bunch that has been an enormous power early within the yr. It might sting notably badly in opposition to groups with powerful left-handed batters of their lineups. Earlier than he damage his triceps, Minter was certainly one of simply two wholesome left-handed relievers on the 40-man roster. The opposite, Danny Younger, lacks Minter’s upside and his monitor file of massive league success.
