Mets re-sign Jesse Winker, add A.J. Minter
David Stearns and the Mets stood firm in their offer to Pete Alonso and when they could not agree on terms, the Mets took their money elsewhere, making two additions to the 26-man roster in the past two days. On Thursday they re-signed Jesse Winker to a 1/$7.5 million deal and on Friday they inked A.J. Minter to a 2/$22 million contract, with an opt-out after the first season for the longtime Braves’ reliever.
Winker had a bounce-back season in Washington last year before being acquired by the Mets in a mid-year deal. He was not particularly good in the regular season for the Mets but had a strong showing in the playoffs, posting a four-digit OPS in each of the three series. He had a .385/.579/.538 slash line in the NLCS in 19 PA. He figures to be the strong side of a DH platoon with Starling Marte. The lefty-hitting Winker has a lifetime .841 OPS against RHP in 2,212 PA.
The Mets had preliminary discussions with lefty Tanner Scott but pivoted to Minter to fill the role of primary lefty out of the pen. Minter’s deal is likely far less expensive than what Scott will eventually sign. But he’s also coming off an injury-shortened season. Minter was limited to 34.1 IP last year and did not pitch after August 11.
His season was cut short due to hip problems that required surgery. According to Mark Bowman of mlb.com, surgeon Dr. Thomas Byrd “found a labrum tear, a hip impingement and a lesion on Minter’s femur. The surgical procedure required performing a microfracture on the hip.” And yes, while you usually think of a labrum being a shoulder injury, there’s also a labrum in the hip area, the hip socket in which the head of the femur or thigh bone sits.
Back in the days of “The Angel of Death” and Ray Ramirez, you’d worry about the Mets and an injured player. And fans should still be a bit anxious of how Minter will recover from the surgery. But if he rebounds to previous levels, this will be a nice addition to the pen. It seems a bit expensive given the unknown status of his health. Fans need to hope that Stearns has done his due diligence in this regard. And, frankly, it’s a little hard to believe that he didn’t.
Still, skepticism is a perfectly fine attitude to have until we get to see Minter throw in Spring Training games.
These two moves, combined with the minor league signing of Austin Warren in the first week of January gives the Mets three additions to the 40-man roster since the beginning of the year. Earlier, acting as a bookie, my over/under line on 40-man additions was set at 6.5 before the start of the regular season.
I think Stearns values keeping his options open. We are loaded with outfield players now, most of whom are on short term contracts (aside from Soto and Nimmo). Stearns has always valued the development of younger players, and the current roster construction gives the Mets the opportunity to let their younger players prove themselves, be it this year or in the near future. It also leaves the purse strings loose for future off seasons when the Mets may want to spend big on the likes of Vladdy Jr or others.
The recent additions, in my opinion, have no bearing on the negotiations with Alonso. They were all needed pickups to support the team. Still shocked at the Mets ceiling on Alonso because if all they were going to offer was an enhanced qualifying offer for three years, then they should have stopped jerking us around. With Vientos playing only a handful of games ever at first, I’d rather sign Santander, who also does not play first base, for three years and at least as he struggles at that position, we snag a big home run bat. They need one more big bat to compete in the NL East.