The Mets signed right-hander Julian Merryweather to a minor league deal this evening, as relayed by MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo.
Merryweather, 33, was a fifth-round pick by Cleveland back in 2014. Traded to Toronto as part of the Josh Donaldson deal, he made his big league debut with the Blue Jays during the shortened 2020 season. The right-hander showed some promise with a 4.15 ERA and 2.27 FIP across 13 innings in that rookie season, but he never quite lived up to it in future seasons after he was derailed by elbow and oblique issues among other injuries over the years. He put together a 5.64 ERA and 4.36 FIP in 47 appearances with the Blue Jays overall before being designated for assignment in January of 2023.
The right-hander was promptly plucked off waivers by the Cubs, and enjoyed the best season of his career that year. In 72 innings of work as a high leverage arm for Chicago, Merryweather posted a 3.38 ERA with a 3.52 FIP and struck out a fantastic 32.3% of his opponents. Those huge strikeout numbers were enough to overcome a career-high 11.9% walk rate, and Merryweather entered the 2024 season firmly in the Cubs’ late inning mix alongside closer Adbert Alzolay and offseason addition Hector Neris. Unfortunately, Merryweather was part of a bullpen implosion early in the season that proved fatal to Chicago’s chances last season. He spent most of the season sidelined by a knee injury that ultimately required surgery, and even when he was healthy enough to pitch he struggled to a 6.60 ERA with a strikeout rate that had plummeted to just 18.9%.
It was easy enough to blame Merryweather’s struggles in 2024 on his injuries, which may have thrown him off mechanically and contributed to his fastball velocity losing two ticks relative to the prior season. To whatever extent that may have been the case, however, a healthy offseason clearly wasn’t all it took to fix Merryweather’s issues. His velocity remained down this year, and 2025 proved to be more of the same as he pitched to a subpar 5.79 ERA while striking out a career-low 17.0% of his opponents and walking a career-high 12.5%. The right-hander’s 21 outings for Chicago this year were clearly too much for the club to stomach, as he was designated for assignment as the team turned to more reliable late-inning options like Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, and Daniel Palencia who had emerged in recent weeks.
Merryweather eventually went unclaimed on waivers, and the Cubs had the option to outright him to the minors as a non-roster depth option for the remainder of the year as he was a few days shy of the ability to reject the assignment while retaining his full salary. Chicago chose to grant the righty his release, however, and he returned to free agency late last month. Now, he’s on to New York to join a Mets club that is tied with Chicago for the best record in the National League. The Mets will try to recapture what made Merryweather so effective with the Cubs in 2023 while he gets to work at Triple-A Syracuse as a potential depth piece alongside arms like Justin Garza and Colin Poche.
Send him to the lab ASAP
He will be our hidden going down the stretch
It’s automatic. Any time the Mets add a fringy reliever, you can count on at least a 10K/9 rate in one of his recent MLB or AAA seasons.
There is something wrong with him. When he got here he threw a nasty slider. Now he won’t throw it at all. There’s something wrong with him to the point he doesn’t want to throw it anymore. No lab can fix that until it goes all together.
Good luck Jerry. Wish you all the best.
LFGMets fire Stearns comment any minute now…
@Blue Baron, it must be a sad life you live busting someone’s balls that hasn’t even commented on a post as of yet, however it is totally “on brand” for you. Thanks for not disappointing the MLBTR community.
@ZS59 Hes just tired of me being right all the time, I’m used to it. I watch all the games and make unpopular decisions by comparison to the homer Met fans on here that think every move the team makes is “spectacular”. You can’t improve a team if you don’t identify their weaknesses
lFG just makes 1000 negative comments a season and almost all of them are wrong but if he shouts “I’m always right” loud enough then he feels he’s always right.
Even here, “you can’t improve a team if you don’t identify their weakness”
That’s banal nonsense. What’s the weakness? The bullpen? What a dope
I’ve seen him pitch, he is awful. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen him have a clean outing without giving up a walk or hit. Should be in single A, not the majors
I’ve seen you post, you are awful.
This is LFGMets on Clay Holmes:
“Well Dollar Tree Davy, you really did it. You blew right past my expectations. Good job. This is probably the worst move that I have ever seen from this franchise in my entire life. Your job was to build a sustainable World Series contender. So far, he has overpaid for a 5th and 7th starter/garbage time reliever. Sleepy Stearns thinks he is smarter than everyone, and that right there lies the problem. When the Mets finish at 79-83, it will be a surprise to everyone but me. Delusional fans ruin this base. This move is a slap in the face of any serious Mets fan”
Lol what a dope
@PiazzaParty Holmes has been good, much better then I could have ever expected. However, he always slows down after the all star break. I don’t see him sustaining the numbers that he currently has. I admit that I was wrong about the signing for now, but we will see what the future has in store. I had other starting pitching candidates that I prefered that they signed/traded for over Holmes, such as Kris Bubic, Shane Bieber, and Jose Castillo. Stearns’s Montas signing has been a failure so far, just as I predicted
Well you were certainly incorrect there but credit where it’s due I think you DID actually call Manaea a good signing, IIRC you were up on that, no?
@PiazzaParty yes I was right about Manaea. I actually thought the Severino signing was mediorce but that turned out better then I expected as well
@lfg, stating “I’ve seen him pitch and he’s awful” has no context. He was one of the better bullpen options for the Cubs in 2023. And was not good to start 2024 which may have been the result of some injury issues. The Cubs have better options in 2025 and released him. Your “he’s awful and should be in Single A” hyperbole is why you Blue Baron called you out, way to go and prove him right.
He has been doing this for years. you should hear some of his wild thoughts and never admits when he is flat out pointed out wrong and usually changes his name to hide it. Interesting fact, a pitcher that he “watched” for years and thought should be the top reliever and said he should have a deal because power pitching lefties last will always be in demand.
This “lefty reliever” is Shintaro Fujinami who has for large parts last season and this season was sporting double digit era and pretty close to 1 to 1 strike out per walk.
So take any “scouting report” from him with a grain of salt. Personally i think he is mad at the mets because he probably went to a game and Drew Smith probably denied him a baseball or something. Ask him his take on Drew sometime too.
The Mets will have him through 2026 if Merryweather turns back into his old self.
The writeup sounds optimistic regarding the role he’s likely to fill in 2025, though. The 2024 Mets used 37 pitchers (including a couple of position players), and 13 pitchers gave them 8-1/3 innings or fewer.
Merryweather in 2025 just has to be better than about #35 on the list to get a few innings with the MLB club—and that’s probably about all he gets, if he gets even that much time.
I’d love to see a study on relievers’ games and innings related to postseason performance. It’s my belief that going too far beyond 60 innings is possibly a cause for concern and beyond 70 is definitely a problem. That said, there are some multi inning guys for which those numbers don’t always apply. Also, the number of games pitched can be an indication of potential performance in the postseason.
My point is that having a number of innings eaters for games that you lose is a wise move. Excellent teams lose 60 or so games. If they don’t burn their good relievers in those games, they are being smart about bullpen management.
I never criticize players that teams pick up pitchers off the scrap heap. It’s how they’re used that matters.
its a little hard to do a real good study on it as they just implemented the 3 hitter rule not too long ago. So you may have former LOOGY walk a batter inbetween 2 lefty batters and also with opener/bullpen games being used a little more so it may skew the numbers some.
I like having the 6 man rotation to keep starters healthy and less wear and tear but it might be better to have piggy back games like the mets today with starter going 5 and the “reliever” going 4. It would save the entire bullpen a day.
I’m not addressing the trolls but I respect every opinion so feel free to chime in with a respectful rational case. Where are the holes that need to be filled?
I do feel the Mets continue to exceed expectations on the pitching side so love any move that adds depth. LH Reliever is a need. Would love a true ace but the roster is about to get crunched by Montas & Manea so hopefully they come back strong.
On the field, CF appears to be the biggest need but we’ve gotten by with what we have. 2B? DH? Bench?
In the minors they’ve taken it slow with the bats in Brooklyn & Binghamton and have pitchers close to knocking on the door. Sproat has not performed as well as hoped, McLean’s numbers are better. We’re in a position where we have enough depth to improve tge roster at the deadline without giving away the farm. The question is where?
The present & future is bright for the Mets.
Stearns knows to continue to add bullpen depth.
I believe Alzolay is also in the Mets’ organization on a two-year minors deal since he’s out injured this season. If he can regain his ability close to what it was, he’d be a steal.
Anybody know what’s up with Dedniel Núñez?
His 2025 slider vs his 2024 slider is the reason. Even if its not hanging then it’s flat af, his induced horizontal movement actually says on average that it ends up 0.4″ to the gloveside lol
If your slider doesn’t slide you’re gonna have a bad time and he’s definitely going through it rn
Thanks. Sounds like his slider’s ded.