Reese Kaplan -- Waivers, DFA and Late Season Starting Pitchers

Today is time for a lesson in the arcane baseball rules and how they correspond to the Mets' team decision about their roster made earlier this week.  

Definition:  Irrevocable Waivers:

A club can place a currently rostered player on a status of irrevocable waivers for a brief period of time (typically three days) during which a claiming team must pay the remaining salary due to that individual.  Should a player pass through a reverse order in the standings claim from any of the other 29 teams eligible to make a claim, the team for which he plays can simply allow him to revert to the club with his status as a player unchanged, or they could DFA him for the purposes of giving him a release while still paying his contractual salary while any claiming team only pays the prorated major league minimum.

Why the dictionary definition exercise?  Well, on Tuesday this week the Mets chose to classify one Carlos Carrasco after his most recent embarrassing start as someone on this irrevocable waivers list.  His story is a remarkable one, having survived major personal health issues and returning to the Mets for a commendable 2022 season during which he notched a 3.97 ERA while starting about 2/3s of the games for a full season.  That kind of quality was what they had hoped to get in his final contract year after picking up his option, but it was not to be.  His ERA at 6.80 is the league's worst and there's nothing to suggest the club would think to retain him at a rather high price for a return in the 2024 season, instead allowing him to leave as a free agent.  To put him on waivers, think of it as a lower level equivalent of paying down the Justin Verlander, David Robertson and Max Scherzer salaries to indicate that they are not part of the future plans for the Mets ballclub.

No one is dissatisfied with Carrasco as an individual but unfortunately he is not there to be a nice guy or a good teammate.  He's paid to win ballgames or at least keeping his team eligible to win games by minimizing the number of runs scored by the opposition.  He's not doing that now and hasn't been doing it throughout this forgettable 2023 season, so having him depart via waivers or DFA would enable the Mets to take an extended look at another pitcher for the remainder of the season to help log performance data while planning for the 2024 roster.

Who should replace Carrasco?  Well, the obvious choices are the folks already on the 40-man roster with starting pitcher credentials.  Denyi Reyes is already back and slated to pitch on Wednesday earlier this week to help ease the innings load on regularly scheduled (and highly valuable) starter Kodai Senga.  Reyes has not distinguished himself but at age 26 the possibility though slim does exist that he could still find the answer and become a credible major leaguer.

Behind him you have the soft tossing Jose Butto who has shown competence in the minor leagues but not so much at the next level.  He's young enough that you want to get a better read on his abilities and more importantly he's already on the 40-man roster so moving him back and forth between Syracuse and Queens is easy to do.

The missing piece in the prospective replacement scenario is Joey Lucchesi who is no longer a kid but has pitched competently for the Mets and is a middle of the road starter prior during his time with the Padres.  He's worth a longer look as he's established he can pitch in the major leagues whereas neither Reyes nor Butto have done so.

Some folks will be clamoring for a promotion by the suddenly lethal arm of Mike Vasil, but to bring him to Citifield means bouncing someone from the 40-man roster and potentially losing a year of financial control for 5 weeks of pitching in a lost cause season.  Obvously people would like to see if he adapts to the next level but from a financial perspective in a losing season it doesn't make a lot of sense to rush his promotion. 

The last option would be to bring in someone from the outside who could indeed be helpful.  Just as Carrasco hit waivers this week, so too did Lucas Giolioto.  Now picking him up during a mediocre season at full salary would not be a shrewd move for a non-contender but waiting for a possible DFA might make sense to grab hold of him for another half dozen starts to see what he's got in his arm. 

There will be others finding themselves voluntarily unemployed before September 1st so some other names might surface of interest to the club.  Still, no matter who they use in Carrasco's place if he is indeed unclaimed and then DFA'd, the time is a bit overdue for this roster change to take place.  No one wishes Carrasco anything but continued baseball employment but he has nothing left to contribute to the Mets' future.