On Opening Day during the first inning knockout of Pirates Cy Young winning ace Paul Skenes the Mets made a small transaction that didn’t get a lot of headlines. Signed to a minor league deal the Mets reunited with 38 year old outfielder Tommy Pham who heretofore was going into the 2026 season unemployed. Pham is a competent outfielder and a right handed bat, something the Mets could certainly use as their other outfield options include Brett Baty and Jared Young who both hit lefty. Even now surgically repaired Mike Tauchman hit from the left side as well. Bringing in another right handed bat made some sense particularly when the next guy on the pecking order for the outfield who is healthy, MJ Melendez, also is a lefty.
The big question, of course, is what is the plan for Pham. Do they jettison Jared Young once Pham gets enough playing time to demonstrate he’s in game shape and ready to ascend to the big club? Young is a career .200 hitter so it’s not exactly as if the Mets would be parting ways with a Tony Gwynn bat.
Of course, it would be a graceful solution to the right handed hitting need if Mark Vientos could be positioned in the outfield against a tough southpaw pitcher. Unfortunately he has neither the speed nor the glove skills to suggest he has the ability to transition to this role despite the club’s odd repositioning of other players like Jorge Polanco, Brett Baty and Bo Bichette. Vientos certainly has power and if you believe the Carlos Mendoza fluff that he’s hitting in the top 30 percentile of off-the-bat speed when he makes contact that unfortunately almost never landed for base hits.
Moving from Spring Training into March regular season games, April and into May the Mets are going to have some other personnel decisions to make. The aforementioned Vientos is at best a right handed DH against strong lefty starters but his on-the-field usefulness has been usurped by Bichette and Polanco. Fully expect that the Mets will be open to trades that could push him into regular playing time elsewhere while fulfilling his roster spot with someone capable of more than 1-2 days per week as a DH.
Also coming back soon is lefty reliever AJ Minter. He’s still working his way back into game shape after missing most of 2025 due to injury but his track record suggests he would be a fantastic addition to the currently suspect bullpen. Right now Huascar Brazoban, Dicky Lovelady and Luis Garcia are at the tail end of the bullpen depth chart. Lovelady is likely the most vulnerable as Minter would supplant him as the second lefty in the pen joining Brooks Raley.
Of course Luis Garcia’s initial Mets appearance was nothing to write home about, but they’re likely relying on his long albeit mediocre career numbers to keep him on the roster. Having debuted with the Phillies back in 2013, he’s also had stints with the Angels, Padres, Dodgers, Cardinals, Rangers, Red Sox and Nationals before curiously landing with the Mets during this offseason. His career numbers are a below .500 record, an ERA over 4.00 and a terrible WHIP of 1.421. His tenure with the club is less likely influenced by the return of Minter but more pressured by a positive AAA performance record by career All Star Craig Kimbrel.
6 comments:
Pham is interesting. Old, didn’t hit in spring training, but walked a lot, so his OBP was good. And he has fire in him. Minter? As soon as winter ends in the International League he will be pitching. After his last serious injury a year ago, I’d not want a cold weather repeat.
Pure depth piece. The bench will evolve throughout the year. Let’s see how the next couple series play out & how much time Vientos gets to play.
Young is a temporary piece for sure.
Looking at the bench, Vientos, Torrens Taylor are all righties. Young is the only lefty. Pham is a righty. Melendez is a lefty. Melendez for Young with his catching ability would be my move. Pham for whatever righty gets hurt.
Pham is not a good choice - I am shocked that the Mets picked him up. Not only are his skills diminished, but he is a negative in the clubhouse. It is not a mystery that he changes teams almost every year. Hope he never gets called up.
When you talk about the bottom end of the bullpen depth, I agree that they are all probably expendable. Not only is AJ Minter getting closer, but Christian Scott is completing his tune-up in Florida and i am sure that the Mets will use him as a reliever initially before he works up his starter stamina. With those two pieces the Mets are much stronger than the opening day pen showed.
At least the organization is committed to the work ethic Pham complained about last time around. Seriously. The team has to look at the 26th player as additive in some dimension that they are committed to improving. Young was a very odd choice from that point of view. They have several players on the team without his who can play 1B or 3B or the corner outfield positions, and do so better than he does. What they don't have is speed/pinch runner or a SS replacement that doesn't make the team worse defensively at the position and perhaps at more than one position. That's why, unless there is something about him I don't know, Brujan made more sense. Then if you look at versatility, Melendez is an option. If you look at overall defense, Pache, who had a good ST with the bat, would have been an option. Neither Young nor Pham makes sense at this point.
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