3 free agents the NY Mets should sign to minor league contracts

Having decent depth is always a good thing. You never know when an injury will arise, and you need to call someone up temporarily. A good way to build up depth at the Triple-A level is to sign players to minor league contracts. That way, you can stash them in the minor leagues and call upon them if needed. Minor league contracts also have no risk and, sometimes, can pan something out. The New York Mets should pursue some players on minor league contracts, specifically these three players. They could each be decent minor league signees and add a good option to stash at Triple-A for the 2025 season.

1) Brent Honeywell

Brent Honeywell was once considered a future ace. He was a consensus top 15 prospect in 2018, ranking as high as the 11th best prospect in baseball per Baseball Prospectus with the Tampa Bay Rays. But a myriad of injuries sidelined Honeywell in 2018 and 2019. With the 2020 minor league season being canceled due to COVID, it wouldn’t be until 2021 that Honeywell would return to the mound.

Honeywell would eventually make it to the Major Leagues with the Rays. But his contract would get purchased by the Oakland Athletics in that offseason. He never pitched in the bigs for the A’s and would spend 2023 with the San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He pitched to a 4.82 ERA, 5.62 FIP, and 1.45 WHIP across 52.1 innings of work.

The former top prospect spent 2024 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and LA Dodgers, where he had his best stretch of games since he was a top prospect in 2017. He worked to a 2.63 ERA and 1.14 WHIP, with a 4.28 FIP across 37.2 innings. Honeywell was decent at limiting walks with a 7.4% BB%, along with hard contact. He held opponents to an 88.3 MPH exit velocity, and 5.1% barrel rate, resulting in a HR/9 of 0.72.

Honeywell’s results were solid, but there were a lot of red flags. Honeywell struck out a meager 12.1% of the opponents he faced. Most ERA estimators pinned him as a pitcher with an ERA that should be approaching 5.00 with a 5.00 SIERA, 4.97 xFIP, and 4.91 xERA. His 79 Stuff+ mark, which ranked bottom 20 among pitchers with at least 35 IP in 2024. Plus, Honeywell was used almost exclusively in low-leverage. His average leverage index was the 12th lowest among pitchers with at least 30 IP.

Still, Honeywell did his job, pitched well in low-leverage, and helped save the Dodgers’ bullpen a few times in blowout games during their World Series run. The Mets could sign Honeywell and stash him at Triple-A as their go-to emergency relief option if there are multiple injuries and they need someone who can provide an inning or two in a pinch.