Signed for two years and $22 million with the second half of the contract being a player option, A.J. Minter had a brief stint with the New York Mets that’ll end up being an eyelash on the team’s history. Just 11 innings in 2025 before season-ending surgery and another 23 after a delayed start to the 2026 campaign, Minter had a strange New York tenure.
Was he good? We can’t fuss over a 2.12 ERA even if there were signs of regression. His strikeouts were down nearly 2 per 9. The home runs were up 0.4 per 9.
With Minter, the biggest problem was the Mets signed a guy coming off of an injury with the Atlanta Braves in 2024 and apparently he wasn’t close to being finished with IL stints. Able to at least turn him into a trade chip in 2026, the Mets can at least find some solace in knowing he doesn’t leave them high and dry as long as Billy Amick or Bruin Agbayani do something in the majors or become trade chips of their own.
A final grade for the Mets free agent signing of A.J. Minter: B
An incomplete is the best grade for this free agent signing because of how little we ever seemed to get from him. Gone before April was complete in 2025 then only around from around Memorial Day through the trade deadline, it’s easy to have no opinion at all on what Minter meant to the Mets.
Pitching alongside Brooks Raley, Minter never distinguished himself as the better of the two lefties in the bullpen or did he slot in to save them games in either season. He was more of a middle or low-leverage arm in part because of the team’s own struggles. Only 3.1 of his innings in 2026 qualified as late/close. Batters hit .421 against him in those situations.
Surface level successful, the Mets kept him somewhat hidden on the depth chart. Having Raley, pitching less dangerously at times, made it sometimes a choice between who was actually available. A good signing that yielded results, yet just not enough time served, Minter goes down as a good addition who didn’t have the elite numbers of Aaron Loup or the staying power Raley did. Who’ll remember him as a mercenary, if we remember him at all.
