Almost unhittable NY Mets minor league addition is an outlier from his competition

Will Sammon’s recent story profiling the New York Mets offseason, what went into signing Bo Bichette, and what to expect from some of the fringe major league players. Included was a list of relievers the team is “intrigued” by for the coming year.

Beyond players like Craig Kimbrel, the team has eyes on a couple of others who’ve been invited to camp. Some are on the 40-man roster, others are not.

Who’ll be impactful and won’t? The list includes Dylan Ross, Ryan Lambert, Nate Lavender, Alex Carrillo, Jonathan Pintaro, and an outlier, Daniel Duarte. Carrillo and Pintaro made a combined 4 appearances for the Mets in the majors last year while Duarte comes into camp with 36 games of MLB experience. He’s an outlier from the rest of this group of inexperienced arms. What makes him so special?

Daniel Duarte’s Mexican League dominance has him riding into Mets camp on a high

How good was Duarte in the Mexican Winter League? A 0.00 ERA in 24 innings with a 1.5 BB/9 and 8.5 K/9 rate suggests the Mets were wise to take a chance on him.

We know he’s not going to be invincible in 2026. Whether in the majors or minors, this offseason addition to the organization is bound to make a mistake. He just didn’t have all that many this winter. Just 10 hits allowed and 4 walks, Duarte’s biggest issue might be forgetting how to throw with runners on base.

Duarte has had his run-ins with base runners aplenty in the past, walking 5.6 per 9 in his limited MLB action. It does come with a 3.99 ERA overall, suggesting he was able to escape some of that damage. His 3.99 ERA vs. 6.11 FIP is terrifying. Elbow surgery in 2024 eliminated him from action in 2025 other than his Winter League tour. He’s a big wild card who doesn’t strike out batters a whole lot but has found a way to keep the ball on the ground in the majors. He has a 47.3% ground ball rate thus far.

Many of these other pitchers who’ve intrigued the Mets are known for throwing hard. Duarte can, averaging over 95 mph on his fastball. That won’t be the only thing to make him a useful part of the Mets bullpen every once in a while this coming year.

A remaining minor league option should have Duarte as an early candidate to make the Mets roster. Opening Day might be a reach, but he should be an early pitcher to take over a bullpen in need of rest, expect him to be someone the Mets add over some of the younger kids.