Offseason NY Mets roster cut who immediately re-signed deserves another chance

The New York Mets have been playing good baseball, but in a long season like the MLB season, injuries and poor performances are common. Hence, the importance of having depth options on the roster that allow the team to combat these situations throughout the season.

The Mets have managed interesting depth options that have ended up paying dividends for the team, such as Max Kranic. Like this young pitcher, there is another option in the minors that the team discarded last offseason and re-signed to a minor league contract. He has been putting up eye-catching numbers that could lead to him being considered another bullpen piece for the Mets soon.

Grant Hartwig's journey back

Grant Hartwig saw action in MLB last year with the Mets after posting good strikeout rates in AAA, striking out one batter per inning. Hartwig was a mid-level prospect in the Mets organization who made it into the Mets' top 30 prospects thanks primarily to his stuff, especially his slider, with a 60-grade slider on the 20-80 scale capable of generating a high swing-and-miss due to his excellent vertical and horizontal break with velocity in the low-80s.

However, Hatwig's MLB experience in 2024 wasn't ideal. Despite having a high GB%, Hartwig was hampered by hitters, especially with his fastball, which allowed a slugging percentage above .500. He also didn't generate the expected swing-and-miss, achieving a low strikeout rate. The Mets decided to non-tender Hartwig and later re-signed him to a minor league contract, hoping that some aspects of his profile could be useful to the team moving forward.

After this, in 2025, Hartwig is showing a very different level in AAA. Hartwig's command is at one of his career-highs, with a 4.5 K/BB ratio, a strikeout rate per nine innings above 14%, and a walk rate below 3.5%.

However, he continues to struggle with his contact allowed, revealed behind a high WHIP above 1.500 due to allowing more than one hit per nine innings. This has been one of Hartwig's issues throughout his career, but the stuff is there to be efficient in MLB with control and command.

The problem with his high-contact allowed is due to a pitch distribution problem, focusing on using the sinker as his primary pitch, leaving his sweeper and cutter underutilized, which generates a low level of contact and low hard-hit contact allowed.

After being released from the team and re-signed, Hartwig can be more than just a depth piece in the Mets' well-worked bullpen and offer the team that bridge throughout the season to lighten the load on the MLB bullpen.