Former NY Mets player is the worst free agent at his position according to one stat

Who is the best available free agent at each position remaining? Eh, save that discussion for ESPN where they dive about as deep into baseball as the toilet water goes. Diehard baseball fans know it’s not all about Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, and other stars. We want to know how more minor New York Mets players factor into the equation.

On the other side of the spectrum of the best free agents are the worst ones. There isn’t much consideration there because when looking for hypothetical moves your team could make, you don’t usually scroll down far enough on the list of available players when categorized statistically.

From the list of available free agent relievers this offseason ranked by WAR over the last two seasons, Mets fans will find at the very bottom a familiar name. Worth -1.2 WAR combined over the 2023 and 2024 seasons (based on FanGraphs data), Dominic Leone is statistically the worst at his position among free agent relievers.

Former Mets pitcher Dominic Leone has the worst WAR of any free agent reliever over the last two seasons

Oddly, Leone was at his best as a member of the Mets in 2023 which goes to show how much he struggled elsewhere. Worth only 0.2 WAR with a 4.40 ERA, it bests even the 4.35 ERA performance he had in a limited 10.1 frames for the Seattle Mariners to end the year. A horrifying 7 walks per 9 whilst there suggests he was lucky to get out of the Northwest with an ERA as low as he did. 

Mets fans will find some other names near the bottom of the listed available free agent relievers. Right above Leone at -0.8 is the runner-up, Erasmo Ramirez. He was a great member of the forgotten 2020 Mets season, pitching to a 0.63 ERA in limited action. Above him is Jorge Lopez at -0.7 over the last two years. He had a much different experience in Flushing. He is most remembered for tossing his glove into the crowd and then declaring how he felt like “the worst player” which wasn’t quite true because of what Leone was doing last year.

In 19 innings for the White Sox last year, Leone was 0-2 with a 6.63 ERA. He, like many who represented the travesty that was the 2024 White Sox, perfectly represented their record-setting season of despair. 

Leone’s time with the Mets was cut short when they somehow managed to trade him to the Los Angeles Angels for power-hitting minor leaguer Jeremiah Jackson. Jackson was released this offseason by the Mets after a poor showing in Double-A. It was a worthy attempt at turning a below average bullpen arm into a future bat off the bench.