4 Mets players most likely to be off the roster by September 1

September roster expansions will allow the New York Mets to keep two extra players with them for the final month of the season. However, before we get there, the return of Sean Reid-Foley as well as Starling Marte will force some bodies out.

Who’ll be the next casualty? The Mets don’t have a whole lot of room. It’s these four who should, at least temporarily, shake in their boots a little bit about the potential of losing their spot on the Mets and maybe for good.

1) Ben Gamel

Let’s get the easy one out of the way. Ben Gamel will get DFA’d when Marte returns from the IL. He earned his chance to play in the majors this season, but the Mets don’t really have much of a need for him. Quietly putting together an acceptable .235/.409/.294 slash line in 22 plate appearances, his lack of minor league options will have the Mets parting ways.

Gamel hasn’t had any of those big moments off the bench or in a start like many part-timers seem to do. Only one complete game for the Mets since his promotion tells us what they think about him.

The Mets have an abundance of other choices sitting in Triple-A to potentially call up in September. More versatile players capable of manning the outfield as well as infield could be mixed and matched based on the opponent. Gamel could always survive the waiver wire and stay with the organization off the 40-man roster. The guarantee is that if the rest of the outfielders are healthy when Marte gets the greenlight, he’ll be the one packing his bags.

2) Adam Ottavino

This year hasn’t been a great one for Adam Ottavino. A 4.43 ERA in 42.2 innings, he has continued the trend of seeing his ERA jump up a full 1.20 runs per 9. From 2.06 in 2022 to 3.21 last season, we’ve seen a version of Ottavino that could’ve probably stayed on SNY talking baseball rather than playing it.

The tricky thing with Ottavino is that other than his horrific May, every other month for him has been decent if not magnificent. He began with a 1.69 ERA heading into May when his ERA exploded at 9.28. ERAs of 3.18, 3.86, and now 3.00 so far in August helped lower it to where it stands now. Because of how bad he was in May—tagged for a pair of losses, too—Ottavino has been in the fans’ doghouse for quite a while.

Ottavino isn’t getting as many high-leverage situations either. It’s understandable. Batters are hitting .280/.379/.440 against him this year in those spots. A 5.87 ERA in the 8th inning and even worse 6.75 in the 9th, Ottavino has been relegated to earlier frames where he has done well.

It could be a numbers game that bumps Ottavino out. The team doesn’t have a lot of optional relievers and with him not even getting into the most important innings regularly any longer, he seems much more replaceable.

3) Reed Garrett

Welcome back, now here’s a ticket to Syracuse. Don’t underestimate the eject button getting hit on Reed Garrett. He began the year in the minors. Striking out all 3 batters he faced in his return on Saturday bodes well for staying put on the roster. Let’s not strap him in too quickly.

We saw two sides of Garrett regularly this year. While he does get to sleep inside at night, several blowups on the mound do have fans a little more timid to put a lot of trust in him. After missing a full month of action, Garrett is now on a Mets team that has restocked itself with Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek to take over innings Garrett would’ve otherwise gotten.

A demotion for him could come out of a temporary necessity or the far worse scenario, he isn’t playing well.

Fans previously took note of what has allowed Garrett to perform at a high-level. It’s rest. A 4.76 ERA when pitching back-to-back and an even worse 9.00 ERA with one day of rest, it’s everything beyond that has turned up the dial for Garrett. He has ERAs in the 1.50s with 2-4 days of rest with an identical .200 batting average against him in those games, too. 

So far, so good for Garrett upon his return. How else will the Mets clear a spot for Reid-Foley?