An under-the-radar Mets free agent signing that deserves more praise

Easily the best minor league free agent signing by the New York Mets this past offseason was the addition of Jose Iglesias. An impact player both on the field and behind the scenes, the culture around the ball club has been entirely different since he was recalled to take over off the bench and now routinely as a starter on the infield.

He’s hardly the lone successful minor league addition by the Mets from the offseason. One example is Danny Young.

A lefty who came to the Mets this offseason with less than 15 innings of MLB experience, he has turned into a pretty good arm to have. The remaining minor league options have been put to good use as the team continues to decide whether he is a guy they can put their full faith in as the trade deadline nears.

The free agent signing of Danny Young has been an underrated one for the Mets

Young’s season now includes a 2-0 record and 4.20 ERA in 15 innings of work. This accounts for just over half of the 29.2 he has tossed at the MLB level. He has had some difficulty with control, walking batters at a rate of 4.2 per 9 but making up for it with a pretty awesome 11.4 strikeouts per 9.

A three-pitch arsenal that includes mostly sweepers and sinkers with a literal handful of cutters thrown this season (4 of them so far), Young has piled up strikeouts by fooling batters rather than blowing them away. Hitters are batting just .138 against his sweeper with a 49.2% whiff percentage.

Young’s year has been close to immaculate if not for a stretch at the end of June. He pitched on consecutive days against the New York Yankees and allowed 2 earned runs in each performance while retiring just one batter. His next time out, against the Houston Astros, he had another 2 earned runs against him in 1.1 frames. Outside of those three games, he has only one other featuring an earned run.

The Mets have yet to move Young up the depth chart and into a spot in the bullpen where he’s pitching with the game on the line. Often appearing in earlier innings or in games where one team is pulling away, Young has shown the potential to be much more than what the Mets have made him. But even if he doesn’t, this looks like a savvy pickup for the Mets.

Interestingly, his splits go in the opposite direction of what you might wager. Righties are batting .212/.316/.485 against him and lefties are at .292/.370/.333. Lefties can hit him, just not ridiculously hard with a lone double against him going for extra base hits. As long as he can limit those hits to one per outing, which he regularly has, Young seems capable.

The Young signing becomes more important for the Mets as they look for some alternatives for Diekman who has handled left-handed hitters but has a tendency to miss his pitches. Young isn’t the solution as a lefty out of the bullpen. For what he is, we can’t be too unhappy with the results.