Penn Murfee waiver addition is a nice start to the David Stearns era before the offseason has fully started

Penn Murfee might not move the needle for hungry New York Mets fans hoping for more success in 2024. Nevertheless, the Halloween addition of the uniquely named, funky thrower should be welcomed with nothing but positivity.

UCL surgery this past season will cost Murfee at least the first half of next season. The Mets, who haven't been strangers to adding known injured players in the past, keep with the tradition of gambling on a member of the walking wounded. Will this one actually pay off?

Maybe it’s the delivery, the strange way of spelling “Murfee”, or the shared name with one of the world’s most famous magicians that makes this feel like a good way to start the David Stearns era before the offseason has truly begun.

The Mets should remain all over making moves like this with this spot on the waiver wire

MLB's waiver wire can be a nice place for the Mets to continue making lesser yet good moves such as this. The Mets finished with the seventh worst record this past year. It stings them in the MLB Draft because they exceeded the luxury tax threshold which is likely to knock them down ten spots unless they are lucky in the draft lottery.

The same penalty of actually paying players won't prevent them from getting early dibs on players like Murfee whose teams don't view them as enough of an asset to keep around. The Cleveland Guardians an amuck in August by claiming every one of the players they wanted from teams like the Los Angeles Angels who put their players up on their local town’s “buy nothing” group.

Of all the places for the Mets to take risks, injured relief pitchers will always make the most sense. They’re so unpredictable. This becomes especially true when the performance was a good one.

Murfee joins the Mets organization with a 2.70 ERA in 83.1 big league innings. He has all of his minor league options remaining. How could the Mets resist/

The Mets made a similar move prior to 2022 when they signed Johnny Curtiss knowing he wouldn't come back healthy until 2023. Curtiss was nothing spectacular for the Mets this past year. The risk was minor. We're not talking about it as a genius move because of the lack of reward. Curtiss was a peppermint candy in a Halloween bag. Can Murfee be something with peanut butter inside?

Fans should expect a ton of turnover with the relief pitchers. Murfee, who'll get buried on the 60-day IL, won't be a roster burden for the Mets. In a strange way, it almost makes this move feel a little better. It's preemptive depth for midseason. Now we just hope recovery goes well.