5 Mets players who don’t deserve to be on the 40-man roster

4) The NY Mets believe in John Curtiss too much

The Mets took a bit of a gamble on John Curtiss last winter when they signed him for the purpose of rehabbing and helping out the 2023 staff. Tommy John Surgery claimed him in late 2021 yet the Mets saw enough to pay him a year to rehab and return for the 2023 campaign.

Curtiss has only 86.2 big league innings under his belt heading into his age 30 season. He was sharp in 2020 with the Tampa Bay Rays and again with the Miami Marlins in 2021. The lone complaint about Curtiss is that he is on the 40-man roster when the spot could have possibly gone to someone else. It wasn’t a factor while he was on the 60-day IL. Now that he’s not, Curtiss may be taking away an opportunity from another internal or external candidate better-equipped to give the Mets some quality relief innings.

Because of the long wait from the time he was signed, we should fully expect the Mets to commit to keeping Curtiss through at least the start of the season. He’d have to have a miserable spring for them to cut him before Opening Day. You don’t sign an injured player and pay him only to say farewell so quickly.

It was worth adding Curtiss, however, he definitely doesn’t deserve a 40-man roster spot right now. Nonetheless, we’ll all be rooting for Curtiss to prove Eppler was playing a game of chess when he signed him.