The Mets acted Miguel Castro to the Yankees for Joely Rodriguez, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. As noted by MLBTR’s Steve Adams, Rodriguez was signed as a free agent this offseason and therefore cannot be traded until June 15 without his approval. He and his agent gave that consent in exchange for a $500,000 assignment bonus to be paid by the Mets as part of this deal. (Twitter connections) Rodriguez will be represented by LA Sports Management’s Daniel Szew.
They’ve had an extremely busy offseason for the Mets and have upgraded their lineup with the likes StarMarte, Markus Canha and Eduardo Escobar. You also added Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to their rotation and Adam Ottavino to her bullpen. The one area of the squad they hadn’t really addressed was left-handed relief. with Aaron Loup Upon joining the Angels, the only southpaws on the list were starting rotation candidates. The club gave veterans like minor league deals Chasen Shreve and Alex Claudiabut they clearly see Rodriguez as a worthwhile upgrade based on the fact they were willing to give up Castro to get him.
After a few seasons with the Phillies in 2016 and 2017, Rodriguez went overseas for a stint with the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball. After two solid seasons in Japan, Rodriguez was able to return to North America from Rangers on a two-year deal. In the abridged 2020 season, he posted a 2.13 ERA over 12 2/3 innings. Things seemed to go in the wrong direction last year when his ERA shot up to 5.93 in July. However, the Yankees seemed to think this was just a small tryout error when they won it as part of the Joey Gallo Act. He fared much better after the trade, with a 2.84 ERA in 19 pinstriped innings. At the end of the season, the club declined his $3 million option in favor of a $500,000 buyout, but then quickly recommitted him to a $2 million salary, saving $500,000. With this swap and the referral bonus, Rodriguez made up that difference.
The Yanks obviously felt they had enough lefties to part ways given Rodriguez’s presence Wandy Peralta and Lucas Lütgealong with closer Aroldis Chapman. receive them in turn Miguel Castro, a right-handed helper. Although he’s only 27 years old, he’s appeared in seven MLB seasons so far in his career, spending time with the Blue Jays, Rockies, Orioles and Mets. Those first few seasons were a bit shaky, which isn’t surprising given that Castro was only 20 and 21 at the time. Over the past five seasons, however, he has established himself as a top-flight big-league reliever. Since the start of the 2017 season, he has pitched 321 innings with a 3.93 ERA. His strikeout rate was just 14.6% between 2017 and 2018 but has increased to 25.2% in the last three campaigns. Walks have been a problem as its annual rate has been between 10% and 15% for each of the last five seasons. He and the Mets agreed a salary of $2.62 million for this season, his last year of arbitration before going free at the end of this year. He’ll board a bullpen run by Chapman, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green and Clay Holmes.