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Before we get a look at this year's free agents, let's see who, among all the guyz the Mets have released since the end of 2018 (apart from those already noted in the 2019 thread), have found new life in a new organization.
Firstly, no word came from most of the hangover Mets free agents who seemingly wound down their careers at the close of 2018. A.J. Ramos, José Reyes, and Austin Jackson all had quiet summers, with no professional baseball action to speak of, and a quickly increasing likelihood that they've played their last games.
[fimg=120]https://securea.mlb.com/mlb/images/players/head_shot/608061.jpg[/fimg]
T.J. Rivera, though, who seemed like as good a bet as any to win an Atlantic League batting title, did indeed catch on with the Ducks of Long Island, but has thus far filed a more-or-less-pedestrian .270 / .316 / .427 // .743 for Wally Backman. (Alejandro de Aza hit .346 placing him a distant second in the batting title race behind Dante Bichette, Jr.).
But, with the new rule against waiver trades, big-league teams have to find a source if they need players after August 1. Unperturbed by reports of T.J.'s pedestrian-ness, the Washington Nationals jumped in, signing him on August 4, and assigning him to their AAA affiliate in Harrisburg, where he hit .237 / .293 / .316 // .608 over 38 games in the waning weeks of the International League circuit before finishing the season on the Injured list.
[fimg=120]https://securea.mlb.com/mlb/images/players/head_shot/571473.jpg[/fimg]
Met of 2018 Buddy Baumann played for multiple organizations back in the day. These days he was lastly seen in the Atlantic League where he secured a spot with The Lancaster Barnstomers. They gave him a chance to start, and he did pretty well, putting up a 3.48 ERA over 101 innings.
[fimg=120]https://securea.mlb.com/mlb/images/players/head_shot/491708.jpg[/fimg]
Arquimedes Caminero, a minor league free agent who made it to camp with the Mets in 2019, only got 17 innings worth of action with Syracuse, and finished the season in the Mexican League with Los Diablos Rojos de México. (Motto: “Don't fuck with the Red Devils.”). He put up a 1.33 ERA in a league that's officially classified as AAA-level but really probably comes in at somewhere between high-A and AA. Still, he must've had a moment watching the Mets bullpen burn to the ground, thinking, “And they thought [I]I[/I] was going to somehow make things worse?”
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/488787/generic/180x270/488787.jpg[/fimg]
Third-generation big-leaguer Casey Coleman hasn't thrown an MLB pitch since 2014 but he followed El Caminero de Caminero, starting the 2019 season with Syracuse, earning his release following a 1-7, 5.85 start, and then heading down to The Mexican League where he switched from starter to reliever, putting up a 2.03 ERA in 13.1 innings for Los Toros de Tijuana.
Fun Fact! The Mets purged Syracuse of all their Colemen at once, releasing Casey the same day they released fellow-former-big-league-pitcher Louis[/I] Coleman.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/545357/generic/180x270/545357.jpg[/fimg]
Matt Purke, the most hipster player the Mets have ever employed, eventually found work in 2019 with The Sugarland Skeeters, but his ERA north of five may suggest a career on life support.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/595285/t505/180x270/595285.jpg[/fimg]
Ricky Knapp pitched like crapp in 2018, but in 2019, joined The Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association. His 5.80 ERA in 18 starts suggested this might have been Knapp's last tape.
[fimg=120]https://securea.mlb.com/mlb/images/players/head_shot/622506.jpg[/fimg]
Marcos Molina. There's a guy who had a benevolent bounce in his career. After a disastrous 2018 in which he went 1-9 / 6.66 (spooky) for the Rumble Ponies plus 0-1 / 9.35 for Las Vegas (a combined 1-10 / 6.94), he was released by the Mets with extreme prejudice. But he was a confident handsome guy in sort of a [I]Last Dragon[/I] sort of way. He went down to the Dominican Winter League and played for Cibao, and while he only pitched six innings, it was enough to get scouted and signed back into affiliated ball by a Major League team. Yeah it was the Orioles, but still.
Marcos, who had been bouncing around the Mets system since 2012 was sent back to the Eastern League, going 4-6 / 4.36 with Bowie in 86 1/3 innings.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/596026/t505/180x270/596026.jpg[/fimg]
Johnny Magliozzi didn't play this year and looks done, but he did appear in this [I]Athletic[/I] profile of Pete Alonso.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/670946/generic/180x270/670946.jpg[/fimg]
Matt Pobereyko, who, try as he might, will never be as hipster as Matt Purke was signed out of the independent Frontier League by the Mets, and ended up back in indy ball this summer, compiling a 3.18 ERA over 51 innings for Sioux City in The American Association.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/657568/t505/180x270/657568.jpg[/fimg]
Joining him with Sioux Falls was his 2018 Binghamton teammate, shortstop Andrew Ely. AE went a respectable .279 / .357 / .421 // .777 for the Canaries. Ely, who will say out loud what most ballplayers will say only in private, that minor leaguers come to the park for 10 house a day but only get paid for three hours a day, is best remembered as the Mets minor leaguer who was asked to play through pain and delay the necessary surgery for his torn labrum until the off-season, only to be released the day after the season ended. Not the Mets' finest hour.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/623188/generic/180x270/623188.jpg[/fimg]
Corner outfielder Dario Piazzano, mentioned in the Dark Horse thread, joined the Mets family this offseason after six or seven years before the mast in the Mariner system. The new gig was to be short-lived however, when he was released on June 7 with a an uninspiring .226 / .331 / .322 // .653. Things turned even more troublesome for him as he put up a .200 / .275 / .289 // .563 with Somerset in the Atlantic League. He says he struggled with a sports hernia all season and he's now had surgery and intends to keep at the baseball thing.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/607741/t505/180x270/607741.jpg[/fimg]
Having more indy success in 2019 was infielder-outfielder Kevin Taylor, who was released after three years in the Mets system, but caught on with (once again) The Sioux Falls Canaries of The American Association. Kev went .305 / .379 / .416 // .794 in 95 games as an outfielder.
Fun Fact: He had a teammate named “Burt Reynolds.” Yeah, you betcha. I guess he was The Iceman.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/664720/t453/180x270/664720.jpg[/fimg]
Joining The Southern Illinois Miners of The Frontier League was former Brooklyn Cyclone and St. John's Red Storm ... er Ryan McAuliff. Tired of being a weather system, he decided to join the Miners in the minors, where he started 13 games, going 6-4 with a 3.68 ERA in 73 1/3 innings.
 [img=120]http://www.milb.com/images/641404/t507/180x270/641404.jpg>
Heading up to The Can-Am League was catcher Brandon Brosher, and — despite getting two tours of duty, with both Les Capitales de Quebec and Les Trois-Rivieres Aigles — showed nothing with the stick, going .179 / .242 / .268 // .510 in 64 plate appearances. Bless you for trying, Brandon.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/676708/generic/180x270/676708.jpg[/fimg]
Former St. Lucie outfielder Raphael Gladu, released by the Mets after a nauseating 1-for-26 start (I like to think .038 / .107 / .038 // .146 is a line I could put up), also joined Trois-Rivieres and amazingly ... found his stroke. His .302 / .368 / .508 // .876 line in 69 games made him a real star for the team, and his 64 RBI placed fifth in the circuit, maybe rescuing his career from life support.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/572958/generic/180x270/572958.jpg[/fimg]
Zack Jones found himself released from Binghamton in June, and then signed by Los Pericos de Puebla in July. The good news is that The Mexican League was a sweet balm to him, and playing south of the border, he was able to cut his ERA almost in half. The problem is that, when cutting your ERA in half means chopping it from 14.40 to 7.71, you're still not getting it done.
Zack had only 13 innings between the two teams all summer, so I'm going to guess a future on the baseball diamond is't looking like a likely outcome for the guy.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/595389/t505/180x270/595389.jpg[/fimg]
Showing a better pulse is the career of David RoseBOOM! He got sent backing by Binghamton also, but found a new life playing for New Britain in the Atlantic League. Starting or the first time as a pro, he went 4-3 with a 3.63 ERA, striking out 68 batters in 67 innings. I like to think every time he comes to stop, before he pitches, he takes a breath and says to himself, “Make the Mets [I]pay[/I].”
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/665127/t453/180x270/665127.jpg[/fimg]
Back in 2008, Dylan Tice was having a darn good year with The Kansas City T-Bones of The American Association, hitting .333 when The Mets decided to sign him and give him another shot at affiliated ball. Unfortunately, he only got int 14 games with Brooklyn before being let go again. And so he returned to The T-Bones where he picked up pretty much where he left off, going .316 / .389 / .405 // .794 in 87 games, also getting some big post-season hits as well.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/673963/generic/90x135/673963.jpg[/fimg]
Outfielder Zack Rheams, whose porn name is ”Zack Rheams,” found himself released only seven days into his season with Brooklyn. The good news is that left him plenty of time to catch on with somebody. The bad news is that somebody he caught on with was The Windy City ThunderBolts of The Frontier League, where he hit .139 / .262 / .208 // .470. Looks like this move of yours was a winner, Mets.
[fimg=120]http://www.milb.com/images/672546/t621/180x270/672546.jpg[/fimg]
While a release while you're still in the DSL usually spells curtains for your baseball career, outfielder Juan de la Rosa found that the Orioles wanted to give him that one more chance the Mets would not. Returning him to the Dominican for another go-around at 20-21-years-old, they were rewarded with a rock-solid .284 / .383 / .426 // .810 season. It's like I always tell the agents when they pitch some shlemiel to me, “If your client can walk, then we should talk.”
While those ex-Mets are still grinding it out, the following guys, listed along with the top level they reached in 2018, remain unemployed following their Mets release, and any farewells you have to offer them will probably be final:
[list][*]MLB:
[list][*]Carlos Gomez, cf; and
[*]Matt Kemp, rf[/list]
[*]AAA:
[list][*]P.J. Conlon, lh sp;
[*]Josh Prevost, rh sp;
[*]Vance Worley, rh sp;
[*]Logan Taylor, rh sp;
[*]Sean Burnett, lh rp =#FF8000](officially retired); and
[*]Jeff Glenn, c.[/list]
[*]AA:
[list][*]José Garcia, c;
[*]Oliver Pascual, if;
[*]Gene Cone, of;
[*]Alfredo Escalera, of;
[*]Ian Strom, of; and
[*]Champ Stuart, cf.[/list]
[*]A+:
[list][*]Gary Cornish, rh sp;
[*]Nicolas Debora, rh sp;
[*]Chase Ingram, rh sp;
[*]Gabriel Llanes, rh sp;
[*]Taylor Henry, rh rp;
[*]Anthony Dimino, c/1b =#FF8000](officially retired); and
[*]Wuilmer Becerra, rf.[/list]
[*]A:
[list][*]Joshua Payne, rh rp;
[*]Ronald Sanchez, rh rp;
[*]Chris Viall, rh rp;
[*]Jay Jabs, of/3b; and
[*]Dionis Paulino, of/1b.[/list]
[*]SS A+:
[list][*]Trent Johnson, rh rp;
[*]Ryan Selmer, rh rp;
[*]Kevin Hall, c/1b;
[*]Carl Stajduhar, 3b; and
[*]Dylan Snypes, ss.[/list]
[*]SS A:
[list][*]Ivan Jean, lh rp/sp;
[*]Marbin Montijo, rh rp;
[*]Andrew Ryan, rh rp/sp;
[*]Robby Kidwell, c;
[*]Kenny Hernandez, if; and
[*]Domingo Martinez, 1b/3b/c.[/list]
[*]Rookie:
[list][*]Miguel Ramirez, rh rp/sp;
[*]Julian Sierra, lh rp;
[*]Luis Lebron, c; and
[*]Nelson Mompierre, c =#FF8000](officially retired).[/list]
[*]DSL:
[list][*]Jorge Céspedes, rh sp/rp;
[*]Nelmerson Angela, lh rp;
[*]Darling Baez, rh rp;
[*]Daniel Guzman, lh rp;
[*]Victor Isturiz, rh rp;
[*]Juan Martinez, rh rp;
[*]Miguel Mata, rh rp;
[*]Haniel Ogando, rh rp;
[*]Jaison Paniagua, rh rp;
[*]Boris Sanchez, lh rp;
[*]Felix Sosa, rh rp;
[*]Ragui Rodriguez, lh rp;
[*]David Lozano, if (interesting fact: David is the second "David Lozano" to play in the Mets' system — the original one having been drafted in 1973 and only recently been inducted into the Stockton Athletic Hall of Fame);
[*]Alexis Marquéz, 1b/c;
[*]Jorge Martinez, 1b/c;
[*]Alejandro Medina, dh/3b/1b;
[*]Ruben Monegro, ss/3b;
[*]Wilmy Valdez, 1b;
[*]Ezequiel Peña, of;
[*]Julio René, of;
[*]Jeison Rodriguez, of;
[*]Eulises Sanchez, of; and
[*]Edinson Valdez, rf,[/list] [/list]
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