SAN DIEGO — The Mets promised to remain active in the starting pitching market and they made good on their promise Wednesday morning, agreeing with veteran left-hander Jose Quintana on a two-year, $26 million contract, pending a physical.
They also added left-hander reliever Brooks Raley in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, bringing in a more established reliever to go with a group of young, optionable bullpen arms. Keyshawn Askew, a left-hander drafted by the Mets in the 10th round of the 2021 draft, went to Tampa Bay in the deal.
These moves came two days after the Mets came to terms with veteran ace Justin Verlander. The club may not be done and could also end up signing Japanese pitcher Kodai Senga. General manager Billy Eppler talked earlier in the week about the need for starting pitching depth over a full season and the Mets now have seven starters to use throughout the season, though it’s possible three of the back-end starters end up in the bullpen.
Quintana is a 33-year-old veteran who spent last season with the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. He went 6-7 with a 2.93 ERA and a 2.99 FIP. Over 11 seasons the Colombian is 89-87 with a 3.75 ERA and a 3.62 FIP.
Quintana spent much of his career in Chicago with the White Sox and the Cubs and was named an All-Star in 2016 with the White Sox. He’s also pitched for the Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants.
He joins Verlander, Max Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco and a back-end group of Tylor Megill, David Peterson and Joey Lucchesi. However, only Megill, Peterson and Lucchesi are under contract past the 2024 season.
The Mets are not yet satisfied with this rotation, but working out a contract with Senga remains complicated because of the potential length of the deal. A three-year contract might be the desired length for a pitcher who has not yet shown he can handle an MLB workload, but it’s believed that Senga and his agent, Joel Wolfe, are seeking a five-year deal.
Raley is coming off of a career year with the Rays and has excellent numbers against left-handers. Last season, Raley went 1-2 with six saves and a 2.68 ERA. He walked 15 batters and struck out 61 in 60 appearances. The 34-year-old Texas A&M product held left-handed hitters to a .155 average last season and a .482 OPS. Lefties have hit .171 against him for his career.
Raley checks all of the the boxes for the Mets in terms of what they desired in a relief pitcher.
“People that have experience and leverage, we’re going to try and gravitate towards that if we can,” Eppler said Tuesday. “But at the end of the day, we want to see the tools there too, so that’s going to be a better proxy because that’s going to be a better proxy for that pitcher’s ability to get out a good hitter.”
The club did not have a true left-handed specialist in the bullpen last season, instead using right-hander Seth Lugo against lefties. Lugo departed as a free agent with the desire to land a starting role. The three-batter minimum rule lessens the need for a traditional left-handed specialist and the Mets were open to using another righty in that role, but wanted someone who had good splits against both right and left-handed hitters.
Raley has better numbers against lefties in his career but was solid against hitters from both sides of the plate last season.
“A lot of times what we see is some of the opposing lineups, they’re putting some space in between the left-hander,” Eppler said. “So if you’re going to get a lefty, you want to feel pretty good about their ability to get a right-hander out, or at least limit damage against a right-hander.”
