SAN DIEGO — The Mets are acquiring veteran right-handed reliever Tyler Rogers from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for right-handers Blade Tidwell and José Buttó and outfielder Drew Gilbert, league sources confirmed.
Rogers, 34, has been one of the best non-closing relievers in baseball over the last five seasons, compiling a 2.74 ERA in that span while appearing in a league-high 346 games — one more than Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase.
This season, Rogers’ 1.80 ERA ranks ninth among relievers.
Rogers achieves that success differently than your typical late-game reliever. His average fastball velocity, coming from a submarine arm angle, is 83.3 miles per hour — the slowest in the sport. He doesn’t generate much chase, and he strikes out barely 20 percent of opposing hitters, which is below the league average for relievers.
But that unique arm angle creates loads of soft contact and makes Rogers a nightmare for opposing hitters. He owns the third-best ground-ball rate among relievers this season and has impressively managed to neutralize his platoon splits across his career, which is unusual for a pitcher with a lower arm angle.
And for a Mets bullpen that struggles with free passes, Rogers has the lowest walk rate among relievers in baseball — a minuscule 2.1 percent (compared to 11 percent for New York’s other late-game relievers).
The cost to acquire a rental reliever in Rogers is high, a reflection of prices in a seller’s market. Buttó has been a part of the Mets’ big-league bullpen since last summer, pitching to a 2.93 ERA over 83 innings. New York has been relatively cautious with Buttó’s usage in that time; he’s pitched on back-to-back days just twice in his big-league career, and none since last June. The Athletic had reported earlier this week that the Mets were willing to move Buttó in the right deal.
Tidwell, a second-round pick in 2022 out of Tennessee, made his major-league debut this season, with a 9.00 ERA in four games. While the right-handed starter pitched to a 4.10 mark for Triple-A Syracuse this season, he had fallen behind Brandon Sproat, Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong in the hierarchy of near-ready pitching prospects for New York, and there’s a reasonable chance he ends up a reliever.
Acquired from Houston in the Justin Verlander trade two deadlines ago, Gilbert was a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport before a lost 2024 season. He’s rebounded this year to post a .785 OPS for Syracuse. Gilbert had been a first-round pick out of Tennessee by the Astros in that same 2022 draft.
Both Gilbert (No. 11) and Tidwell (No. 14) ranked among the Mets’ top-20 prospects heading into this season, according to The Athletic’s Keith Law.
(Top photo of Tyler Rogers: Bob Kupbens / USA Today)