The Mets have taken plenty of swings on minor league free agents over the years, and most of them come with the same basic gamble: maybe there’s something left to unlock, maybe there isn’t. In 2026, that bet went badly more often than not. Ignoring injuries, the Mets still had several depth signings that never came close to paying off, and the five worst of the bunch were all the kind of moves that quickly reminded everyone why these players were available in the first place.
Tommy Pham tops the list, and it’s hard to argue otherwise. New York signed him to a minor league deal on March 27, but the big-league return was a flat 0 for 13 with a walk and 7 strikeouts.
He wasn’t short on effort, either. Pham apparently caught whatever bug was ripping through the team, but even that couldn’t keep him around for long after the Mets’ 12-game losing streak.
Since then, he’s been stashed in the minors with the Baltimore Orioles and now the Philadelphia Phillies. He hit .197 with Baltimore’s Triple-A club and entered this week hitting .118 for Philly’s Triple-A team.
Adbert Alzolay was supposed to be more of a midseason solution, the kind of arm that could help in a playoff push. Instead, the Mets eventually moved on after a full year of rehab in 2025.
His Syracuse line was rough: a 10.38 ERA in 8.2 innings. Coming back from Tommy John surgery, he never looked settled enough to force his way into the organization’s plans.
Jackson Cluff got some attention when Francisco Lindor’s Opening Day status was uncertain, and there was at least a path where he could have made the club. That path closed fast.
Cluff’s Triple-A numbers never gave the Mets much reason to keep dreaming, and his .169 average over 269 plate appearances would have left him with even less playing time than Vidal Brujan got in his underwhelming Mets stint. Before a recent IL placement, he was sitting on a .598 OPS.
Luke Jackson brought a more established major league résumé, but his Syracuse run didn’t show much reason to believe he could help in Queens. In 4 innings, he allowed 6 earned runs on only 2 hits, and the real problem was command.
He issued 7 walks. By the time he was done with the organization, he was carrying an 11.57 ERA.
Grae Kessinger rounds out the list, and like the others, he was another infield flier with little track record to lean on. The results were ugly: a .151 batting average and a .506 OPS.
That line made Cluff look like the second-coming of…take your pick of any average hitting infielder. Kessinger has already been released, ending any chance he might have become an aggravating Zack Short replica.
There were a couple of honorable mentions, too. Mike Tauchman spent the year hurt, while Craig Kimbrel wasn’t good with the Mets, but he also wasn’t a complete disaster. The five above were in a different class entirely.
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Mets Made Another Pitching Shuffle Fans Need To See
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Before the first pitch, the club added Xzavion Curry and Tobias Myers to help stabilize the pitching mix, and more help may be on the way with Dan Hammer reportedly headed up as well. The shuffle comes as the staff tries to absorb another injury hit and keep the bullpen moving in the right direction, a reminder that even after a win like this, the Mets are still managing more than just the scoreboard. [Read more 🡒]