The Braves could completely derail the Mets season, a broken star is back in the minors, and the Red Sox made a move before tonight's Yankees game.
Today's MLB rumors roundup looks at a pair of minor league moves made by the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox, as well as the state of the New York Mets which is entirely questionable after getting swept by the Atlanta Braves.
Last night, Ozzie Albies called game in the 10th inning with a walk-off home run, making for the third game in a row that Atlanta rallied from a deficit to defeat the Mets. New York has won just one of its six games against Atlanta this season and is on a five-game skid.
But before we get to the Mets trouble, let's look at the Mariners and Red Sox moves.
Infielder Didi Gregorius is back in the minors in Mariners organization
Shortstop Didi Gregorius has signed a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners that includes $1.5 million in performance bonuses. Gregorius will play at AAA in Tacoma to start and is expected to, "move around the infield," and play a fair share of second base.
Last year, the Phillies released Gregorius after he suffered a tough performance decline. He put up a .567 OPS in 2022 and a negative defensive WAR in his final two seasons with Philly after being a net-positive defender in all but one of the other seasons of his big-league career. He committed 18 errors in 2021 in fewer than 100 games started.
It's a low-risk signing for the Mariners who could help Gregorius get his career back on track.
Red Sox make a move before Yankees game on Friday
The Boston Red Sox selected the contract of left-handed reliever Joe Jacques before their Friday series kick-off against the New York Yankees, first reported by Joel Sherman.
Jacques has appeared in 23 games this year at AAA Worcester and has a 3.58 ERA and 1.301 WHIP. As Sherman points out, he was a Rule 5 selection away from Pittsburgh.
MLB Trade Rumors points out that the Red Sox need to make a corresponding move to fit him on the roster and Alex Speier speculated that currently-injured Bryan Mata could be put on the 60-day IL since he isn't conceivably close to a return.
Jacques has been bouncing around the minor leagues since 2014 with two seasons at AA and three at AAA. He has not made an MLB appearance yet and could do so for the first time in front of a hostile rival crowd in the Bronx.
With a 4.07 ERA, the Red Sox relievers are 19th in the league and eighth-worst in field-independent pitching. As a whole, the Red Sox have the fifth-worst pitching in terms of ERA.
Belief that Mets could make changes, and Braves could force it
In Ken Rosenthal's latest for The Athletic, he wrote about the New York Mets and the possibility, if not likelihood, that big changes could come, and they could come fast (subscription required).
Steve Cohen spent lavishly this offseason — the Mets $345 million payroll is the highest in the league, the second-highest is $66 million lower — and the expectation is to win.
Not next year, not three years from now, the expectation is to win now. You don't spend that much money to lose.
The Mets aren't winning, though, at least not convincingly enough. They were swept by their division-rival Atlanta Braves on the road last night, despite leading all three games by three runs or more at one point. The Mets made implosion look routine, there's no other way to describe it.
Now, they sit at 30-33, 8.5 games back in the NL East, having lost five in a row. They are 1-5 against the Braves.
Rosenthal's report described it as, "increasingly difficult," to see manager Buck Showalter lasting if the Mets can't pull up from a nosedive. He hinted general manager Billy Eppler might not be around for much longer either if things don't improve dramatically.
While for now it's speculation, one has to assume that from Rosenthal, it's pretty well-informed speculation.
A managerial change midseason can completely change a talented team's fortunes. The Phillies, last year, fired Joe Girardi and interim manager Rob Thompson stepped in. The Phillies snuck into the Wild Card spot and ended up winning the National League before losing in the World Series.
For a team like the Mets who have few places to upgrade their roster via the trade market, a managerial change could be the clearest adjustment to make.
