Mets acquire veteran utilityman in trade with Red Sox

The Mets have acquired utilityman Pablo Reyes from the Red Sox in exchange for cash considerations, as announced via the MLB.com transactions wire.  Reyes was designated for assignment at the end of April but cleared waivers and was outrighted to Boston’s Triple-A affiliate.

This marks the second time that Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has acquired Reyes, as Reyes signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in January 2021 when Stearns was still in charge of Milwaukee’s front office.  Reyes played in 58 MLB games for the Brew Crew during the 2021-22 seasons before landing in Boston, with a brief stopover with the A’s sandwiched in between.

Reyes has hit .249/.309/.349 over 572 major league plate appearances, suiting up in six of the last seven MLB seasons (an 80-game PED suspension kept Reyes off the field entirely in 2020).  A career-high 185 of those plate appearances came just last season, as Reyes got into 64 games with the Sox as part of the team’s revolving door at both middle infield positions.  Reyes hit .287/.339/.377 in those 185 PA, translating to a 93 wRC+ since Reyes’ lack of power undermined his solid batting average and on-base numbers.

Defensive versatility has been Reyes’ calling card more so than his bat, as he has gotten at least a bit of action at every position on the diamond except catcher over the course of his major league career.  However, he has exclusively played as an infielder (and occasional mop-up pitcher in blowouts) since the start of the 2022 season.  The Mets traded Zack Short to the Red Sox a few weeks ago and just released Joey Wendle earlier this week, so Reyes fills New York’s need for utility infield help.  Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil are locked into everyday duty in the middle infield roles while Brett Baty has seen most of the third base work despite struggling at the plate, and Mark Vientos has been hitting well in a bid to stick in the majors and cut into Baty’s playing time.

Since Reyes is out of minor league options, the Mets will have to keep him on the active roster unless they first designate him for assignment before trying to send him to Triple-A.  In the event that Reyes clears waivers and is then outrighted off the 40-man, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept that assignment, since he has been previously outrighted in his career.