Mets are planning to non-tender lefty Danny Young

The New York Mets are planning to non-tender left-hander Danny Young, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. Friday at 5 p.m. EST is the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible or pre-arb players. Once Young is officially non-tendered, he’ll become a free agent and the Mets will open a 40-man roster spot.

Young, 32 in May, underwent Tommy John surgery in May. He will therefore begin the 2026 season on the injured list. Sammon notes that the lefty has started throwing and could return in the first half of next year. Young has under two years of service time and has not yet qualified for arbitration, so the Mets won’t be saving any money by making this move. However, they have a full 40-man roster. There’s no injured list in the offseason, so Young would have to stay on the 40-man all through the winter if they wanted to keep him into next year.

There’s only one day in the year where a club can cut a player and send him directly to free agency without exposing him to waivers. That day is the non-tender deadline, which happens to be Friday, Nov. 21. Perhaps that will give the Mets a chance to quickly re-sign Young to a minor league deal and keep him in a non-roster capacity, though he will have the chance to speak with the 29 other clubs.

He has appeared in four major league seasons so far. He got cups of coffee in 2022 and 2023 before finally getting a nice opportunity with the Mets in 2024. He tossed 37 2/3 innings that year with a 4.54 earned run average. His 10.9% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 29.1% of batters faced and induced grounders on 53.3% of the balls in play he allowed. His 64.3% strand rate seemed to push more runs across the board, which is why he had a 3.64 FIP and 3.22 SIERA.

Unfortunately, his aforementioned surgery prevented him from carrying things over into 2025 and pushed him to the fringes of the roster. Once he hits the open market, he’ll assess his opportunities, whether that’s with the Mets or elsewhere.