Mets Select, Option Jefry Yan

The Mets announced that they have selected left-hander Jefry Yan to their 40-man roster and optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse. That usually indicates the player had some kind of opt-out or upward mobility clause in his contract. The Mets had two 40-man vacancies, so Yan can fill one of those without a corresponding move.

Yan, 30 next month, gets a big league roster spot for the first time. He didn’t take a straight line to get there. He was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Angels back in 2013. He pitched in the Dominican Summer League for that club in 2014 and 2015 but Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2016 and he was released in 2017. Yan caught on the with Marlins and spent several years in their system before signing with Japan’s Seibu Lions ahead of the 2024 campaign. He pitched well enough there to get a minor league look with the 2025 Rockies but never received a call to the majors.

The Mets signed Yan as a minor league free agent this past offseason. He appeared in only two games during spring training and opened the season pitching in Double-A. A promotion to the majors seemed to be a far-off notion, but Yan has missed bats at a prodigious level in the Mets’ system — so much so that they’ll add him to the 40-man roster to keep him around.

While command has been a significant struggle this season for Yan (16.9% walk rate, 10 wild pitches), he’s nonetheless pitched to a 3.78 ERA in 33 1/3 innings (26 2/3 in Double-A, 6 2/3 in Triple-A). The glut of free patches and errant pitches is a concern, but Yan has offset those red flags with a gargantuan 44.4% strikeout rate — a mark that’s supported by a similarly superlative 19.3% swinging-strike rate.

The major league average strikeout rate among relievers is 22.3% — about half Yan’s current rate — while the league-average swinging-strike rate for relievers is 11%. Mason Miller and Dylan Lee are the only two big league relievers with swinging-strike rates higher than Yan’s 19.3%, and Miller (50%) is the only qualified reliever with a higher strikeout rate. Obviously, no one should expect Yan’s massive strikeout and swinging-strike rates to fully carry over in the majors, but that certainly points to the potential for a potent strikeout rate in the majors. And, now that Yan is on the 40-man roster, he’s just one call away from making his big league debut.