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Going into last season, the Mets had subpar pitching depth, to put it mildly. But in the offseason, they’ve made several additions through free agency and trades to bolster that depth. Now, a lot of the guys who were the next man up last year find themselves way down in the pecking order, with no guarantee that they will see substantial major league playing time, if any at all.
One of those pitchers is longtime Mets prospect Corey Oswalt. Last season, Oswalt pitched in four games for the Mets, with one of those appearances being a start. As recently as 2018, he made 12 starts for the Mets at the major league level. But this season, with the rotation strengthened and important depth pieces such as Joey Lucchesi and Jordan Yamamoto in the fold, Corey Oswalt found himself designated for assignment and off the 40-man roster entirely. He is set to begin the year with Triple-A Syracuse.
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After the conclusion of the 2020 season, the Mets were an important lesson in building actual pitching depth. The team featured some of the worst starting pitching in baseball last year largely due to their lack of depth and complete unpreparedness for injuries. This is after they had gone into the year touting their starting depth and patting themselves on the back for the job they did building it just because they happened to have six starting pitchers on the major league roster instead of the requisite five. This was common belief the Mets frequently championed during the Wilpon Era; that the organizational pitching depth beyond the major league roster was immaterial as long as they had that coveted sixth starter.
Fernandez, who’ll be returning for a third season with the Bears, never got much of a look in the Majors despite a considerable track record in the Cuban National Series, but he’s broken out as a star-level hitter in the KBO. The 32-year-old hasn’t missed a game since originally signing with the Bears and has delivered a combined .342/.407/.490 batting line with 36 homers, 63 doubles and more walks (119) than strikeouts (just 96) through 1313 plate appearances. Fernandez’s deal comes with $800K worth of guarantees and an additional $300K available via incentives.
Miranda, 32 in January, will now somewhat remarkably have pitched in virtually every top professional league in the world. The Cuban-born southpaw got his start in the Cuban National Series back in 2007 and has since pitched in the Majors (with the Orioles and Mariners), Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (SoftBank Hawks) and most recently in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CTBC Brothers).
By Yoo Jee-ho SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) The South Korean baseball club Doosan Bears said Wednesday they have acquired a new pitcher from Cuba, while retaining their designated hitter, Jose Miguel Fernandez, from the same country for a third season. According to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team, the left-hander Ariel Miranda signed a one-year deal worth up to US$800,000. He will earn $550,000 in guarantee salary, $150,000 in signing bonus and up to $100,000 in incentives. The 31-year-old journeyman pitched in 44 games for the Baltimore Orioles and the Seattle Mariners from 2016 to 2018. He then joined the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan in July 2018, and pitched for them until 2019. Miranda spent the 2020 season in Taiwan with the CTBC Brothers.