The Mets announced today that they have signed left-hander Colin Poche to a minor league deal. He will report to Triple-A Syracuse and provide the club with some non-roster lefty depth for the bullpen.
Poche, 31, started the season with the Nationals on a minor league deal. He cracked the Opening Day roster but had an awful tenure as a Nat. He logged 8 2/3 innings over 13 appearances, allowing 11 earned runs, leading to an 11.42 ERA. He walked 12 opponents, a horrendous 26.1% rate in that small sample. The Nats signed Andrew Chafin him to replace Poche in the bullpen and designated the latter for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency.
Despite that rough showing, it’s understandable that the Mets would give him a shot to bounce back. For one thing, there’s no real harm on a minor league deal. On top of that, the club’s lefty relief situation has taken a few unfortunate turns recently. The club started the year with A.J. Minter and Danny Young as the southpaw contingent of the bullpen but both are now done for the year, Minter due to lat surgery and Young due to Tommy John surgery.
They recently added Génesis Cabrera to the roster, though he’s less than ideal to be a club’s top lefty reliever. He has shown some strikeout stuff at times but has been inconsistent in that regard, while control has been an ongoing issue, as shown in his 11.4% career walk rate.
The Mets will see if they can help Poche recover his previous form in Syracuse. With the Rays from 2022 to 2024, he tossed 156 2/3 innings with a 3.27 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. However, the punchouts declined over that stretch. He sent 26.1% of opponents back to the dugout in 2022 but that figure dropped to 24.8% and 21.6% in the two subsequent campaigns. That led the Rays to non-tender him heading into 2025 and Poche had to settle for a minor league deal, as mentioned.
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