NEW YORK — The Mets made their first move of the offseason, agreeing Thursday to a one-year contract with 33-year-old right-hander Dylan Covey.
He gets an $850,000 salary while in the major leagues and $350,000 while in the minors.
Covey went 0-2 with a 2.66 ERA, 19 strikeouts and nine walks over 20 1/3 innings in 18 games this year with Philadelphia’s Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Double-A Reading and Class A Clearwater farm teams.
His sinker averaged 93.8 mph at Triple-A, where he threw 45% sinkers, 24% cutters, 18% splitters and 13% sliders.
Covey last pitched in the major leagues with Philadelphia in 2023, going 1/3 with a 3.69 ERA in one start and 27 relief appearances.
He was placed on the injured list this past March 25 because of a strained right shoulder, then began a minor league rehab assignment with Clearwater on July 28. Covey was activated from the IL on Aug. 27 and assigned outright to Lehigh Valley that same day.
He elected free agency on Oct. 10, his right as a player who was not restored to the 40-man roster and would have been eligible for salary arbitration if on the roster.
Covey is 7-32 with a 6.18 ERA in 46 starts and 54 relief appearances over five major league seasons with the Chicago White Sox (2017-19), Boston (2020), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2023) and the Phillies (2023), striking out 214 and walking 133 in 307 1/3 innings.
Covey has 60 strikeouts and 33 walks over 89 1/3 innings as a reliever, going 2-5 with a 4.33 ERA.
He pitched with Rakuten in Taiwan from 2021-22.
Jeff Passan, ESPN
Oct 31, 2024, 04:40 PM ET
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NEW YORK — Two days before the Los Angeles Dodgers’ postseason began, Freddie Freeman felt a twinge in his rib cage when he took a swing during a simulated game. He vowed to ignore it. It’s not as if he wasn’t already in pain. Over the previous week, Freeman had nursed a sprained right ankle sustained trying to avoid a tag while running to first base. He needed no more impediments. The Dodgers had a World Series to win.
A day later, Oct. 4, after Freeman finished a news conference in which he declared himself ready to play despite the ankle injury, he retreated to the batting cage at Dodger Stadium. He wanted to take some swings in preparation for a live batting-practice session. His side tingled with each of his first dozen swings. On the 13th swing, Freeman felt a jolt through his body and crumpled to the ground.
Unable to even pick himself off the floor, Freeman was helped into the X-ray room next to Los Angeles’ dugout. The results were inconclusive, and around 9:30 p.m., he received a call. The Dodgers wanted him to drive to Santa Monica for more imaging. He hopped in the car, then in an MRI tube. Around 11:30 p.m., the results arrived: Freeman had broken the costal cartilage in his sixth rib, an injury that typically sidelines players for months.
Devastation set in. Walking hurt. Breathing stung. Swinging a bat felt like an impossibility.
Freeman’s father, Fred, worried about his youngest son, whom he raised after Freeman’s mother, Rosemary, died of melanoma when Freddie was 10. He saw the anguish in every minuscule movement. Considering the injuries to his rib and ankle and the lasting soreness from a middle finger he fractured in August, surely Freeman was too beaten up to keep playing. Surely there would be more postseasons, more opportunities.
“I actually told him to stop,” Fred said. “I said, ‘Freddie, this is not worth it. I know you love baseball. I love baseball. But it’s not worth what you’re going through.’ And he looked at me like I was crazy, and he said, ‘Dad, I’m never going to stop.’
