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The Mets and Orioles announced a deal sending left-handed reliever from Baltimore to New York. The Os acquired minor league right-handers and . Soto, 30, has pitched to a 3.96 ERA this season and carries a 3.91 mark dating all the way back to 2021. Hes playing the season on a $5.35MM salary and is a pure free agent at seasons end. He still has about $1.87MM of his salary yet to be paid out, and since the Mets are third-time luxury tax payors in the top penalty bracket, therell be a 110% tax on that sum. That brings the total financial expenditure to about $3.925MM. Armed with a four-seamer that averages 97.1 mph and a sinker thats sitting 96.7 mph, Soto can mi s bats in bunches but struggles to command his sizzling repertoire. Hes fanned 27.5% of his opponents this year but also i sued walks at an 11.3% clip thats pretty well aligned with his career mark. Still, Soto has avoided too much damage from righties, and lefties may as well not even bother stepping into the box (.138/.271/.276). Hell give a Mets club that has been focused on adding at Cesar Geronimo Jersey least one lefty to its bullpen a potent weapon against divisional foes like , and down the stretch, to say nothing of potential key matchups against prominent lefties like or in the postseason. The Mets opened the season with lefties and locked into key bullpen roles. Both required season-ending surgery in May Minter to repair a torn lat and Young to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Theyve since re-signed , who was rehabbing from his own Tommy John surgery but is now back in the big league pen. Soto now adds a second lefty back into the mix as well as another flamethrower who sits 97 or better (alongside closer and setup men and ). Adding to the bullpen has been president of baseball operations David Stearns top priority as the deadline approaches. The Mets figure to continue to explore the market for bullpen help, and Stearns has at least acknowledged that they could pursue an upgrade in center field. The Mets have a healthy rotation at the moment, but one would a sume that if they could find a price to their liking, a deal for a potential playoff starter isnt entirely off the table. In exchange for Soto, the Orioles will add a pair of pitching prospects to their system one (Foster) thats close to the majors and another (Aracena) who is more of a development project but comes with a higher ceiling. The 26-year-old Foster was a 14th-round pick out of McNeese State in 2022. He opened the season in Double-A Binghamtons bullpen and breezed through opposing lineups, pitching to a minuscule 1.01 ERA with a 34% strikeout rate and 5% walk rate in 26 2/3 innings. Its eye-catching production, though it bears noting that at 26, Foster was noticeably older and further along in his development than his Double-A opponents. He was recently moved up to Triple-A, where hes pitched 3 2/3 innings and been tagged for seven runs on seven hits and three walks. Listed at 65 and 230 pounds, Foster has the frame of a power reliever. Hes never ranked among the Mets top prospects, though that hes sharpened his slider since being drafted and it now grades as a plus offering. Hes a potential bullpen option and, given his recent promotion to Triple-A, could feasibly get a look as soon as this season. Foster would be Rule 5-eligible in the offseason if the Orioles leave him off the 40-man roster, so it seems theres a good chance hell be selected to the 40-man after the season, if not sooner. Aracena, 20, is widely ranked within the Mets top-30 prospects, sitting 14th at FanGraphs as of last month and 28th at Baseball America. Theres a wide range of opinions on him due to the hard-throwing rightys poor command. Aracena has walked 13.2% of his A-ball opponents in 2025, and thats actually a significant improvement over 2024, when he i sued free pa ses to 20.2% of the batters he faced. Shaky command notwithstanding, Aracena sits 97-98 mph with a fastball that tops out around 101 mph. Baseball Americas scouting report on him also touts a heavily used cutter that sits 93 mph and a still-developing slider with more movement that checks in a few miles per hour slower. In ranking Aracena 14th in the Mets system, Longenhagen praises the life on all of his pitches and adds that there arent really many other big league pitchers whose stuff bears a resemblance to Aracenas cutter-heavy mix. Aracena wont turn 21 until December. In all likelihood, hes not likely to be a big league option until at least 2027, and thats a suming continued health and progre sion in his development. Hes a bullpen prospect with a lofty ceiling, however, and coupling him with another late-blooming relief prospect whos much closer to big league readine s makes for a solid return on two-plus months of a hard-throwing Soto, to whom the Orioles were never going to extend a qualifying offer. Soto becomes the second reliever traded from the Baltimore bullpen, joining (who went to the Rays). Just as Stearns & Co. surely have more additions in store for the Mets, Os general manager Mike Elias will have several more sell-side moves to execute in the next six days. Sotos bullpen-mate , first baseman , center fielder and starting pitchers , and are all free agents at seasons end. was first with the . Seth Martinez Jersey |
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