Mets sign reliever Jorge Lopez to one-year deal, report says
Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Jorge Lopez reacts at the end of an MLB baseball game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Monday, May 23, 2022 Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Add another name to the Mets’ motley crew of recent reliever additions: Jorge Lopez.
They signed Lopez to a one-year, $2 million contract, ESPN reported late Thursday. That is the largest contract awarded by the Mets to a bullpen piece this offseason as they seek to find several viable relievers out of a group of unheralded names.
Lopez, a 30-year-old righthander with closing experience, joins a section of the roster that features Edwin Diaz, Brooks Raley, Drew Smith and few other certainties.
In his first stop, Milwaukee, he pitched for teams built by David Stearns, now the Mets’ president of baseball operations. He has a career 5.51 ERA over parts of eight seasons with the Brewers, Royals, Orioles, Twins and Marlins.
Since debuting in 2015, he has had one good, full season — and it was a recent one. In 2022, he was an All-Star with Baltimore (and then traded to Minnesota), posting a 2.54 ERRA, 1.18 WHIP and 23 saves.
In his attempted encore, though, Lopez struggled. While moving from the Twins to the Marlins (via trade) and then back to the Orioles (via waiver claim), Lopez had a 5.95 ERA and 1.51 WHIP.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
