Mets Place Carrasco on Waivers; Angels Do Same For Leone, Giolito

The New York Mets have placed Carlos Carrasco on waivers, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported.

If claimed, all money owed to Carrasco through the rest of his contract would transfer to his new team. If he goes unclaimed, the Mets would keep him. Of course, the Mets could also end up just releasing him, and placing him on waivers could be a sign that the team is officially ready to move on. But passing through waivers does not automatically result in a release.

He is a free agent at the end of the season.

If Carrasco is claimed or released, it could possibly open the door for top prospect Mike Vasil, who has 56 1/3 innings at Triple-A this year, to make his MLB debut. Joey Lucchesi, who has a 3.54 ERA in six MLB starts this season, would probably be the more likely candidate to fill the spot in the rotation.

Carrasco has been with the Mets since the 2021 season, arriving in the trade that also sent Francisco Lindor to Queens. He suffered a hamstring injury before the 2021 season that pushed his Mets debut back to the end of July, and struggled when he finally made it onto the mound. In 12 starts over the season’s final two months, Carrasco had a 6.04 ERA — including an infamous 13.50 ERA in the first inning.

The 2022 season was a bounce-back for Carrasco. While he never quite returned to the pitcher he was when he was with Cleveland, he still ultimately had a successful year at the back end of the Mets rotation. Over 29 starts and 152 innings, Carrasco had a 3.97 ERA and 97 ERA+, just a little bit below average. As the No. 5 starter when everyone was healthy though (which wasn’t often), it was fine.

The 2023 season for Carrasco has been almost symbolic of the Mets season as a whole — a disaster. He’s made 20 starts and pitched just 90 innings, putting up a 6.80 ERA over those frames, and it has been worse as of late too. Carrasco threw eight scoreless innings in Arizona on July 6, and since then has 10.24 ERA over eight starts while averaging under four innings per outing.

The Angels Release… Everyone

The Carrasco news came shortly following Jeff Passan of ESPN reporting the Los Angeles Angels placed Lucas Giolito, Matt Moore, Reynaldo López, Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk all on waivers. Giolito, López and Grichuk were all traded to the Angels just one month ago at the trade deadline.

Passan reported it is a salary dump move for the Angels.

The team put Dominic Leone, who the Mets traded to the Angels for prospect Jerimiah Jackson, who has a 110 wRC+ in Double-A so far.

The Mets previously traded Eduardo Escobar to the Angels for minor league pitchers Coleman Crow and Landon Marceaux in June. Crow and Jackson are both currently on the Mets Top 30 prospect list on MLB Pipeline. 

The Angels, who bought aggressively at the deadline, appear to have given up on competing in 2023. Shohei Ohtani is a free agent at the end of the season. If he leaves this offseason, the Angels will not have made the playoffs in Ohtani’s entire tenure with the organization.

Rosenthal’s report also listed Harrison Bader (Yankees), Mike Clevinger (White Sox) and José Cisnero (Tigers) as players who have also been placed on waivers.

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