Mets release veteran OF Josh Reddick from minors contract

The Mets announced that outfielder Josh Reddick has been released from his minor league contract, per MLB.com's Anthony DiComo.  Reddick joined the Mets earlier this month, shortly after the Diamondbacks also released the veteran.

Although Reddick received only 38 plate appearances over 11 games at Triple-A Syracuse, he didn’t produce much in that small sample size, hitting only .182/.289/.303 with one home run.  This performance came on the heels of a .258/.285/.371 slash line in 158 PA with the Diamondbacks, after Reddick signed a minors deal with Arizona in April and was selected to the big league roster in May.

Now a veteran of 13 MLB seasons, Reddick hasn’t provided above-average offensive production (as per wRC+ or OPS+) since the 2017 season, when he was a key member of the Astros’ World Series team.  Since the start of the 2018 campaign, Reddick has hit only .258/.314/.397 over 1,405 PA at the big league level.  The left-handed-hitting Reddick doesn’t have much extra value in terms of splits over those four seasons, but he has traditionally wielded a strong outfield glove (mostly playing in right field).

If Reddick is signed prior to August 31, he would be eligible for another team’s postseason roster, should a club be looking for an experienced outfield bat.  Clearly he wasn’t in the Mets’ plans for the stretch run, and Reddick seemed like a bit of an imperfect fit anyway considering that starting outfielders Brandon Nimmo, Dominic Smith and Michael Conforto all hit from the left side.  (Jeff McNeil, another lefty bat, has also been seeing more outfield work as of late.)