A.J. Minter had an up and down Mets career. On one hand, he was effective as a leverage reliever across two seasons, and he had a 2.12 ERA in Queens in that time. On the other hand, he was limited to just 36 appearances and 34 innings pitched. Thanks to a significant lat injury suffered in late April 2025, he required surgery and came back in May 2026, over a full year later.
After being activated from the injured list this past season, Minter was as advertised. He had a 2.35 ERA in his 23 appearances
for the Mets, making him a solid if unspectacular leverage reliever. His strikeout numbers tanked pretty significantly, sitting at 21.7%, compared to his career rate of 28.6%. With his age (33) and injury history, he likely will not be much of a strikeout guy anymore, but he did a good job limiting hard contact (36.8% hard hit rate) and not allowing free passes (2.2 % walk rate as a Met), allowing him to still be an effective pitcher as he ages.
As one would imagine, being a 33-year-old reliever on a team that is not even close to the playoff picture gives you a one way ticket to Tradestown, USA. Minter was indeed handed that ticket, as he was dealt to the Minnesota Twins on July 31 for Bruno Agbayani and Billy Amick. He continued to be successful for the Twins, finishing the season with a 2.78 ERA, paired with a slightly raised strikeout rate (22.3%) and significantly raised walk rate (6.4%).
Minter likely did enough to secure himself a one-year contract somewhere, where he will look to stay healthy and miss some more bats as he is a year further out from his lat injury. As for the Mets, they got a good performance out of Minter before trading him. While both parties would have wanted an outcome where the Mets were good and Minter was a seventh inning guy, the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry.
