The Mets made a small move on the eve of the Winter Meetings by claiming right-handed pitcher Cooper Criswell off of waivers from the Red Sox on Friday. Criswell, who has both started and relieved in his
career, has pitched for the Angels, the Rays, and the Red Sox since coming up to the big leagues in 2021 and carries a career 4.48 ERA in the majors and 4.16 ERA in the minors.
While Criswell’s numbers, both for Boston and in the minors, don’t jump off the page at you, this is a shrewd move for the Mets because of the timing of it. Criswell is out of minor league options and is not yet eligible for arbitration, but the Red Sox signed him last month to a fully guaranteed deal for $800,000. According to ESPN’s Jorge Castillo, by signing him above the league minimum, coupled with the fact that he couldn’t be sent down, this would deter teams from claiming him off waivers if and when the Red Sox would need to do that.
It didn’t work.
When Criswell was placed on waivers on Thursday to make room on the 40-Man for Johan Oviedo, the Mets swooped in less than 24 hours later to claim the righty.
Criswell gets a very large extension with his delivery and throws a four pitch mix made up of a changeup, cutter, sinker, and sweeper. His changeup and sinker have impressive vertical movement and the sweeper horizontal. He’s not a dominant strikeout pitcher, but gets a fair amount of ground balls and weak contact. Across Worcester and Boston last season, Criswell started 15 games (all but one in the minors) and made nine relief appearances.
Criswell is a good depth piece for a team that has used an awful lot of pitchers over the past two seasons. However, with the Mets’ 40-Man Roster at 39 before the start of the Winter Meetings, Criswell’s future with the Mets is not guaranteed, even though there are players with less upside currently taking up a roster spot. When the roster crunch comes, perhaps the Mets feel that other teams won’t do as they did and claim him because of the lack of options. We saw how well that worked last time.
