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The Mets signed Zach Muckenhirn to a minor league deal at the end of November. Muckenhirn, who will be 28 next week, is looking to break through to the 40-man roster as a lefty reliever. In addition to competing with the players already on the Mets roster, he is competing against other NRIs like T.J. McFarland to be a lefty specialist.
Muckenhirn was drafted by the Orioles in the 11th round back in 2016 out of the University of North Dakota. In his last year with the Orioles in 2019, he showed success in Double-A (3.21 ERA, 37 games, 53 1/3 innings) but faltered in his brief time in Triple-A, allowing seven runs over 3 2/3 innings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he bounced over to the Puerto Rico Winter League where he had success in small samples. Over 11 outings (12 1/3) innings in 2020 he had a 0.73 ERA.
This was enough to get picked up by the White Sox in 2021 where he impressed with a 1.77 ERA over 40 2/3 innings in Double-A. He continued that success into the winter where he played in another 9 games allowing no runs.
Muckenhirn played 2022 with the White Sox again, producing a 3.11 ERA and 1.345 WHIP over 47 games and 55 innings in Triple-A.
Right now, Muckenhirn is on the outside looking in. He’s fighting for a roster spot and doesn’t have any major league experience yet. Playing between in Puerto Rico and the States over the last three years, he has shown flashes of success. It’s all about getting hot at the right time of spring. Muckenhirn can make some noise and force the issue. Ultimately, the Mets will be looking at how he does against major-league-level players for call up later in the season.
If Muckenhirn has a spring similar to what he did in Triple-A in 2022 and starts off in Syracuse the same way, it feels more than likely he’ll see some playing time in Queens this year.
