The Mets continue to pile up pitchers with the addition of former Brave William Woods off waivers. With Friday’s additions of Elieser Hernandez, Jeff Brigham, and Woods, the Mets 40-man roster is now at 35 players.
Woods, a fastball/slider reliever, made his MLB debut last season, pitching just two innings. Woods allowed two hits, no runs and struck out two in his brief major league action.
This is an intriguing pick-up because Woods is just 23 years old with minor league options and has the potential to immediately help a Met bullpen that struggled down the stretch last season.
A 6’3″ righty, Woods was drafted in 2018 at 19 years old after one season at Dyersburg State Community College in Dyersburg, TN. The Tennessee native has been used as both a starter and reliever in the minors, pitching to a 4.60 ERA in four minor league seasons with 9.4 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in 107 2/3 innings.
Most recently Woods pitched in the Arizona Fall League and struggled mightily in just 12 1/3 innings pitched, giving up 19 hits, 12 runs and three homers.
At the time the Braves DFA’d Woods, he was ranked as their 25th-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, who reports that his fastball has touched 99 mph. MLB Pipeline on the rest of his pitch arsenal, “He has a power slider that might eventually be an above-average swing-and-miss pitch and a firm changeup that’s clearly his third pitch, but has the chance to be usable.”
Adding options to the bullpen seems to be a priority early in the offseason for the Mets, and that should be encouraging with a large portion of their quality relievers from 2022 on the free agent market currently.
