Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

On Tuesday night, the Mets announced they had claimed RHP Yoan López off waivers from the Miami Marlins and optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, left-handed pitcher Joey Lucchesi was placed on the 60-Day Injured List.

López, a 29-year-old relief pitcher, made his Major League debut as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks on September 9th, 2018. He has spent all of his four seasons with the Diamondbacks, making a total of 113 appearances along the way.

The 2019 season with the Diamondbacks was his best in the majors thus far, pitching to a 3.41 ERA in 60 & 2/3 innings of work. Since then though, it has been much more of struggle for the pitcher. López made 20 appearances in the shortened 2020 season, owning a 5.95 ERA 19 & 2/3 innings of work.

López continued to “hit a wall” at the beginning of the 2021 season. In the first month and a half of the year, the pitcher had a 6.57 ERA in 13 appearances. On May 20th, 2021, the Diamondbacks traded López to the Atlanta Braves for prospect Deivi Estrada. The pitcher spent the remainder of the season with Atlanta’s Triple-A Gwinnett affiliate, never making an appearance for the team at the Major League level.

Before Major League Baseball went into a lockout, the Philadelphia Phillies claimed López off waivers from the Braves. Once the MLB and the MLBPA was able to strike on the deal, the pitcher was on his way to another organization in the National League East.

All of a sudden, López found himself on the 40-man roster for Marlins, but that tenure was short-lived. He made just one appearance for the team in Spring Training, giving up one earned run with one hit and two walks in just an inning of work. Now López is within the Mets organization, looking to play a role in the team’s bullpen moving forward.

According to his Baseball Savant page, López uses a four-seam fastball and slider in his pitch mix. During the 2021 season, his average fastball velocity was 95.7 MPH, with the slider sitting at an average of 86.5 MPH. The right-hander has also used a changeup in the past, but that is not a pitch he has shown since 2019.