The David Stearns era has started how we all thought: a waiver claim on October 31!
In all seriousness, the Mets have claimed righty reliever Penn Murfee from the Seattle Mariners, who placed him on waivers.
The 29-year-old allowed just two runs in 14 innings (1.29 ERA) as a reliever in 2023, but his season ended due to needing Tommy John surgery in July. He’s expected to be out all of 2024, but he will have five years of team control left starting next year.
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Murfee was one of the Mariners’ better relievers in 2022, too, posting a 2.99 ERA over 69.1 innings.
The Vanderbilt product is slider—err, sweeper—heavy, throwing it between half and two-thirds of the time over the last two years. He’s gotten great results from it, too, with extremely weak contact, above-average whiff percentages, and great expected statistics. (His real results are even better. Batters were just 18-for-163—.110—against his sweeper the last two years, with five doubles and five homers coming in 2022.)
This is a John Curtiss-type move with more team control and higher upside. It’s also a type of move the Billy Eppler regime started to make, but is a staple of a Stearns front office: finding value for the bullpen.
