After a shutout loss to the Colorado Rockies spelled a series and doubleheader sweep on Sunday, the New York Mets are reportedly making a pair of roster moves. According to Will Sammon of the Athletic, the Mets are designating veteran outfielder Tommy Pham for assignment. They are also signing outfielder Austin Slater.

The Pham experience went very poorly for the Mets. After the 38-year-old went 2-for-12 for Single-A St. Lucie as he prepared for major-league action, he went hitless across 13 at-bats with the Mets striking out seven times. Pham posted a .700 OPS across 392 at-bats with the Pittsburgh Pirates last season.

As for Slater, the Miami Marlins designated him for assignment on April 23. This coming after he went 4-for-23 (.174 batting average) with nine strikeouts to begin the season. The right-handed hitter played all his games in the field for Miami in right.

Slater posted a .642 OPS and a -0.1 bWAR across 148 at-bats in 2025 across two organizations. Slater posted his two best big-league seasons in 2021 and 2022. In 2021, he had a .744 OPS and a 1.4 bWAR while in 2022 he had a .774 OPS and a 1.6 bWAR. Slater, an outfielder, has predominantly played in left and right with some brief appearances in center. The last time he played the majority of his time in center was 2022.

The 33-year-old Florida native has a career .263/.354/.423 (.777 OPS) slash line against left-handed pitching. He has struggled mightily against righties (.642 OPS). Throughout his career, he has always been a high-walk hitter relying on a usually minuscule chase rate. This evidence by a 10.3% career walk rate which is comfortably above the 8.5% major-leave average. He, however, has also struck out a lot in his career (28.1% career rate; major-league average is 22.5%) aided by high whiff rates.

Defensively, Slater has always had, and still has, an extremely strong arm but his range has steadily declined after being above the league’s 50th percentage in outs above average 2021 and 2022.

One would expect Slater to be in the lineup whenever the Mets face left-handed pitching. Entering today, New York was hitting .219 against left-handed pitching which ranked 24th. They also had the third-fewest walks in the league which is also something that Slater may be able to help.