The Mets made their of right-hander official today. Per , right-hander has been designated for a signment as the corresponding move. Covey, 33, has never pitched for the Mets. He was with the Phillies in 2024 but was outrighted off their roster in August. He elected free agency at seasons end and the Mets signed him to a big league deal at the end of October. The righty has been a starter for most of his career but converted to relief work more recently. He to sed 39 innings out of the Philly bullpen in 2023 with a 3.69 earned run average. His 15.6% strikeout rate wasnt strong but he did manage to get ground balls on 54% of balls in play. He wasnt really able to follow that up in 2024. He started the season on the injured list due to a right shoulder strain, eventually getting transferred to the 60-day IL. He wasnt able to start a rehab Cole Koepke Jersey a signment until late July. Once he was healthy, the Phils ran him through waivers instead of adding him back to the roster. Before the offseason came, he managed to to s 15 Triple-A innings with a 1.20 ERA, 27.6% strikeout rate, 12.1% walk rate and 71.4% ground ball rate. Covey has always been a ground ball guy, so perhaps the Mets were intrigued but that uptick in strikeouts to end the season. Per the , his deal pays him an $850K salary while in the majors and $350K while in the minors. That minor league salary is relatively large, which is probably by design. Per the that was worked out a couple of years ago, the Triple-A minimum salary is just under $36K, so Coveys is almost ten times that. If he were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has more than three years of big league service time. But since he has le s than five years of service, heading to the open market would mean forfeiting whats left of his deal. If he clears waivers, that means no club is willing to give him a big league roster spot, meaning he would likely be limited to minor league offers on the open market. That means he should probably just keep his current minor league deal. Its po sible that all comes to pa s in the next few days. If it does, the Mets will get to keep Covey as some bullpen depth but without him taking up a roster spot. Joonas Korpisalo Jersey