The Mets are deciding on the contract of hard-throwing righty Alex Carrillo, as first reported by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. He’s not on the 40-man roster, in order that they’ll must make a number of transactions to facilitate the 28-year-old’s first name to the majors.
Carrillo’s journey to the majors is pretty outstanding. The California native went undrafted out of Alabama’s Faulkner College in 2019 and briefly signed with the Rangers that summer season. He pitched 4 1/3 innings with their Rookie-level affiliate within the Arizona Advanced League however, like many low-level minor leaguers, was lower unfastened the next 12 months as groups launched giant swaths of younger expertise within the early levels of the pandemic.
Up till Opening Day 2025, these 4 1/3 innings within the Rangers system was Carrillo’s solely expertise in affiliated ball. He’s since pitched for 2 totally different groups within the impartial Frontier League and has additionally pitched in two seasons for los Tigers de Quintana Roo within the Mexican League. The Mets scouted him this previous winter when he was pitching for los Tigres de Aragua within the Venezuelan Winter League, and Carrillo impressed sufficient to land a minor league contract.
Carrillo was not invited to main league spring coaching and was assigned to Double-A to start his Mets tenure. He’s confirmed to be a terrific under-the-radar pickup to date. The 6’2″, 220-pound righty posted a 4.19 ERA in 19 1/3 Double-A frames however did so with an attention grabbing 36.6% strikeout charge. That 4.19 earned run common additionally included a rocky begin that was adopted by an enormous end; Carrillo pitched 14 1/3 innings with a 1.88 ERA and a 24-to-3 Ok/BB ratio earlier than being promoted to Triple-A. He’s responded with one other 5 2/3 innings of practically excellent pitching in Syracuse. Carrillo hasn’t allowed successful or a stroll there however did plunk one batter. He’s fanned ten opponents and averaged 98.5 mph on his heater.
Setting apart Carrillo’s first 4 appearances with the Mets — he allowed six runs in 5 innings throughout that preliminary stretch — he’s driving a 20-inning streak of 1.35 ERA ball with simply three runs on 9 hits and three walks. He’s punched out 34 batters in that point and has proven the power to succeed in triple digits together with his four-seamer.
Since that is Carrillo’s first name to the majors, he’ll have a full slate of minor league choices. The Mets will be capable to shuttle him up and down between Syracuse and Queens for the rest of this season and two subsequent seasons. He’ll have the usual six full seasons of membership management, that means that if he can proceed to shatter expectations, he may be managed all through 2031.