Mets' Dillon Gee elects free agency

The Dillon Gee era in Flushing has come to an end. With the regular season over, any player with sufficient service time who was outrighted—i.e., removed from the 40-man roster—to the minors has the option to declare free agency. Gee was among those players, and he chose to enter the free agent waters.

2015 was a rough year for Gee. The 29-year-old made seven starts with the Mets, going 0-3 with a 5.90 ERA. An injury sidelined him, paving the way for the promotion of Noah Syndergaard. When he was eligible to return from the disabled list, there was no room for Gee in the rotation. The Mets chose to send him to Triple-A, where he could continue to get starts and be ready in case the Mets needed a spot starter.

In 14 starts with Las Vegas, Gee went 8-3 with a 4.58 ERA over 88.1 innings. His inconsistency in Triple-A kept made the Mets reluctant to use him for the occasional spot start, which in part led to their promoting Steven Matz instead.

Gee is still relatively young at 29 and could still be a useful pitcher in the back end of some team's rotation. Gee made $5.3 million this season, his second of arbitration.