Mets trade Logan Verrett to Orioles for cash

The Mets have traded right-handed pitcher Logan Verrett to the Baltimore Orioles for cash. The move clears a 40-man roster spot.

Verrett has had a strangely itinerant career since being drafted by the Mets in the third round in 2011. He spent three seasons in the Mets’ minor league system from 2012-2014 before being plucked by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft. He never pitched for the O’s, though; he was selected off waivers by the Texas Rangers before the 2015 season.

Despite the waiver claim, Verrett’s Rule 5 status traveled with him to Texas, who couldn’t commit a full-time roster spot to him and returned him to the Mets a month later.

Verrett appeared in 49 games with the Mets—16 of them starts—and had a 4.56 ERA and a 5.05 FIP, striking out seven batters per nine innings and walking almost four. At his best he gave the Mets some much-needed depth in a rotation that was often depleted by injuries. At his worst—for example, May 14, 2016 in Colorado—he sputtered out of the gate and ended up hanging the Mets’ bullpen out to dry. Four times in 2016 he failed to pitch more than four innings in a start.