Mets sign Cody Asche to minor league deal

The Mets have signed infielder Cody Asche to a minor league deal. The longtime Phillie spent time in that organization from the 2011 draft through the 2016 major league season before joining the White Sox and appearing in just 19 major league games last year.

Over the course of his career, Asche has hit .234/.293/.379 with an 82 wRC+. He’s played third base the majority of the time in his major league career, though he’s also logged a decent amount of innings in left field. Neither DRS nor UZR have rated his work well at either position, with negative numbers across the board.

The Mets’ infield is mostly all set on an everyday basis with Asdrubal Cabrera at second, Todd Frazier at third, and Amed Rosario at shortstop. Adrian Gonzalez has struggled mightily at the plate while manning first base, but Asche has played just two major league games at first and would not be capable of putting up enough offense to play that position even if he had defensive experience there. Most likely, though, this is just a minor league depth signing, and if we see Asche getting major league playing time, things will have gone terribly wrong elsewhere on the roster.