Mets sign Jed Lowrie to two-year, $20 million contract

The Mets have signed infielder Jed Lowrie to a two-year, $20 million contract, according to just about every professional writer on baseball Twitter, beginning with Jeff Passan. Jon Heyman, among others, specifies that the deal is worth 2/20 on the nose.

The 34-year-old Lowrie, who is a switch-hitter, is coming off one of the best years of his career. In 680 plate appearances for the Oakland A’s, he hit .267/.353/.448 with 23 home runs and a 122 wRC+, and he finished the year with 4.9 fWAR. That season followed up a strong 2017 campaign that saw him hit .277/.360/.448 with 14 home runs, a 119 wRC+, and 3.6 fWAR in 645 plate appearances.

Although Lowrie has quite a bit of experience at shortstop, he has played second and third base exclusively over the past two seasons, with the vast majority of that time coming at second. He did play short for three innings in 2016 and 153 innings in 2015, but the last time he really played the position with regularity was 2014.