Mets release significant number of minor league players

The Mets have released a significant number of minor league players today, with Michael Meyer tweeting that the total is between 35 and 40 of them. One of the players among those who were cut is pitcher Rob Whalen, best known as the former Mets pitching prospect who was part of the deal that brought Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson to the Mets back in the summer of 2015, per his own tweet on the subject.

While there’s still no certainty whether or not there will be a Major League Baseball season in 2020, there has been speculation for weeks now that the minor league season will be cancelled entirely. And with the league having wanted to eliminate minor league teams across the country before the pandemic, the league and the organizations now have cover to do just that, thinning out the ranks of players in those organizations along the way. Jeff Passan tweeted that hundreds of minor league players are being cut today across baseball.

For what it’s worth, the Mets announced earlier in the day that they would commit to paying their minor league players—the ones who are still Mets minor league players after the cuts, of course—the $400 weekly stipend that teams across the league have been paying their minor league player during the pandemic.