Mets sign relief pitcher Jared Hughes

The Mets have signed right-handed relief pitcher Jared Hughes to a major league contract, with the team tweeting that it expects to add him to their 2020 player pool. The team’s beat reporters have tweeted that Hughes is on the 40-man roster and in the player pool. His contract calls for a $700,000 salary over the course of a full season, which would be prorated down like all other 2020 salaries.

The soon-to-be 35-year-old Hughes is coming off a so-so 2019 season in which he split his time between the Reds and the Phillies and finished the year with a 4.04 ERA and 5.29 FIP. The latter was largely the result of his rate of 1.64 home runs allowed per nine innings. Hughes has never been much of a strikeout pitcher, averaging just over 6 K/9 and a 16.4 percent strikeout rate over the course of his career.

On the upside, though, Hughes had a 1.94 ERA and 3.28 FIP in 78.2 innings with the Reds in 2018. Like all of the Mets’ signings this week, there’s very little risk in bringing Hughes on board, especially with active rosters set for 30 players to start the 60-game season—assuming the season happens.