The Mets signed 29-year-old lefty Dicky Lovelady to a major league deal this afternoon, the team announced. The journeyman has been with five teams over his six-year career and was pitching for Triple-A St. Paul in the Twins organization. He pitched to a 1.31 ERA in 19 Triple-A appearances before opting out of his minor league contract with the Twins. Lovelady has good numbers against lefties and will complement a bullpen which currently only contains one other left-hander, José Castillo, due to season-ending injuries to both A.J. Minter and Danny Young.
Lovelady will be active for tonight’s series opener against the Braves at Citi Field and will be joined by veteran outfielder Travis Jankowski, with whom the Mets reunited on a minor league deal a couple of weeks ago. Jankowski spent time with both the White Sox and Rays before joining the Syracuse Mets, where he hit .200/.263/.286 in 35 at-bats (though he has been hot of late).
To make room for these new additions to the roster, RHP Tyler Zuber and infielder Luisangel Acuña were optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. Though Acuña made the Mets out of spring training and had a strong April, he has posted just a 31 wRC+ since the beginning of May and he has started only five games this month. Acuña has mostly been serving as a late-inning pinch runner and defensive replacement. Given Jankowski’s ability to pinch run and Ronny Mauricio’s ability to play most infield positions, Acuña’s role on the roster becomes redundant with the addition of Jankowski.
Though the Mets did already have a 40-man roster vacancy, they also opened up another one as part of this flurry of roster moves by transferring Jose Siri to the 60-day injured list. The Mets will soon need this 40-man roster spot for Frankie Montas, who is slated to start tomorrow’s game.
