The Mets announced a series of roster moves Friday, designating righties Adrian Houser and Shintaro Fujinami for assignment in order to open roster space for the return of Kodai Senga and the recall of righty Eric Orze from Triple-A Syracuse. (Fujinami was technically reinstated from the injured list prior to his DFA.) The Mets also placed righty Dedniel Núñez on the 15-day injured list due to a right pronator strain.
Houser, now 31, was acquired from the Brewers in the offseason alongside outfielder Tyrone Taylor. David Stearns had just been installed as the Mets’ new president of baseball operations and was familiar with both players from his time in Milwaukee.
The righty was coming off five fairly solid seasons with the Brewers, primarily as a starter. From 2019 to 2023, Houser had made 120 appearances for Milwaukee with 97 of those being starts. In his 523 2/3 innings, he allowed 4.04 earned runs per nine. His 19.2% strikeout rate was subpar but his 9.1% walk rate was close to average and he kept the ball on the ground at a strong clip of 52.5%.
It was hoped that he could serve a similar back-end role in the rotation in Queens but that didn’t go according to plan. Houser made six starts through early May but had an 8.16 ERA in those and got bumped to the bullpen. Since losing his rotation spot, his results have looked similar to his old self. In his last 40 2/3 innings, he has a 4.20 ERA, 16.9% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 50.8% ground ball rate.
Despite his results evening out, he has been squeezed off the Mets’ roster, perhaps not coincidentally just before the trade deadline. The Mets started the season with Senga and David Peterson on the injured list but both are now back on the roster. Though Christian Scott is now on the IL with a sprain of his UCL, the rotation mix now includes Senga, Peterson, Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Jose Quintana and Tylor Megill with José Buttó in the big league bullpen.
Houser was largely blocked from getting another rotation gig there but perhaps he could be of interest to another club in need of starting pitching. Houser won’t be as exciting as aces like Garrett Crochet or Tarik Skubal but there are clubs who arguably just need solid back-end innings, such as the Guardians, Astros, Padres, Atlanta or Houser’s former club in Milwaukee. He is making $5.05MM this year, with roughly $1.7MM still to be paid out. He’s on pace for free agency at season’s end.
Fujinami, 30, put up huge strikeout…
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