Friday is an important roster deadline around Major League Baseball, and a New York Mets player appears to be on the wrong side of the numbers.
Teams have until Friday afternoon to decide whether to tender contracts to their players who are still on their rookie deals. In most cases, the players who are non-tendered have high projected salaries through arbitration, but occasionally, players making league-minimum salaries still get the boot.
Mets left-hander Danny Young has played in parts of four major league seasons, but with only 1.2 years of service time, he is not yet arbitration-eligible. However, because he is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery, and because he hasn’t been a major contributor when healthy, the Mets are set to move on from the 31-year-old.
On Thursday, Will Sammon of The Athletic reported that the Mets intend to non-tender Young, though the move has not yet been made official as of Friday morning.
“The Mets are planning to non-tender lefty reliever Danny Young, league source says,” wrote Sammon. “Young, who is not yet arb-eligible, had Tommy John surgery in May. He recently started throwing and is on pace to return at some point in the first half of 2026.”
Young made 10 appearances for the Mets last season, pitching to a 4.32 ERA in 8 1/3 innings. He has a 4.01 career ERA, with 42 of his 63 outings coming during the 2024 season, when he also made the Mets’ playoff roster. Before New York, he pitched briefly for the Seattle Mariners and Atlanta Braves.
New York entered Friday with a full 40-man roster, so they don’t necessarily need to make other moves. It is interesting, though, that they would wait to make this move until after the deadline passed to elevate eligible prospects to the 40-man to protect against losing them in the Rule 5 Draft.
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