Former Guardians pitcher resurfaces on minor league deal with disappointing Mets 

While the Cleveland Guardians 2023 season was a 162-game marathon of frustration, it still came with some positive stories. 

One of those stories was the performance of Xzavion Curry, who had a 4.07 ERA in a career-high 95 innings with Cleveland. While those stats don’t jump off the page, he pitched in every role the Guardians asked of him as they navigated a plethora of injuries across their staff. 

That ended up being the high mark of his Guardians career, however, as he struggled early in 2024 before being designated for assignment midway through the season while in the minors. 

He was quickly scooped up by the Marlins on the waiver wire, and has bounced around the league since. 

That journey gained another chapter over the weekend when Curry inked a minor league contract with the Mets after opening the season with the Tigres de Quintana Roo of the Mexican League.

Xzavion Curry is working as a starting pitcher again with the New York Mets

Curry finished last season with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate, but he had an eye-popping 7.97 ERA in eight starts. 

The only other MLB action he’s seen outside of Cleveland came in the Marlins in the form of 18 innings in 2024 and just three innings in 2025. 

That strong 2024 performance helped him hold a spot on the Marlins’ 40-man roster in the offseason ahead of the 2025 season, but he didn’t break camp with the club and ended up being cut loose after just three disappointing outings. 

Curry started his minor league career with the Guardians as a full-time starter, but almost all of his recent big league action has come as a reliever. 

That said, it seems like the Mets could be using him as some rotation depth. All four of his appearances with Tigres de Quintana Roo came as a starter (4.87 ERA in 20 1/3 innings), and he worked as a starter in his organizational debut for the Mets on Sunday. 

He pitched five innings for Triple-A Syracuse and allowed two runs (both on solo home runs) and recorded four strikeouts. 

The biggest thing working against him in that role is that his fastball sits at just 90 miles per hour and he’s struck out just 15.5% of the batters he’s faced in the big leagues. That middling arsenal didn’t really help him in the bullpen, but it may play a bit more in the starting rotation. 

The Mets have arguably been one of the most disappointing teams in MLB this season, as they have the worst record in the National League (15-25) and are coming off a series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

New York’s starters have been one of the team’s bright spots (3.89 ERA), but Curry holds a valuable role as a depth arm with MLB experience who could be ready at a moment’s notice should the Mets suffer an injury in their rotation (or trade someone away). 

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