Former Guardians pitcher thrust into baseball wilderness at worst possible time thanks to Mets DFA 

While Xzavion Curry hasn’t reached the same level of usage this year with the Mets that he did with the Guardians in 2023, he’s still quietly held a valuable role for the floundering Mets. 

Sure, all of his appearances this year came after the team had all but been eliminated from the postseason picture, but someone still had to eat innings as they played out the string. 

And that’s exactly what Curry did, as he covered 21 1/3 innings working as a longman in New York’s bullpen… and the Mets rewarded him for that work by designating him for assignment on Thursday to make room for waiver claim Philip Abner. 

That DFA means Curry is going to hit the waiver wire at the worst possible time. With just three days left in the season, it seems like Curry’s season is over regardless of if he gets claimed by a team or not. 

But if Curry goes unclaimed, he’ll have the ability to reject a minor league assignment and enter the offseason as a minor league free agent. 

Even though the Mets were likely to non-tender Curry after the season to make room for players returning from the injured list, his late-season DFA is another reminder of how rough the baseball business can be for pitchers on the fringe of a big league roster.

Xzavion Curry's offseason just got more uncertain thanks to the Mets designating him for assignment

Curry is at a point where he’s become a Quad-A pitcher. He’s good enough to succeed in Triple-A (3.36 ERA in 72 1/3 innings at Triple-A Syracuse this season), but not good enough to have consistent success in the big leagues. 

Curry had three separate big league stints with the Mets this year, and allowed six runs in three innings in his latest outing with the Mets last week. 

They sent him down to Triple-A after that disastrous outing, and he followed it up with a scoreless, two-inning outing at Syracuse.

The Triple-A season ended last weekend, so teams who aren’t going to be in the postseason are beginning to trim depth arms from their roster who they don’t see as a part of their future. 

While Abner hasn’t had much success in the big leagues, he’s recorded a 3.18 ERA in 130 1/3 innings at Triple-A since the start of 2024. The Mets liked enough that they felt he was worth holding onto through the offseason, and that hunch came at the cost of Curry. 

After a quiet offseason last winter, Curry had to settle for a stint in the Mexican League that led to him signing his initial minor league contract with the Mets.

He may not have set the world on fire during his stint in Queens, but it should be enough for him to sign a minor league contract somewhere for 2027. 

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