Mets acquire RHPs Trevor Gott and Chris Flexen from Mariners; Flexen to be DFA’d

The Mets made a move to address their pitching depth on Monday, trading left-hander Zach Muckenhirn to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for right-handed relievers Chris Flexen and Trevor Gott.

Per SNY’s MLB Insider Andy Martino, the Mets will designate Flexen for assignment.

So in order to land a reliever like Gott, the Mets were willing to take Flexen’s salary off the Mariners’ hands, even if they had no intention of keeping Flexen on the roster. Martino reported in late June that this strategy of taking on bad contracts to acquire players could prove beneficial for the Mets.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Mets will pay the roughly $4 million remaining on Flexen’s contract, as well as the $600,000 owed to Gott.

Flexen was designated for assignment by the Mariners last week and will once again be DFA’d by the Mets. The 29-year-old has struggled this season, pitching to a 7.71 ERA and a 1.857 WHIP in 42.0 innings, but he had some success as a starter for the M’s in the previous two seasons, going 22-15 with a 3.66 ERA in 53 starts (64 total games).

Flexen was drafted by the Mets in the 14^th round of the 2012 draft, and he spent parts of three big league seasons in Queens, pitching to an 8.07 ERA in 27 games (11 starts). He left the Mets following the 2019 season, playing one year in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) with the Doosan Bears before ending up with the Mariners.

Gott, 30, has bounced around to five different big league teams. In 30 appearances with the Mariners this season, Gott has pitched to a 4.03 ERA. He also was recently reinstated from the IL, where he spent time due to lower back muscle spasms.

The lefty Muckenhirn, 28, was designated for assignment by the Mets earlier on Monday. In three big league games this season, Muckenhirn owned a 6.00 ERA of his 6.0 innings of work.