TODAY: The Mets sent Ibáñez outright to Triple-A Syracuse, according to his trade tracker on MLB.com. That indicates that Ibáñez cleared waivers after being selected for the assignment and accepted directly rather than giving up his guaranteed salary.
May 12: The Mets announced the infielder on Tuesday Andy Ibanez selected for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster is moving up AJ Ewinghis previously reported selection to the major league roster is now official.
New York said the 33-year-old Ibáñez was waived by the A’s late last month. He appeared in just three games as a Met, going 0-for-6 with sacrifice flies in eight trips to the plate. Between brief stints with the Athletics and the Mets, Ibáñez made 26 plate appearances this season and went 2-for-23 with a walk, three strikeouts and that pair of flies.
Clearly a bad start to the season, even though Ibáñez has a long history in the big leagues, especially against left-handed hitting. He is a career .250/.301/.383 hitter in 1246 plate appearances as a big leaguer but has a solid .272/.316/.437 slash (108 wRC+) in 572 career plate appearances against southpaws. While in Detroit, Ibáñez was captain AJ Hinch’s first choice. Since 2023-24, Hinch has tied Ibáñez in 272 plate appearances against lefties and has been credited with a .278/.331/.480 batting line.
Ibáñez’s production against lefties dropped to around league average last year, however, which led to Detroit not tendering him. He signed with the Dodgers in free agency, but LA was apparently hoping to sign him to a one-year contract and move him off waivers to focus on the depth of the top minors. The A’s swooped in to sign him in February, two weeks after he signed with the Dodgers in the first place.
On the defensive side of things, Ibáñez is efficient and effective. He posted career-high marks at second base, third base and first base in his major league career. He also made brief cameos at shortstop (eight innings) and in the corner outfield (171 innings). No team is going to slot him as a semi-regular option at shortstop, but he can handle a spot in a pinch and can jump almost anywhere else on the diamond. Ibáñez isn’t hot on the trails, but his fastball sits in the 55th percentile of major leaguers, according to Statcast, so he can be a late-pinch option for a plodding slugger if needed.
Ibáñez is making $1.2MM this season. Any team that wants him or gets him in a trade will be at risk of getting the remaining $897K of that amount (though the Mets could put some money into the seemingly unlikely deal where another club is willing to give up a lower-division prospect). Ibáñez is out of the minor league system, so he will need to get on the club’s new minor league roster. If he goes through an unclaimed waiver, he has enough time of service to decline the direct assignment in favor of the free offer, but doing so will mean losing his guaranteed salary. Therefore, he is likely to accept a Triple-A assignment and remain as a depth option for the Mets.
