Mets Sign Taylor Kohlwey To Minor League Deal

The Mets have signed outfielder Taylor Kohlwey to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training, the team announced Friday.

A 21st-round pick by the Padres back in 2016, Kohlwey made his big league debut this season and went 2-for-13 with a pair of singles. The 29-year-old has minimal big league experience but a strong track record of getting on base in the upper minors, evidenced by a career .296/.387/.444 slash in parts of four Triple-A seasons. Kohlwey has walked in 12.1% of his Triple-A plate appearances and fanned at a lower-than-average 17.5% rate.

He’s played primarily left field in his professional career but also has nearly 1800 innings in right field, more than 750 innings in center and more than 800 innings at first base. He marks yet another depth pickup for new president of baseball operations David Stearns, who’s been active in minor league free agency, on the waiver wire and with big league signings on the fringes of the Mets’ 40-man roster early in the offseason. The Mets have yet to make any major splashes under Stearns, though they’ve been connected to several of the top remaining free agent names — most notably NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.