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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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The New York Mets, faced with injuries to two of their veteran starting pitchers, have signed another to a minor league contract as spring training gets underway.
Right-handed pitcher Jose Ureña was in the team's clubhouse Thursday in Port St. Lucie, Florida, where he confirmed to Newsday's Tim Healey that he is in camp as a non-roster invitee with a minor league contract.
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Ureña, 33, is 44-77 with a 4.76 ERA in his career with the Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers.
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Last season he went 5-8 with a 3.80 ERA in 33 games (nine starts) for Texas. According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post on Twitter/X, Ureña will be paid $2 million if he's in the majors, with a chance to earn an additional $750,000 in performance-related incentives.
Mets right-hander Frankie Montas (right lat strain) and left-hander Sean Manaea (oblique strain) are both set to start the season on the injured list because of injuries diagnosed in camp.
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Manaea, 33, will not throw for the next two to three weeks, after which he will restart his spring progression, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. He's unlikely to return before mid-to-late April.
Montas, 31, was shut down from throwing for 6 to 8 weeks because of his injury. He might not return until May or June.
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Enter Ureña, who turned heads with a strong 2017 season (14-7, 3.82 ERA in 169.2 innings) in Miami. He followed that up by going 9-12 with a 3.98 ERA in 31 starts and 174 innings for the Marlins in 2018 at age 26.
Since then, Ureña has failed to recapture his early success. He's played for six teams in the last five seasons; the Mets would be his sixth.
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Some fans were pining for a reunion between the Mets and left-hander Jose Quintana, who last season went 10-10 with a 3.75 ERA in Queens and remains a free agent.
Either the Mets are unwilling to meet Quintana's asking price, or they don't feel it justifies the expense given that Montas and Manaea will return from their injuries before long.
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Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Paul Blackburn, and Griffin Canning are currently the top five starters on the Mets' depth chart, with Ureña perhaps the next line of defense if another starting pitcher is hurt in spring training.
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