It didn’t take long for the New York Mets to begin adding to their arsenal of pitchers. In fact, on Halloween, they signed 33-year-old veteran Dylan Covey to a split contract. The rush likely had little to do with his big, bushy red beard which has become a disproportional quality of many Mets pitchers in recent seasons. Are we building a pitching staff or casting a Game of Thrones spin-off about the Wildlings?

Covey’s contract, while technically a major league deal, doesn’t require a stint on the active 26-man roster. He’ll earn one salary for time spent on the major league roster and a different one for days he’s a minor leaguer. It has become a trendy way to encourage players like Covey to sign. The Mets handed out the same type of deal to infielder/outfielder Jared Young. Last year, Austin Adams received a split contract but was traded to the Oakland Athletics before the season began. He took it personally.

The Mets have already added enough players to guarantee Dylan Covey starts the year in the minors

The financial benefits of a split contract don’t allow a team to circumnavigate the ability to demote a player without first clearing waivers. Covey is out of options. The likeliest scenario for him is to begin the year in the minors if the Mets don’t repeat with him what they did with Adams in 2024.

Covey moves down the depth chart with the way the Mets have built up their pitching staff. Already an outside shot at making the team out of camp, the decision to tender a deal to Paul Blackburn and sign Griffin Canning quickly adds a multi-inning option to the roster. Blackburn seems a surer thing to be a starter rather than a reliever. Canning should, at the very least, remain stretched out for some starting opportunities.

Covey came to the Mets with a terrifying 6.18 ERA in 307.1 innings of big league work. He last appeared in the majors in 2023 as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. He wasn’t bad, finishing with a 3.69 ERA in 39 innings of work.

Last year included just 20.1 innings in the minor leagues. Most of his year was spent injured or rehabbing from a shoulder injury. Coming to the Mets will give him a chance to possibly push his way up the depth chart for a ball club determined to have as many starting pitching options they can get.

Maybe the most interesting thing about Covey’s career was how he managed to go over to China and pitch well after a few seasons floundering in MLB. He would make 33 starts and go 16-10 with a 3.63 ERA in 2021 and 2022. It wasn’t a complete anomaly. Covey has a lifetime 2.84 ERA in Triple-A and a 1.83 ERA in Double-A albeit the latter coming in only 34.1 innings.

Long ago the 14th overall pick in the 2010 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers, he went unsigned out of high school only to fall to the fourth round in 2013 by the Oakland Athletics after a rough final year at the University of San Diego. His MLB career never quite got off the ground with three different seasons with varying samples of an ERA in the 7.00s. His largest sampled season, the 2018 campaign with the Chicago White Sox, included a 5.18 ERA in 121.2 innings.

Don’t count on Covey playing much of a factor on the Mets this coming year. As much a project in skill and rehabilitation, the one benefit he can bring is the ability to eat innings. That won’t sell tickets. If we’re lucky, it’ll save someone better the grief of having to burn through his shoulder for a night.