The Mets are planning to select Tommy Pham’s contract, adding the 38-year-old to the 40-man roster after Juan Soto landed on the injured list with a calf strain. Pham signed a non-roster pact with the club on Opening Day and has played four games at the Single-A level since then.
Pham’s addition would raise the Mets’ 40-man roster from 37 players to 38 and give the team another option as it keeps patching together the outfield corners. The club has been leaning on rookie Carson Benge, infielder Brett Baty, Tyrone Taylor and Jared Young while Soto recovers, a mix forced more by necessity than comfort.
The move also says a lot about how little game action Pham has had since he arrived. He has spent only those four Single-A games with the organization and has not logged much time at Triple-A, a thin buildup for a player the Mets are now asking to step into a major league role. That makes the decision less about a polished reinforcements package and more about an urgent roster need.
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The pressure has been visible in the numbers. Taylor has hit.211/.250/.421 with a 91 wRC+ this year. Benge, in the first 14 games of his MLB career, was at.130/.231/.196 with a 33 wRC+. Baty has carried a 60 wRC+ and a 29.4% strikeout rate while playing a mostly unfamiliar position, and Young has 23 plate appearances in 56 MLB games since debuting with the Cubs in 2022.
That is the context behind Pham’s return: the Mets need steadier production and more reliable coverage in the corners while Soto is out. The club has been shopping for answers from within, and now it looks ready to give Pham a shot because the alternatives have already been tried.
Pham has always brought a certain edge, and it has followed him from clubhouse to clubhouse. One of the lines attached to him around the game — “We need a guy that works and doesn’t let up like Pham” — captures why teams keep circling back despite the baggage that can come with his name. Another reminder from his past in New York, “Remember when Pham said the Mets players were lazy last time he was with us?”, hangs over this reunion too. For the Mets, though, the question is simpler now: can he give them enough innings, enough contact and enough presence to steady a corner-outfield situation that has already gone off script?
