It’s been awhile since lefty Casey Fossum was relevant in MLB, but he’s still just 33, and after spending 2010 in Japan, the former top prospect has signed a minor league deal with the Mets. He’ll compete for a bullpen job.
Fossum has pitched for the Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Rays, Tigers, and Mets in his big league career, last appearing in three games for New York in 2009. The last time he spent a full year in the bigs was 2007, with the then-Devil Rays, posting a 7.70 ERA. Yikes.
With a career 5.45 ERA in 786 career innings, Fossum hasn’t enjoyed much success in the bigs despite being given ample chances as both a starter and reliever. The lefty has struggled with homers (1.31 HR/9 career), and has only posted a K/BB ratio of better than 2.13 once, back in 2002. Since that 2002 season, he hasn’t posted an ERA below 4.92 or a FIP below 4.36.
Fossum has long struggled from the stretch, as he has a 65.7% career strand rate, consistently making his ERA worse than his FIPs. That makes him ill-suited for a relief role, and he doesn’t have the sort of plus slider to make for an effective lefty specialist. He does have some deception, enough velocity to be a second lefty, and a nice curveball, but Fossum’s fastball lacks movement and he doesn’t have the command to get away with that.
Given how difficult the Mets’ park is on right-handed hitters, Fossum has as good of a shot at success there as he does anywhere other than maybe San Diego, Seattle, or Oakland. It’s worth noting he did some nice work in Triple-A in 2009, and who knows what he learned in Japan, but all things considered, Fossum has too long a history of negative performances to make him more than an extreme longshot to be above replacement-level. That said, he’s proven he can at least take the ball and succeed in Triple-A, so it’s not like his signing is a bad move.