The Mets signed first baseman/corner outfielder Daniel Palka to a minor league contract yesterday, according to an announcement from their Triple-A club in Syracuse. He’ll join their top affiliate there.
Palka, 31, is familiar with the New York organization. He spent the 2022 campaign in Syracuse on a minor league pact, hitting .263/.344/.506 with 26 longballs over 109 games. The Mets never gave him a big league look. He returned to minor league free agency last offseason and caught on with the Red Sox on a non-roster pact.
Through 314 plate appearances with the Sox’s top affiliate in Worcester, Palka hit .233/.309/.410 with 12 home runs. Boston released him towards the end of July. A month later, the left-handed hitter makes his return to Syracuse. He’ll have a little over a month to try to play his way onto the big league roster.
Palka’s only MLB experience to date came with the 2018-19 White Sox. He appeared in 154 games over those two seasons, roughly one full campaign’s worth of work. He blasted 29 home runs and slugged .433, but he struck out in nearly 35% of his trips. His .218 average and .277 on-base percentage reflected his trouble consistently putting the ball in play.
That hasn’t been as big a problem at the Triple-A level. Palka’s strikeout rates there have hovered between 21-24%, roughly league average rates, over the past three seasons. Yet he didn’t hit for his typical level of power in Worcester, as his .410 slugging mark there is the lowest he’s posted in any of his seven Triple-A campaigns.
