Veteran reliever Nick Tropeano elects free agency

Nick Tropeano has elected free agency after being passed through outright waivers by the Mets, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. New York designated the 30-year-old for assignment last Friday to clear roster space to accommodate their deadline-day acquisitions.

As a player who had previously been outrighted in his career, Tropeano had the right to elect free agency while retaining the remainder of his $1.1M salary for this season. He’s now free to explore opportunities around the league.

Tropeano saw a bit of big league time with the Giants and Mets this season, tossing eight innings of three-run ball. He struck out only two batters in that tiny sample of work, but the right-hander showed far better bat-missing ability in some time with the Pirates last year. Over 15 2/3 frames with Pittsburgh, Tropeano pitched to a 1.15 ERA with a strong 28.8% strikeout rate and 14.9% swinging strike rate.

Given his decent performance over the past couple of seasons, Tropeano should have little trouble finding another opportunity on the open market. While he broke in as a starting pitcher with the Astros and Angels, Tropeano has worked exclusively in relief over the past two years, managing a cumulative 1.52 ERA/3.52 FIP over 23 2/3 innings.