Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?
The Mets have made some interesting non-roster invitee signings this off-season for players from other systems. Rumbelow is not one of them. He signed last year with the Mets, but were not ready to talk about that yet.
The Yankees drafted him in 2013 out of Louisiana State. He debuted with the Yankees in 2015 and was subsequently released in 2016. He then resigned with the Yankees a month later and was traded a year later to the Mariners, who released him in the middle of 2019.
In 2015 he got into 17 games and logged 15.2 innings with a 4.02 ERA and 1.340 WHIP. In 2018 with the Mariners he got into 13 games and pitched 17.2 innings with a 6.11 ERA. Last year got into only three games and recorded 4 outs while allowing 4 runs.
This is where his story gets interesting. He then goes to Sugar Land, an Independent team and dominates, throws 22.0 innings in 21 games and has a 0.81 ERA. He’s 2.1 years younger than the average independent ball player. The Mets see this and sign him and in 5 games in Syracuse he posts a 4.26 ERA (compared to a 8.17 ERA in Tacoma earlier in the season).
It’s unclear what the Mets have with Rumbelow outside of a pitcher with an interesting recent history. Rumbelow is also still quite far down on the depth chart and he’ll have a lot of competition with members of the 40 man roster trying to break the 25 man (while Rumbelow will just be trying to get on the 40 man period). The three batter minimum will also be an interesting hurdle for him. But he’s here and everyone loves a good origin story.
