Mets Ink Atlantic League Hurler To Minor League Deal

Justin Hampson pitching for the San Diego Padres. Credit: SD Dirk / Flickr

According to Baseball America's Matthew Eddy, the New York Mets have signed left-handed pitcher Justin Hampson to a minor league contract.

Credit: LI Ducks

Hampson has been somewhat of a minor league journeyman the past couple of seasons. He last pitched at the big league level with the San Diego Padres, who play in a notoriously pitcher's friendly park similar to Citi Field.

His best year in the bigs came in 2007 where he put up an ERA of 2.70 in 39 games pitched. The next season, he produced similar results by posting an ERA of 2.93 in 35 games.

Most recently, Hampson was a member of the 2010 Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League for a brief time during the month of July last season.

He pitched in merely four games with the Ducks, including one poor outing on July 21st against Newark in which he gave up four runs in one inning en route to a 12-5 loss. This caused his ERA with the team to balloon to 11.25.

Earlier in the year the 30 year-old pitched with the York Revolution and his numbers were a bit more respectable. Hampson pitched in 16 games with the Revs and accumulated a 4.96 ERA with 11 strike-outs and 9 walks.

The bottom line is that just like the Casey Fossum signing from a few weeks ago, I see this move as being nothing more than organizational depth. If Hampson does crack the Major League roster at some point this year, it will likely be in the form of an emergency start or (more likely) a seventh man in the bullpen type of deal. Nevertheless, a good low-risk pickup by Mr. Alderson.