The Mets extend José Bautista’s sagging career with a 1-year contract

The Mets have signed José Bautista to a one-year major league contract at the MLB minimum salary. The team confirmed the news Tuesday, optioning Phillip Evans to Las Vegas to make room for the former Blue Jay on their 25-man roster.

After being let go by the Braves on Sunday, Bautista was once again looking for a major league job despite hitting only .143/.250/.343 with five home runs in his month in Atlanta. That wasn’t quite good enough to cut it on a roster that has other offensive options.

The Mets however, are struggling. They’ve unfortunately dipped back to their normal Mets ways after a hot start to the season, and are dealing with a litany of injuries — including two significant injuries to outfielders Juan Lagares and Yoenis Cespedes, the former of which will be out for the season and the latter of which is dealing with a two-steps-forward-one-step-back recovery situation at the moment.

Bautista can fill those gaps in the outfield ably enough, but can also do something else the Mets need at the moment: hit lefties. He’s hitting .188/.350/.563 with a .913 OPS in eight games against left handed pitchers this season. He has a 147 OPS+ against lefties, compared to a woeful -14 OPS+ in 11 games against righties.

New York specifically mentioned his OPS against lefties in their press release on the signing, so we can be pretty confident that’s the boost they’re counting on by adding Bautista to the lineup.

He’ll be available for Tuesday night’s game against the Marlins, and, with any luck, will be able to stay on the roster for the rest of the season to finish his career strong (or strong-ish) on a team that can actually benefit from his skills. Especially if everyone else on the roster continues to fall apart around him.

Or, you know, he could crash and burn and inadvertently fit in even better as a late-career Mets player than if he succeeded.