Benjamin Grimm wrote: Wait, so he's playing for a Padres farm team, but he can opt for free agency? The Mets can just sign him, without having to send any players or money to San Diego? The opt-out probably states something along the lines of if he's not called up to the Padres big club by a certain date (June 1st?) then he can opt out of his deal and then, yes, he would in effect by a FA with no compensation due to SD Loney never turned out to be the player I though he was going to when he first showed up with the Dodgers. But as a stop-gap it's not a bad move [.291/.337/.393 from 2013-15 w/TB, 26 HRs over 1,500 ABs] and, if nothing else, he's a terrific fielder and still just turned 32 y/o a few weeks back. Coincidentally, James Loney is the target comp many use for Dom Smith: good glove, average-hitting 1B with less HR power than typical of that position.