The Mets did not just add a player on October 29, 2026. They used the waiver wire to buy themselves another roster option, and Kyren Paris gets another chance to prove there is more in the profile than the major league line suggests. For the Angels, the move is another sign that Paris was no longer central to their plans, even if his upside still made him worth monitoring.
Paris is still only 25 next month, but his major league résumé has been thin: parts of four big league seasons, a.147/.238/.272 line, seven home runs and 11 stolen bases in 263 career plate appearances. That is not much production to hang a future on. At the same time, the bat has shown a different shape in the minors, where he hit.274/.384/.458 with 13 homers and 24 steals. The split is exactly why this kind of waiver claim happens. One level says the player has not yet arrived. Another says there is still enough skill to justify one more look.
What the Mets had to give up
To make room, the Mets designated Cristian Pache for assignment. At this stage of his career, Pache is a depth player, which tells you how tight the 40-man roster has become. The Mets are also staring at more housekeeping before Monday evening, when they will need three more cuts and activate Tylor Megill, Jorge Polanco and Reed Garrett from the 60-day injured list. That is the real backdrop here: this is not a simple claim, but part of a larger roster squeeze.
Paris’s path is still uncertain before Opening Day because of his minor league option status. That matters because the Mets are not just adding a name; they are adding a decision point. He barely factored into the Angels’ big league plans this season, yet the combination of age, speed and flashes of minor league production makes him the kind of player another club will keep trying to sort out.
There is also a cautionary number sitting in the middle of all this: 38%. That is the kind of figure that can separate promise from proof in a hurry, and Paris has not yet made the major league case that his tools will consistently play against top competition. But waiver claims are rarely about certainty. They are about whether a club thinks a player’s next chapter can look different from the first one.
For the Angels, the roster shuffle included dropping Sebastián Rivero and Sammy Peralta as well, another reminder that this is a business of constant trimming. For the Mets, it is a low-cost bet on a player whose minor league line still gives scouts and front offices something to work with. The question now is simple: can Kyren Paris turn another chance into something more permanent?
