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Report: Villar signs Mets contract after Giants departure originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

A former Giants slugger is on the move.

After San Francisco designated infielder David Villar for assignment on May 19, the 28-year-old cleared waivers and elected to become a free agent, where he signed a minor-league contract with the New York Mets, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reported Tuesday, citing a source.

The Mets have signed infielder David Villar to a minor league deal, per source. Recently DFA'd by the Giants, has an .859 career OPS in the minors.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) May 28, 2025

Villar spent seven seasons in the Giants’ minor-league system and won Pacific Coast League MVP in 2022 with the Sacramento River Cats.

In four seasons with San Francisco at the major-league level, Villar batted .200/.292/.391 with 15 home runs and 41 RBI in 383 plate appearances.

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Carlos Rodon dominated the Angels for seven innings and the Yankees launched two home runs as they held on to win 3-2 on Tuesday night in Anaheim.

The Yankees have now won four straight games and their seventh consecutive series.

Here are the takeaways...

-There was a pitcher's duel going on in Anaheim with Rodon and Tyler Anderson trading zeroes until the fourth inning when Ben Rice took the southpaw deep for his 11th bomb of the season. Rice saw a 77 mph changeup that went over the middle of the plate, and launched it 423 feet over the right-center field wall.

The Yankees would push across another run in the sixth after an error by center fielder Matthew Lugo allowed Cody Bellinger to reach third with one out. Anthony Volpe cashed in with a single after jumping on a first-pitch changeup up in the zone.

-Rodon entered Tuesday's game allowing just one run over his last 11 innings pitched and continued that dominant stretch against the Angels. At one point, Rodon retired 11 straight Angels. He gave up a two-out double to Jo Adell in the seventh, and manager Aaron Boone came out to give his starter a blow and left him in to try and get the final out of the inning. Rodon paid off his manager's faith with his 10th strikeout of the game to keep the Angels off the board.

The Yankees' southpaw did it all, he got through seven innings despite a couple of innings where he threw at least 20 pitches. Rodon's final line saw him throw 105 pitches (69 strikes) without allowing a run and scattering five hits and no walks. He tied a season-high with 10 punchouts and lowered his ERA to 2.60.

Rodon even helped his own cause with a tremendous Jeter-esque jump throw to first base to complete the play.

-The Yankees would tack on against the Angels' defense in the seventh courtesy of an Oswald Peraza homer, his third of the season. The infielder's blast was off his bat at 111.8 mph, the hardest hit ball of the night and went 408 feet to dead center.

Aaron Judge picked up his 80th hit of the season with his first-inning single, raising his season average, briefly, to .401, but ultimately finished 1-for-4 with two strikeouts, having dropped his batting average to .395.

-Jonathan Loaisiga pitched a perfect eighth inning, and with Luke Weaver unavailable due to pitching two days in a row, Devin Williams was asked to close out the game and he made it very interesting. He allowed a leadoff homer to Yoan Moncada, and after Taylor Ward's single, Travis d'Arnaud flew out to the center field warning track. Luis Rengifo singled to put runners on the corners and pitching coach Matt Blake came out to talk to Williams.

Adell grounded into a force out, but drove in the Angels' second run. Young catcher Logan O'Hoppe came on to pinch-hit and got the green light to swing on a 3-0 count and popped out to Peraza in foul territory to pick up his fifth save of the season, his first in a month.

Game MVP: Carlos Rodon

Rodón has a 1.27 ERA over his last eight starts and his 90 strikeouts are second in the AL behind only Tarik Skubal.

Highlights

Aaron Judge gets his 80th hit on the year and is batting .401 🔥

(via @MLB) pic.twitter.com/yfOL9FPCcq

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 28, 2025

Ben Rice opens the scoring with a homer! pic.twitter.com/zHa6U5ZyCH

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 28, 2025

What's next

The Yankees and Angels finish their three-game series on Wednesday night. First pitch is set for 9:38 p.m.

Clarke Schmidt (1-2, 4.58 ERA) is on the mound and will be opposed by Yusei Kikuchi (1-4, 317 ERA).

With numerous arms down for the middle match of a three-game set with the White Sox on Monday night, Carlos Mendoza knew the Mets were going to have to piece this one together to get through the later innings. 

Tylor Megill threw well despite not having his best stuff. The right-hander allowed a two-run homer to the second batter he faced and was forced to work around traffic for the majority of the night, toughing his way through five-plus innings before being pulled after issuing a pair of two-out walks in the sixth. 

José Butto then entered and escaped a bases-loaded jam for the second straight night.

Butto returned for the seventh and found himself in some trouble of his own doing, as a pair of singles and a double resulted in two White Sox coming in to score, making it a one-run ballgame -- but lefty José Castillo bailed him out, striking out Edgar Quero on just three pitches.

“Honestly, I thought he was good today,” Mendoza said of Butto. “We got a groundball and couldn’t turn the double play, the inning was over there pretty much -- but he came in with the bases loaded again like yesterday and got out of it with one pitch.”  

Castillo started the eighth, but was pulled after allowing a leadoff single to Austin Slater. 

Reed Garrett then entered and continued his tremendous stretch of pitching -- striking out the pinch-hitter Luis Robert Jr. and center fielder Michael A. Taylor, before closing the door with an easy top of the ninth.

It was Garrett’s sixth career save, and his second in the last three days. 

With another scoreless appearance, he’s now down to an incredible 0.76 ERA on the season -- which is good enough for the fourth-best among relievers in baseball. 

“All of his pitches were working,” Mendoza said. “The cutter, the sinker, the split, really good -- he got swing-and-misses with all of his pitches. He got ahead and put them away, when he’s doing that he’s pretty nasty.”

As a group, the Mets continue to lead the majors with a terrific 2.80 ERA.

The Mets clearly see something in Jared Young. 

The left-handed hitting slugger hadn’t appeared in a big-league game since 2023 with the Chicago Cubs, but David Stearns decided to take a chance on him this offseason -- handing him a one-year split contract. 

Young impressed during spring training, but an injury set things back. 

The 29-year-old eventually worked his way back into the lineup at Triple-A Syracuse and showcased the big-time power he displayed so often last season while playing with the Doosan Bears of the KBO. 

He earned a call-up to the big-league team earlier this weekend and found himself inserted right into the lineup as the designated hitter for a big three-game series against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Young was relatively quiet, but Carlos Mendoza said pregame Tuesday that the team was happy with the at-bats he’s been putting together, and they were just looking for him to get into a groove and do some damage. 

A few hours later, he was able to do just that. 

Young kept the Mets’ first inning rally going against White Sox righty Jonathan Cannon, crushing a middle-middle cutter over the right field fence for the team’s second two-run homer of the inning. 

It was his third-ever long ball and his first MLB hit since October 2023. 

Two innings later, he struck against Cannon again, this time lining a double just out of the reach of Michael A. Taylor in the right-center field gap to give him just the second multi-hit showing of his career.  

He finished the night 2-for-3, bringing his OPS to 1.083 through five games. 

“He’s getting an opportunity back in the big leagues after grinding,” Mendoza said. “Whether it’s minor leagues going up and down or going overseas -- getting the opportunity here in the States, here we are getting a chance and he’s taking advantage of it.

“Like I said pregame, I like the at-bats and it was good to see him get results today.”

With lefty DH Jesse Winker still having a ways to go in his recovery from an oblique injury, Young figures have an opportunity to continue showing what he can do at the big-league level over the next few weeks. 

After just a few days, he feels right at home with this group. 

“It’s awesome,” Young said. “Looking at this team from the top down, it’s pretty good ballplayers and winning a lot of games. To get thrown into it, I feel like I belong and I feel like it’s a good spot and a good fit. And hope we can just keep winning some ballgames.”

Juan Soto simply can not catch a break right now.

Even when the Mets’ star outfielder drives a ball, it somehow finds its way into an out. 

Soto came up with one out in the bottom of the first and smacked an 0-1 changeup from White Sox right-hander Jonathan Cannon into the gap -- and Michael A. Taylor made a diving attempt to catch the liner.

Taylor trapped the ball as it dropped in for an extra-base hit, but Brandon Nimmo -- who had already rounded second on the play-- thought he was able to come up with the catch. 

As Nimmo began quickly racing back towards first, Soto danced out of the base path to get out of his way and the White Sox threw the ball back in -- stepping on second to record the second out of the inning. 

After the umps had a brief discussion, crew chief Sean Barber told the crowd that Soto was ruled out for passing Nimmo on the basepaths -- and it ended up going down in the books as a 354-foot unassisted lineout to the first baseman. 

Juan Soto was called out after Brandon Nimmo passed him on the base paths on a hit that was trapped by Michael A. Taylor pic.twitter.com/SUgy5DuEbU

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 27, 2025

Nimmo explained postgame that he wasn't looking at the ump for a ruling when he turned around, and has been going off of instinct since the Mets' wrongly called triple play a few weeks ago against the Nationals.

“When Soto hit it, I thought that’s down for sure for a double or better,” he said. “I went to go around the bag and had my back to the play and then I heard the crowd act like the ball was caught, so I turned around and went to get back to first base -- that's what happened. 

"I went and looked at the play afterwards -- probably shouldn’t be so aggressive, maybe just watch the play a little bit more, that’s the quick fix to it. But still, I looked at the play and he caught it short hop, so I can see where everyone was confused -- just one of those plays that's unfortunate.”

Luckily for Nimmo, the rest of the Mets’ offense was able to pick him up. 

After his blunder, they went on to string together five consecutive two-out knocks against Cannon, including a pair of two-run homers from Pete Alonso and Jared Young to push themselves back in front for good. 

“I mean, what a great inning,” Nimmo said. “I think almost the whole lineup had a hit, so that was fantastic. Definitely glad that Pete hit the home run there, but the whole offense did a great job there in the first inning -- it was a great start.”

The Mets have signed infielder David Villar to a minor league deal, MLB.com's Anthony DiComo reports.

Villar was designated for assignment by the San Francisco Giants last week before electing free agency after clearing waivers. Villar appeared in nine games this season for the Giants, going 4-for-20 with a double, one RBI and four walks.

The 28-year-old infielder does have major league experience beyond this year. For his career, he's slashed .200/.292/.391 with an OPS of .683 in 118 career games all with the Giants from 2022-25. While Villar's primary position has been at first base this season, he has experience at third and second base in his career.

Villar has done well in the minors this season, slashing .368/.439/.439 with an .878 OPS in 15 games in Triple-A.

The Mets pushed their winning streak to four games with a 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night at Citi Field.

Here are some takeaways...

- The White Sox jumped out to an early lead on a Miguel Vargas two-run homer in the first, but the Mets responded right back in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs, New York put together six straight hits, including two-run homers of their own from Pete Alonso and Jared Young to make it a 4-2 ballgame.

It was Alonso's 11th homer of the season and Young's first MLB hit since October 1, 2023, with the Cubs.

- Prior to the hit parade, there was even more craziness, as the Mets appeared to run themselves out of an inning when Juan Soto was called out after Brandon Nimmo passed him on the bases on a hit that was trapped by a diving Michael A. Taylor in the right-center gap.

Soto scorched the ball, but based on the scorer's ruling, he did not receive credit for a hit.

- Young followed up his homer with a hard-hit double in the bottom of the third. Carlos Mendoza said earlier in the day that the 29-year-old had been putting together some good at-bats; they were just looking for him to start doing damage -- he certainly responded well.

- After being handed the lead, Tylor Megill put together a scoreless inning, working around a double. He was helped out by his defense in the third, as Soto made a nice play to keep Chase Meidroth to a single, and Chicago's leadoff man was gunned down a few pitches later on a strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play.

Megill put together his first clean inning with a 1-2-3 fourth, and then worked around a one-out walk in the fifth. He struck out a pair to get to two outs in the sixth, but a single and back-to-back walks loaded the bases and brought his night to an end.

José Butto entered and escaped the jam for the second straight game thanks to a Jeff McNeil running grab in center -- closing Megill's line with just the two runs allowed on four hits while walking four and striking out six across 5.2 innings of work.

- Butto found himself in a jam of his own an inning later, and this time he wasn't able to escape. After the White Sox strung together back-to-back two-out hits, a wild pitch forced in a run and then Vargas crushed an RBI double off the left-field fence -- a mere inches away from a game-tying homer.

José Castillo was called upon, and he quickly put the go-ahead run on base with a hit-by-pitch, but just like he did in the series opener on Monday, he responded to punch out youngster Edgar Quero on three pitches.

- Castillo came back out for the seventh and allowed the leadoff man to reach on an infield single before turning things over to Reed Garrett, who punched out back-to-back batters, including pinch-hitter Luis Robert Jr., to end the inning. He then breezed through the ninth for his second save of the season.

- The Mets' offense was held in check after their early success -- managing just two baserunners after the third, but they were able to break through in the eighth. Three two-out hits from Jeff McNeil, Francisco Alvarez, and Francisco Lindor brought in a big insurance run -- that trio all reached base twice on the night.

- Brett Baty was bumped up to the five spot in the order because Mendoza likes how he's been swinging the bat of late. The youngster responded by getting two more hits and two runs scored -- he's now hitting just under .300 since returning from Syracuse.

- The Mets have now won four games in a row and are an incredible 21-6 at home this season.

Game MVP: Jared Young

Many were questioning why Young received his third straight start at DH, and he silenced them quickly.

Highlights

Juan Soto was called out after Brandon Nimmo passed him on the base paths on a hit that was trapped by Michael A. Taylor pic.twitter.com/SUgy5DuEbU

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 27, 2025

Pete Alonso ties it up with a 2-run blast! pic.twitter.com/HeGoBWR7HA

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 27, 2025

JARED YOUNG'S FIRST METS HIT IS A 2-RUN HOMER! pic.twitter.com/16Rg9JpkdI

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 27, 2025

Strike 'em out, throw 'em out! pic.twitter.com/gB3YTMdHyw

— New York Mets (@Mets) May 27, 2025

Jeff McNeil makes the catch on the run and the Mets escape the bases loaded jam in the 6th pic.twitter.com/YSNQyu9d4K

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 28, 2025

Reed Garrett gets him swinging! 😤 pic.twitter.com/AL3WICWzM1

— New York Mets (@Mets) May 28, 2025

What's next

First pitch for Wednesday's series finale has been bumped up due to weather.

Griffin Canning will now take the ball looking for the three-game series sweep against Rule 5 pick Shane Smith at 1:10 p.m. on SNY.

For a few weeks now, the Dodgers have been in the “treading water” portion of their season, trying to work through injuries in their pitching staff and inconsistencies in the lineup to remain atop the National League West standings.

On Tuesday, in a 9-5 win over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field, two of their coldest hitters finally gave them some comfortable space to breathe.

In a game that was close until the final few innings, Michael Conforto and Max Muncy both showed long-awaited signs of life at the plate, each reaching base three times and each hitting late home runs to help the Dodgers pull away on a cool night in Cleveland.

“It’s big,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It adds the length [to the lineup] that we expected coming into this season.”

For much of this year, that length had been missing, the Dodgers forced to navigate around subpar production from both veteran sluggers — both at the plate and in the field.

Entering the night, Muncy had just three home runs and a .653 OPS. Conforto had only two long balls and a .562 OPS. Their defensive play had been glaring weaknesses, as well, with Muncy’s eight errors ranking second among MLB third basemen and Conforto’s negative-three mark in defensive runs saved 12th out of 15 qualified MLB left fielders.

Read more:The simple adjustment the Dodgers hope will get closer Tanner Scott back on track

It had made the pair the weakest links in the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup. And it had invited widespread scrutiny from the fan base, raising speculation about their long-term roles with the team.

“Sometimes this game can be brutal,” Conforto said. “There's a lot of failure.”

Late on Tuesday night, however, both finally enjoyed much-needed success. 

After the Dodgers built an early 4-0 lead — they mounted a two-run second-inning rally and got a two-run homer from Shohei Ohtani in the fourth; his MLB leading 20th of the season and third-straight game going deep — the Guardians had gotten back within 4-3 by the time Conforto stepped to the plate in the sixth.

For the last several weeks, Conforto had slowly started turning his season around, hitting the ball harder and posting incrementally better results (not that things could have gotten much worse after he batted .134 in his first 36 games this season). This week, Roberts said the club’s hitting coaches were optimistic about Conforto’s recent cage work, as well, ever convinced the left-handed slugger was close to a more profound breakthrough at the plate.

It all came together in a full-count against Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis, Conforto barreling up an inside fastball for a 406-foot drive to center that marked his first home run since April 5.

“To hit a ball hard and see it leave the park,” Conforto said, “it's kind of everything that we've been working on.”

Conforto also singled in the Dodgers’ two-run second-inning rally, and later drew a walk in the eighth, raising his OPS to .833 over his last 14 games.

When he returned to the dugout after his no-doubt blast, both Teoscar Hernández and Kiké Hernández were waiting at the top step, showering him with fistfuls of sunflower seeds.

“I heard Kiké as soon as I hit the ball, screaming,” Conforto said with a laugh. “He's been awesome and the rest of the guys have been awesome. They've kept it fun while it's been tough."

Muncy, too, continued his own recent turnaround at the plate.

In the second inning, the third baseman drew a walk, got a good jump against Guardians starter Tanner Bibee to steal second without a throw, then got a good read on Andy Pages’ flare single to right to score the night’s opening run. He also added an infield single in the eighth.

In the ninth, though, Muncy finally found an important missing piece in his offensive profile, hitting his first home run in almost two weeks on a three-run shot that had him bat-flipping out of the box.

“My swings have been feeling really good lately, and just haven't gotten the power results necessarily that I wanted,” Muncy said. “I've been getting hits. I'm hitting the ball hard. Just haven't been getting it to go where I wanted to go. So that swing felt really good.”

Mistakes were still in abundance for the Dodgers (34-21).

The team’s second-inning rally was cut short after Dalton Rushing, an at-bat after hitting an RBI single, failed to avoid a tag near second base on what became a double-play grounder from Tommy Edman (another slumping hitter in the bottom half of the lineup lately).

Read more:'It’s reimagining team travel.' Why the Dodgers are using two planes on road trips this year

In the fifth, Teoscar Hernández was slow getting out of the box on a line drive off the wall in right-center, and was thrown out by a mile after making an ill-advised decision to still try for a double.

And in between that, starting pitcher Dustin May hit his lone speed bump in a five-inning, three-run, nine-strikeout start: Offering up a down-the-middle sinker with two aboard in the bottom of the fourth that Daniel Schneemann crushed for a three-run homer.

“The swing-and-miss was there, just one bad pitch,” said May, who has three consecutive starts with at least eight strikeouts but has also given up home runs in each of his last five outings. “The long ball has kind of got me the last however many starts. Gotta try and figure out a way to limit that going forward.”

Nonetheless, the Dodgers still held off the Guardians (29-25) to clinch a series victory. Jack Dreyer and Ben Casparius provided three key innings of relief. Conforto and Muncy’s contributions made the two runs Luis García yielded in the ninth irrelevant.

And a club that’s simply been trying to keep its head above water lately was able to avoid any further sinking, ensuring they go no worse than .500 on this tricky Eastern road trip.

“It's definitely been better,” Muncy said. "Offensive side has been great. Pitching has been great … And the bullpen came in and did their job. Not putting too much stress on those guys, that's the key for us on offense, is to kind of give them a little bit of a lead to work with. And we were able to accomplish that.”

For the first time in a long time, thanks to contributions from Muncy and Conforto.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Mets have officially lost one of their lefty relief arms. 

Génesis Cabrera is signing with the Chicago Cubs, according to numerous reports.

Cabrera was designated for assignment this weekend to make room for a fresh arm from Triple-A.

After clearing waivers and being outrighted back to the minors, the southpaw elected to once again hit the open market as a free agent -- and shortly after, he landed a deal with Chicago.

Cabrera signed with the Mets this offseason on a minor league deal, and he was impressive during spring training but didn’t land a spot on the team coming out of camp. 

With the big-league club dealing with injuries, though, he was called upon to provide some help out of the bullpen and he threw relatively well -- pitching to a 3.52 ERA and 1.30 WHIP across seven appearances. 

New York currently has José Castillo and Brandon Waddell as their only southpaws, with AJ Minter sidelined for the remainder of the season and Brooks Raley still working his way back from Tommy John surgery.