Banda Gypsies

Do you remember when the Mets were terrible and forced Sandy Alderson to weakly step aside without actually firing him and packed it in July, trading guys like Asdrubal Cabrera and Juerys Familia?

I barely can either, but was reminded of it this week when its reverberations played out over this ridiculous road trip. Familia went to Oakland for an infielder called Will Toffey, whom the Mets employed as a minor leaguer for years until flipping him a few weeks back for Anthony Banda, a lefthanded reliever who became a kind-of star in Monday’s crazy win in Cincinnati.

Banda wore 77, becoming the first Met to get that number since David Peterson wore it last year. Also arriving for the first time this week was Geoff Hartlieb (who?) a former Pirate waived away from their org and scooped up by the body-hungry, first-place, beaten-up Mets, given No. 40 (already issued once this year to since-released gascan Jacob Barnes), and thrown out there. (Tuesday not Monday)

And speaking of trade deadlines of the recent past, Steven Nogosek is back again! Nogosek, whom I think has been on and off the 40 about a million times is the only remaining detritus of the Addison Reed Trade. Nogosek first appeared wearing 72 in 2019, then resurfaced a year ago with 85 on his back. Just spitballing here but of guys who have worn two numbers for the Mets, I’d guess Nogosek’s sum of 157 is the highest ever. Also, he’s got a fresh mustache now.

The Mets will likely in be in this waiver claim-DFA-IL cycle all year: Guys strive to get up, then go right back down and/or get waived when they work (Jerad Eickhoff, Nick Tropeano), or get hurt (Corey Oswalt, Robert Stock, Sean Reid-Foley, David Peterson, Jacob deGrom, Joey Lucchesi, Jordan Yamamoto, Thomas Szapucki, Jose Peraza, Francisco Lindor) and cycled out or picked away by the first group. We can’t help but wind up losing some we might do better keeping this way (Billy McKinney, who did a nice job, was just flipped to the Dodgers in his DFA limbo, and we just DFA’ed the speedy and spirited Johneshwy Fargas). About a third of the roster this year is in a state of constant and unstoppable churn.

We also just grabbed a reliever from the Cardinals called Roel Ramirez whose career ERA is 81.00 (1 IP, 1 9 ER). He’s been assigned to Syracuse but we will probably see him this weekend. With Fargas on the way out, it’d be a shame if he didn’t wind up wearing 81.

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10 comments

  1. Gordon says:

    It’s 1 IP, 9 ER for Ramirez. How is that even possible?

    • Jon Springer says:

      Thanks for that correction! Looks like 6 ER in 2/3 of an inning last season and 3 ER in 1/3 this year. Small sample but he averages a home run surrendered every 11 pitches!

  2. Gene F. says:

    Rich Hill is soon to be a Met. He is currently wearing 14 which doesn’t work forward or backward, but he has worn a vast assortment if numbers in his many stops around the big leagues, so anything respectable (i.e. under 60) should be fine. 29? (since Hunter is heading to Tampa in exchange) 43? 49?

  3. Matt B says:

    Looks like 53 is a good fit for Hill. He wore it a lot earlier in his career. Hefner gives up his number for him, which doesn’t seem at all like a big deal to him since he NEVER wears a jersey. Technically he gave Melky #53 a couple of years ago and switched to #93. But again, that’s only on paper.

  4. Gene F. says:

    The Mets site doesn’t even list numbers for the hitting coaches, which is pretty funny. I guess they never leave the dugout during games, so it doesn’t really matter.

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