Lacking experienced lefties now that AJ Minter and Danny Young are down for the count, the Mets traded Cahs Considerations to Arizona for Jose Castillo, an experienced lefty reliever.
Castillo had an 11.37 ERA in six innings with the Dbacks this year but a pretty good rookie season with the Padres in 2018. The Mets have given him No. 54. They sent Dedneil Nunez back to AAA to make room (literally, considering how plump he appears to have gotten).
That we have a chance to win the series in the Bronx tonight is pretty encouraging considering how much the offense has been struggling. I can’t believe we won the Pittsburgh series either.
Go Mets!
The most recent round of callups produced the first-ever 82 and 92 in team history. Brandon Waddell, a journeyman lefty showed up on my TV wearing No. 82, the same number he was assigned in spring training as a non-roster invitee. A couple of days later, another NRI lefty, Genesis Cabrera, showed up wearing the 92 he’d worn this spring.
The activity was part of a flurry of moves set into motion when AJ Minter went onto the injured list April 27 and intensified when Danny Young joined him there April 30. To make the Mets whole again they’ve since welcomed and/or sent back Waddell and Cabrara, plus Kevin Herget (57), Jose Urena (54, already a member of the Blue Jays), and Chris Devenski (49). Ty Adcock and Austin Warren were summoned but not used before being sent down. Adcock was assigned the same 52 he had last year; Warren held onto the 44 he had in spring).
Dedneil Nunez (72) returned in the meantime, looking rusty, and starting prospect Blade Tidwell was up and back wearing No. 40
I think the word that best describes my mindset about this team is “curious.” It’s not necessarily excited or dreading. I mean they have to go out there and perform and hopefully they are ready, even if they didn’t look like it when I checked in last. It would be interesting had David Stearns communicated his gameplan on Signal with a journalist eavesdropping. But we have to take starting Clay Holmes on Opening Day as a solid move on faith.
Now to numbers. Brett Baty whose 22 went to Juan Soto, revealed he’d be wearing No. 7 this year. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see that number in circulation again — although 8 would better. Seven had been unissued since Marcus Stroman took it upon himself to shelve it in 2019.
Other numbers for new guys on the 40-man roster: Jose Siri wearing 19, which I believe is pulling even with 6 as the most-issued number in team history (I’ll check on that). Infielder Jared Young (who?) in 29; and Jose Azocar in 30.