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 wouldn’t have guessed two months ago the Mets would be in a position to buy and not sell at the trade deadline, or that they stood any chance of reeling in the Braves in the standings, or any of that and here we are. It’s important not to forget this Mets team has also demonstrated it is capable of awful of stretches of baseball so I’m keeping my expectations in check. Next goal: 10 games over .500.
Stanek has worn 45, 55 and 35 in his career. I saw a mockup of him in 65 with the Mets. That’s available, but so is 55, 85, 95 and 35, now that Adrian Houser has been kicked off the 40. That move came as Kodai Senga returned, however briefly collapsing in a heap near the mound like he was Ike Davis or something.
Promising pitching prospect Christian Scott is arriving even sooner than I would have guessed and without an obvious need for a starter (unless they cut bait on Adrian Houser or something). Clubhouse video from Florida, where Scott will start tomorrow, shows he will wear No. 45, which belonged last to Sam Coonrod (it belonged to Cole Sulser in Spring Training, only to see him turn up in 54 for his ineffective appearances).
I’m glad they are giving Scott a pitcher number to begin his career and so won’t have him looking like a clown as they’ve forced Jose Butto into with that unseemly No. 70. Butto should go to the clubhouse and demand No. 21 while its still available. He’s a good enough pitcher to pull that off.
Yesterday we saw Danny Young become the all-time Mets leader in wins by a guy wearing No. 81. If you remembered that Johneshwy Fargas was the first to wear 81, you win a prize of some kind.
I forgot how tiresome it is to be cycling in 3 new guys every week onto the roster, only to see them disappear in a few days. This is life on the butt-end of the Mets bullpen, especially in this era of 5-inning starts.