So if you’re going go ahead and DFA Jerad Eickoff anyway, you may as well issue the same No. 43 to the rookie callup to take his place but the Mets are too busy do that kind of stuff anymore. Get a number in spring, it’s yours to keep all summer, which is why long-simmering righty starter prospect Thomas Szapucki is up and wearing 63.
Sixty-three is a number for longshot midseason minor league callups whom you hope to get a few innings out of when the team is banged up or there’s a spate of rain make-ups ahead, and not a real player. Our last 63 was Tim (not David) Peterson, who’s now in the minors with the Angels. Our first was Chris Schwinden, whom I recall getting reliably beaten up every time he went out there. Gabriel Ynoa, who did a have a few years with the Orioles ahead, was the second.
The lucky ones, it seems, are those who come from so far below the surface they didn’t get any attention, like Tylor Megill, who as you know by now wears No. 38, chews gum while he throws, is like, 9 feet tall and might be the best 4-inning starter in club history, if he keeps it up. Megill actually has quietly succeeded his way up the ladder, and is the second member of his family to debut in the bigs this year. His older brother Trevor, who’s also very tall, wears No. 74 for the Cubs.
Megill is the first 38 since Justin Wilson; I still see Tim Leary when I think of 38’s and for whatever reason, Jerrod Riggan.
Well the season remains frustratingly hopeless, and I’ll shortly be off to Flushing to watch Zack Wheeler (along with returning bullpen stiffs Avilan, Familia and Wilson) audition for the Yankees, but let’s take a moment to celebrate the naming of three deserving All-Stars from this year’s roster.
New Mets are here including Daniel Zamora (still wearing 73) and Todd Frazier (still wearing 21), and Luis Guillorme (still wearing 13); taking the places of the still-ineffective Chris Flexen, the injured Justin Wilson and Paul Sewald, same as he ever was.
Tonight is my 2019 Maiden Voyage to CitiField, where I’ll be for pretty much every home Tuesday game this season. Tuesday was a rough day of the week last season, when I also sat there and had to watch, and the club isn’t exactly off to a flying start on Tuesdays this year: Other than a win in Miami, the Mets have surrendered 14 runs on consecutive Tuesdays and are averaging 11 opponent tallies.
Justin Wilson, reportedly on his way to the Mets on a two-year contract, will become the sixth player with the surname Wilson and the ninth overall Wilson in club history, when you include first-name Wilsons (Valdez, Delgado and now Ramos).