In a season without a lot of pleasant surprises you gotta be pleasantly surprised at how awesome Nolan McLean‘s been through three starts. Steve Cohen in fact has already decreed to retire No. 26 in a ceremony next season. But before that, we’re getting a potentially better young pitcher in Jonah Tong, whose motion recalls Tim Lincecum and who’ll be wearing No. 21.
I ran into friend of MBTN Dave the other night at CitiField and we agreed that of the available numbers (we went though them all), 21 was the best for Tong. That’s in part because it’s just a badass number, but also because it aligns with McLean’s 26 as a kind of new identifier of a rising Met rotation–sort of like when the 86ers took numbers in the teens or the accident of Matz, Harvey and Syndergaard occupying 32-34.
This may all be imaginary as young pitchers are notoriously unpredictable and too many guys now arrive wearing No. 73. But maybe we can find room for Brandon Sproat to take 29– sorry, Jared Young.
I count only six pitchers to wear 21 in Mets history, starting with Warren Spahn, then Bob Moorhead, Bill Pulsipher, Masato Yoshii, Bobby M. Jones and most recently, Rich Hill.
*
I’ve been meaning to take a moment and extend props to Starling Marte, who was forgotten while injured last year but is reminding us once again that he’s a very good player. I guess that also counts as a pleasant surprise of 2025.
Alert reader Chris Sullivan points out that Marte recently surpassed teammate/half-brother Jeff McNeil as the all-time leader in home runs by guys who wore No. 6 for the Mets. Marte sits at 36 dinger; McNeil was the previous leader at 34. As noted frequently in this space, that’s not necessarily saying much although McNeil and now Marte have brought new stability and skill to the jersey we haven’t seen since Wally Backman.
Will 3 new relief pitchers and Cedric Mullins help? I hope so. I’m bigger on Cedric Mullins than his numbers would indicate. I think we need a better everyday guy than Tyrone Taylor in center. We did the same thing a year ago when we bailed on Harrison Bader. It was a small upgrade that helped the team get a lot better. Plus Taylor is a fine backup and gets that job again.
New relievers Tyler Rogers will suit up in his customary 71 and Ryan Helsey will wear the same 56 he wore in St. Louis. Rogers I’m familiar with from his unique delivery (and his role on my fantasy team). But I’m not even going to pretend I know anything about Helsley who apparently is good but I wouldn’t know because I try not to pay any attention to the Cardinals.
That’ll be a big question this deadline while the Mets work out some roster indigestion while the trade deadline approaches. I have no idea who they will trade for and for whom and I don’t have a particularly strong opinion other than, this is a better organization to trade from in a long while and so it seems they have the capital to get whoever it is they want.
Soto’s arrival meant a DFA for big lefty Jose Castillo and his No. 54. Castillo had a day or two before replaced Chris Devenski, who refused his minor league assignment and became a free agent. He seemed good enough to maybe help somebody in a pennant race, or maybe the Braves. We also saw Alex Carillo (84) and Kevin Herget in there–Herget came all the way back from Atlanta and was able to reclaim No. 57 as Richard Lovelady was gone again.
This is a resume of a number-retiree, and what we’ll see today. It’s not what we’d been seeing with the Strawberry, Gooden and even Hernandez retirements, although Keith’s post-playing career as a figure in Mets history is a persuasive extenuating circumstance. And for god sakes, its not Gary Carter, even as they’ve held his number in limbo for more than two decades, presumably waiting for the right moment. Now that they’ve demonstrated 8 is kind of special they lack the courage to go back, which is very Wilpon-y. That they’ll solve the problem by recklessly retiring it is very Cohen-y.
The only solution, I’ve come to believe, is to do away with number retirements entirely. It doesn’t do anything that a statue couldn’t do or a well-managed Hall of Fame couldn’t do and it will arrest this urge to cashier perfectly good uniform numbers that’s only going to accelerate as the team attempts sustained success for one of the few times in its history. You can’t look at Francisco Lindor today and not consider him a retiree shoo-in. We’ll have Juan Soto for 15 years or whatever, he’ll take 22 with him when he goes. Even Brandon Nimmo is creeping into immortal territory, Met-wise. deGrom? Dickey? Diaz? It may never end.
They should stop with all this randomness and just assign relievers numbers in ascending order starting at say, 50. Had we done so, most recent Met Alex Carillo would be wearing 80 and and not 84, being the 30th guy to make a non-starting appearance in a Mets game this year (if I counted right).
Meantime I neglected to mention the Mets promoted bullpenner Rico Garcia the other day. A native Hawaiian, they were aware enough to assign the guy No. 50, joining Hawaiian-born Met luminaries Sid Fernandez and Benny Agbayani. Other Aloha State Mets (Ron Darling, Carlos Diaz, Jordan Yamamoto and Tyler Yates) went without 50.
Zach Pop has a classic name but between us looked like he didn’t even want to be out there in his lone Met appearance and was waived to make room for Carillo. Should have signed Zach Rock. That guy rocks.
Prepare for reckless speculation from now till July 31 about the Mets’ appetite for starters and relivers, maybe some from here. I’m officially starting the Zac Gallen to the Mets rumor. He wears No. 23!
I kinda liked Dicky Lovelady (57) in his maiden Met appearance–there wasn’t much else to like that night other than another Met debut for Frankie Montas–but Dicky was immediately designated for assignment after that Tuesday Night debacle so that Jonathan Pintaro could his place. I kinda liked Pintaro too even as he couldn’t close the door with a six-run lead he was right there with the rest of the bullpen, walking the first guy he saw. But I liked his wavy blonde hair, his gigantic butt and his short trunk.
Pintaro showed up rocking No. 91, but he’s gone too. In his place is Austin Warren, who I’d already forgotten was here already this year, and briefly conflated with Adam Warren, the former Yankees reliever. This guy’s different somehow. Wears No. 44.
The headliner is Dicky Lovelady (that’s what he prefers to be called) a lefty reliever let loose by Minnesota. He’s apparently here and suiting up in No. 57, most recently belonging to Kevin Herget who was a Met for about 15 minutes in April. Does anyone remember the last Dicky to play for the Mets? That was Dicky Gonzalez (39) 
Wearing No. 29, batting lefthanded, tall guy with some power–it’s not Ike Davis (or Dave Magadan). It’s Jared Young! A journeyman slugger from Canada, Young suddenly appeared as the regular DH one day and hasn’t stopped playing since (at least against right handers). I will give earwitness testimony that his home run in Citi Field on Tuesday was the loudest shot in an inning full of loud shots. He hits the ball hard.
Elsewhere on the transaction front we’ve seen a shuffling of back-end relief workers. At the moment, Chris Devenski (49) is back up with the Mets and Brandon Waddell (82) is down. Waddell got smacked around by the White Sox the other day but leaves the Mets with a lone lefty in the bullpen. Genesis Cabrera (92) and Jose Azocar (28), cashiered for Waddell and Young, respectively, refused to participate in another go-round in Syracuse and found themselves new employers. Cabrera signed with the Cubs and Azocar is with the Braves.
The next big shakeup for the Mets could come when the pitchers start returning from the disabled list. Paul Blackburn is expected today.
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.