PORT STREET LUCIE, Fla. — Harrison Bader has a lot to say about this. Bader, the Mets’ new center fielder, has experienced every emotion a baseball player feels. Two years ago, he hosted the October Toast and was one of the Yankees’ standouts during a season that ended in a disappointing ALCS.
Early on a year ago, he was a dynamic fielder with a knack for timely hits and was making a serious case to be part of the Yankees’ long-term plans. Then things cooled down for Vader, and then he also got injured. And now he’s at the Met, where he hopes to repeat what he was able to do during his year and a half with the Yankees. Trying to do all of that in the public arena of baseball in New York City is no easy feat.
“The game is tough,” Bader said Tuesday after watching his first game of the spring. “That jersey might be heavy.”
Tyler Megill knows as much about it as Vader does. Megill is in his fourth season with the Mets, and he too has seen extreme conditions. Two years ago, he replaced Max Scherzer in the opening game at Washington and pitched five shutout innings against the Nationals. A year ago, when Justin Verlander was unable to pitch in the home opener against Miami, he replaced the future Hall of Famer again and pitched five innings, allowing two runs and striking out seven.
Moments like this can clarify valuable evidence for a rookie pitcher that he can indeed trade punches with a major league hitter and win that battle more than he loses. But they can also become deeply irritated when commands abandon them, when their speed slows down, or when their bodies betray them.
When the game is counterattacked.
Megill knows a thing or two, having endured long stints on the IL in each of the past two years, sometimes losing track of the strike zone and sometimes developing a knack for throwing the wrong pitch at the wrong time. Ta. There’s no mystery there. The game is difficult. Jerseys can be heavy.
“There were good times and there were bad times,” Megill said Tuesday at Clover Park. This came after a strong spring in which he pitched three scoreless innings in a game against the Mets with a sparse Yankees batting lineup, striking out six and walking just two. I would win 5-4. “I’ve learned to live in the moment. Take advantage of the experience you’ve gained and focus on each day.”
For Megill, the door has been left ajar for the third year in a row, giving him another chance to carve out a place for himself in the Mets’ rotation. With the loss of Kodai Senga through May, the Mets will need a fifth starting pitcher for at least a month, but Kodai Senga has passed his audition so far with only one run allowed in eight innings. . Of all the candidates for the job, the Mets prefer Megill. Because he’s done the job before.
“I feel good,” Megill said. “Everything feels good now.”
When he first made a splash two years ago, Megill dazzled with a fastball that regularly ticked 99 and won his first four games in 2022 by decision. He then missed two months with biceps tendonitis and had a brief audition late in the season. The bullpen role didn’t go anywhere.
Megill won his first three games last year by decision and was 5-2 going into May 18, but things turned around and he posted an ERA near 8 before being sent to Syracuse in late June. . When the Mets eliminated the expensive pitching duo of Scherzer and Verlander, he returned to the rotation and effectively finished the season, posting a 2.76 ERA in five starts in September.
He entered spring training armed with a new pitch, a splitter, but he still hasn’t mastered it, although he said Tuesday that he’s “getting pretty good at it.” The Mets may use Megill again this year because he brings that confidence. Because the Mets need as much as possible.
“He came to camp ready to compete,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re going to be counting on him.”
Megill wants that too. When you taste success in the big world, it makes the sour twitch even more bitter. The game is difficult. Jerseys can be heavy.
