PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Blade Tidwell has glimpsed the Rays lineup and recognized many names.
This was a typical major league batting order.
Leadoff hitter Yandi Diaz was the Albatting champion in 2023.
The second in batting is Brandon Lowe, who has 39 Homer seasons in his name.
Junior Kaminero was absent, but Christopher Morell, Josh Lowe, Eloi Zimenez and Jose Caballero rounded out the Rays' top six in the regular season.
“What's good to see is seeing is that it's good to see how I've stacked up on big league teams,” Tidwell said after the 10-1 Mets win at Charlotte Sports Park. “I thought it would be fun and challenging, and it became both.”
Those ray batters were more challenging and less interesting.
One of the Mets' top pitching prospects announced himself on Saturday. He attacked nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts – and pitched two innings, wearing a bat missing clinic.
Overall, Tidwell faced six batters.
The first Diaz hits the sinking liner that Jose Ciri has been caught in a dive. All the next five left their heads back to the dugout after the strikeout.
Of Tidwell's last 19 pitches, 18 were on strike.
“It's pretty impressive,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Tidwell, 6'4'4'4' right. “It was good to see – it was fun.”
Tidwell was all working in the afternoon.
His sinker touched almost three digits, and the other four products were equally unruly.
Last year he reached Triple A Syracuse because he believed his repertoire was too deep, but when he arrived at a struggle (5.93 ERA at level), he had a bigger, nine-pitch Arsenal.
This spring he summed it up to four-seamer, two-seamer, slider, changeUp and Sweeper.
Each of them confused the batsmen in Tampa Bay.
Tidwell's first inning was solid and ended with a three-pitch strikeout from Morel.
He continued his domination, two fiery innings.
Josh Lowe saw the three pitches and passed the slider moving south. Jimenez was the unfortunate victim of Tidwell's hardest heater, swinging a 99.1 mph fastball.
“Up, get away,” Tidwell said. “That's the only pitch I remember that I really beat.”
Caballero didn't look like a major leaguer with a weak half hack with a bent sweeper and a bent half hack away from him in 243 games in the Major League experience.
“If you're in command of the ball, I feel like you can stack their best,” said Tidwell, who was the second pick from Tennessee in 2022.
Pale innings are rare. The Mets have only two history (Nolan Ryan in 1968 and David Corn in 1991).
However, the kind of excellence the Mets see from their young starting pitching outlook over the past two days is encouraging for teams that may need them.
The Mets have already lost at least temporarily Sean Mania and Franky Montas.
Kodai Senga is a mystery after wiping out the 2024 season.
When Clay Holmes transitions from rescuer to starter, who knows what innings Clay Holmes can contribute?
David Peterson pitched 121 major league innings last year.
Maybe the Mets will need Tidwell sooner than they imagined. Perhaps Brandon Sprout, who made his spring debut on Friday and sat on all six Nationals batsmen who are facing at 99 mph, will make his phone call early.
Similarly, the tall Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong force the path to the majors. And the rings roars erupt as pitchers like Dom Hamel chased Tidwell by perhaps modifying his delivery and pitching two scoreless, hitless, three strikeouts and one-walk innings.
“Full trust in the player development group,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said.
For the Mets, the last two days have been perfect.
“If you have two such guys at triple-A level knocking on the door, that feels good,” Mendoza added.
