Tylor Megill is in acquainted territory attempting to win a job within the Mets rotation out of camp. Final 12 months, the 12 months earlier than that and even the 12 months earlier than that one, Megill seemed to be on the skin wanting in, but the right-hander has all the time managed to interrupt camp with the staff, even pitching in two dwelling openers.
Nevertheless, Megill has but to spend a whole season within the huge leagues. Early in his profession it was accidents that restricted him, however since 2023, it’s been a scarcity of consistency. His profession splits are a bit confounding, with the 28-year-old Southern California native placing up additional robust numbers in April earlier than posting excessive ERAs and excessive stroll charges in Could and June, good numbers in July, however unhealthy numbers in August, adopted by robust numbers in September and October once more.
Nevertheless, the Mets haven’t misplaced their perception in Megill. With the assistance of pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, Megill has maintained perception in himself as effectively.
On paper, the soft-spoken Megill is all the pieces you need in a beginning pitcher. The Mets like his athletic background, with a sister who performed volleyball at USC, a brother who pitches for the Milwaukee Brewers and a father who was a university rower at UCLA. He’s huge and powerful at 6-foot-7, 230 kilos, and he throws exhausting, sitting round 95 MPH together with his four-seam fastball. He additionally throws lots of pitches — about eight of them.
His stuff is nice, however the issue is the utilization. Coming into 2025, the Mets need Megill to simplify his pitch bundle. The fastball is nice, however the cutter received hit exhausting, with middle-order hitters doing harm on the pitch he used greater than every other aside from the fastball. The splitter was an efficient putaway pitch when utilized in the proper counts, however he threw the “American Spork” at instances when it wasn’t the optimum choice, forcing the pitch in a nasty spot.
“Last year, I was using it a lot, even ahead in counts,” Megill stated. “It’s a contact pitch, get them on the ground and put the ball in play. But a lot of them were getting hit.”
Megill isn’t abandoning the cutter, however he’s studying methods to deploy it extra successfully. To do this, he’s taking a look at how Zack Wheeler makes use of the pitch. The 2 have an identical repertoire with comparable motion and pitch shapes, so Megill is finding out how the previous Mets right-hander sequences his pitches.
“I always end up going back to Wheeler just because I kind of have the same pitching personality,” Megill stated. “Seeing what he’s doing with those pitch breaks or splits and all his pitches. And it’s kind of like what we were thinking is, he uses his fastball a lot, but his cutter, he uses it here and there, he uses a splitter here and there, but the majority is four-seam, sinker and sweeper.”
Megill has made two spring begins and allowed just one earned run (1.35 ERA). With accidents to Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea, he’s possible going to finish up on the Opening Day roster as soon as once more. Nevertheless, he does have one minor league choice 12 months left, so the Mets may decide to stash him in Triple-A early within the season once they have a handful of off days.
If ever there was a season to show himself, it’s this one.
GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE RESULTS
Proper-hander Paul Blackburn bounced again from a pair tough outings by throwing 4 excellent innings towards the St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter on Wednesday. Whereas wholesome, Blackburn has nonetheless needed to regulate after present process surgical procedure to restore a spinal fluid leak in his mid-back final fall. The Cardinals made some exhausting contact, particularly together with his curveball, however as soon as he settled into the outing, he was in a position to get groundball outs on his sinker and cutter.
Left-handed reliever A.J. Minter made his first Grapefruit League look, throwing one scoreless inning.
The Mets defeated St. Louis 2-0 utilizing an RBI single by Francisco Lindor and a ninth-inning dwelling run by William Lugo.
WELCOME BACK, CAP
David Wright donned a Mets uniform for the primary time since his last recreation in 2018 on Wednesday, when he made an look at camp as a visitor teacher. The previous captain usually makes one journey to Port St. Lucie yearly, usually as a staff ambassador. This time, he’s on the sphere working with gamers, with supervisor Carlos Mendoza lastly convincing the previous third baseman to play a much bigger position in spring coaching.
“As a player, I appreciate the older players or the former players coming around, but I know for some guys they’re so laser-focused each day of spring on the task at hand that it’s another distraction,” Wright instructed reporters. “I never wanted to get in the way of guys getting their work in… I don’t ever want to feel like I’m getting in the way.”
Wright is impressed with the staff, saying he would like to be part of the lineup,
The Mets are set to retire Wright’s No. 5 and induct him into the staff corridor of fame in a twin ceremony July 19 at Citi Area.
Initially Printed: March 12, 2025 at 6:46 PM EDT
