PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Blade Tidwell glanced on the Rays’ lineup and acknowledged loads of the names.
This was a consultant, main league batting order.
Leadoff hitter Yandy Díaz had been the AL batting champion in 2023.
Batting second was Brandon Lowe, who has a 39-homer season to his title.
Junior Caminero was absent, however Christopher Morel, Josh Lowe, Eloy Jiménez and José Caballero rounded out a prime six that won’t be radically totally different from a regular-season Rays’ prime six.
“It’s always good to see … how I stacked up against a big league squad,” Tidwell stated after the 10-1 Mets win at Charlotte Sports activities Park. “I thought it was going to be fun and going to be a challenge, and it ended up being both.”
These Rays batters had been extra challenged and had much less enjoyable.
One of many Mets’ prime pitching prospects introduced himself Saturday, when he threw an immaculate second inning — 9 pitches, 9 strikes, three strikeouts — and placed on a strike-throwing and bat-missing clinic.
In all, Tidwell confronted six batters.
The primary, Díaz, hit a sinking liner to middle that Jose Siri caught with a dive. The subsequent 5 all returned to the dugout with their heads down after strikeouts.
Of Tidwell’s remaining 19 pitches, 18 had been strikes.
“Pretty impressive,” supervisor Carlos Mendoza stated of Tidwell, a giant, 6-foot-4 righty. “It was good to see — it was fun.”
Tidwell had every thing engaged on the afternoon.
His sinker almost touched triple digits, and 4 different choices had been equally untouchable.
He had a bigger, nine-pitch arsenal final 12 months, when he reached Triple-A Syracuse however struggled (5.93 ERA on the stage) as a result of he believes his repertoire was too deep.
This spring, he has boiled it all the way down to a four-seamer, two-seamer, slider, changeup and sweeper.
Each baffled Tampa Bay hitters.
Tidwell’s first inning was strong and ended with a three-pitch strikeout of Morel.
He continued that domination in a blazing second inning.
Josh Lowe noticed three pitches and minimize via a slider shifting south. Jiménez was the unlucky sufferer of Tidwell’s hardest heater, swinging via a 99.1 mph fastball.
“Up and away,” stated Tidwell, who added he reached again so as to add some humph. “That’s the only pitch that I remember that I really hammered down.”
Caballero — with 243 video games of main league expertise — didn’t seem like a significant leaguer with a weak, half-hack at a sweeper that bent away from him.
“I feel like I can stack up with the best of them if I’m commanding the ball,” stated Tidwell, a second-round pick of Tennessee in 2022, “and that’s what I’m just trying to work on, day in and day out.”
Immaculate innings are uncommon — the Mets solely have two of their historical past (Nolan Ryan in 1968 and David Cone in 1991) — and sometimes extra of a one-off novelty than a mirrored image of a pitcher’s value.
But, the sort of excellence the Mets have seen from their younger beginning pitching prospects over the previous two days is encouraging for a crew which may want them.
The Mets have already got a minimum of quickly misplaced Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas.
Kodai Senga is a thriller after his wiped-out 2024 season.
Who is aware of what number of innings Clay Holmes can contribute as he transitions from a reliever to a starter.
David Peterson threw 121 main league innings final 12 months, a profession excessive.
Possibly the Mets will want Tidwell sooner than they could envision. Possibly Brandon Sproat — who made his spring debut Friday and sat down all six Nationals batters he confronted whereas maxing out at 99 mph — will get an early name.
Possibly equally high-ceilinged Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong pressure their methods to the majors, and possibly a pitcher reminiscent of Dom Hamel — who has retooled his supply and appeared robust Saturday, when he adopted Tidwell by throwing two scoreless, hitless, three-strikeout, one-walk innings — is summoned for a rotation that wants assist.
“Full trust in our player development group,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner stated.
For the Mets, the previous two days have been immaculate.
“That’s a good feeling when you have two guys like that at the Triple-A level knocking on the door,” Mendoza added.
