As the Mets have their most prominent prospects work towards eventually helping the big club in Queens, most folks focus on the biggest names with the highest rankings on the various lists compiled by Mets media.
On the offensive side, most of the players are in the mid to lower minor leagues. On the pitching side, it’s last year’s superstar Brandon Sproat who gets the scouts salivating over his ability. He’s now been followed closely by strikeout artist Jonah Tong.
This February Hamel was in Port St. Lucie with the rest of the team during spring training and throwing more like a legitimate pitching prospect than a forgotten warm body on the deepest part of the roster. According to Hamel he gave up on the high leg kick which he attributed to changing his natural delivery and making him susceptible to giving up stolen bases. The results have been notable.
In his first start this season he went five shutout innings against Scranton/Wilkes Barre which was more like the Florida pitcher folks saw than the one who frankly stunk up Syracuse last year. He had a blister issue which took him out of games temporarily but he just completed his second pitch-count regulated second start in deference to the healing process and again he threw a trio of shutout innings against Buffalo.
Between the two of them is another hurler who had a frankly “Fuhgeddaboudit!” season in 2024. How bad was it? Well, let’s see...he made 27 starts, went 5-9 with a 6.86 ERA, a WHIP of 1.749, and although he fanned one per inning he was walking nearly 6 per nine innings pitched. Yup, it was pretty awful for one Dominic Hamel, alright.
The now 26 year old pitcher was considerably better in the past including a combined St. Lucie/Brooklyn 2022 season during which he went 10-3 with a 3.48 ERA, over 11 Ks per 9 IP but a still high 4 walks over the same interval of time.
This February Hamel was in Port St. Lucie with the rest of the team during spring training and throwing more like a legitimate pitching prospect than a forgotten warm body on the deepest part of the roster. According to Hamel he gave up on the high leg kick which he attributed to changing his natural delivery and making him susceptible to giving up stolen bases. The results have been notable.
In his first start this season he went five shutout innings against Scranton/Wilkes Barre which was more like the Florida pitcher folks saw than the one who frankly stunk up Syracuse last year. He had a blister issue which took him out of games temporarily but he just completed his second pitch-count regulated second start in deference to the healing process and again he threw a trio of shutout innings against Buffalo.
Those back-to-back shutout performances now give him 8 innings pitched in 2025 without giving up a run.
Manager Dick Scott was being cautious with the early removal of Hamel, but both he and the pitcher know that it’s a long season and not worth missing any more innings due to aggravating the blister. Apparently that move paid off in spades as the five relievers asked to support Hamel over the remaining five innings gave up only a single hit and struck out 9, making a Syracuse win possible.
Going back through his pitching career for the Mets you’d have to turn the pages back to the year 2023 to find the last time Hamel was as shutout dominant as he was during these two games. Hamel felt that the change in delivery simplified things and gave him better opportunity to get the ball to the plate more quickly without so much unnecessary motion on the mound.
Going forward while Sproat and Tong get the headlines for what they do, Hamel may be playing himself into a new opportunity in New York or to become quality trade bait as the club looks to address other needs. No one could have predicted either of these outcomes after watching the man whose 2024 suggested he might have hit an early end of the pitching road.
Manager Dick Scott was being cautious with the early removal of Hamel, but both he and the pitcher know that it’s a long season and not worth missing any more innings due to aggravating the blister. Apparently that move paid off in spades as the five relievers asked to support Hamel over the remaining five innings gave up only a single hit and struck out 9, making a Syracuse win possible.
Going back through his pitching career for the Mets you’d have to turn the pages back to the year 2023 to find the last time Hamel was as shutout dominant as he was during these two games. Hamel felt that the change in delivery simplified things and gave him better opportunity to get the ball to the plate more quickly without so much unnecessary motion on the mound.
Going forward while Sproat and Tong get the headlines for what they do, Hamel may be playing himself into a new opportunity in New York or to become quality trade bait as the club looks to address other needs. No one could have predicted either of these outcomes after watching the man whose 2024 suggested he might have hit an early end of the pitching road.
Hamel needs to get it going. He missed one call up opportunity this week, when another AAA pitcher got called up instead. Just keep rolling strong, and his opportunity will come. To relieve, not to start, unless the Mets are in an emergency.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all Reese has said. It also goes for the batters.
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