Tom Brennan: Yan Makes Leap; TWO Rosses; Metoyer; 40-12; And How Did They Win?

“Jumping Jefry, Batman!”

Jefry Yan just turned 30, and made the seemingly impossible leap to the big leagues when the Mets dealt away the better half of their bullpen in the late July timeframe.

For Yan? A long, strange baseball trip. Then…Quite a sudden jump.

He started out his pro career in 2014. Two years before Pete Alonso turned pro, for a time reference.

He got rocked in the DSL in 2014 at age 17, then threw much better in 2015 in the DSL…4-2, 1.56 in 34 innings...and naturally, dropped out of baseball, not returning for 6 years.

He had a 2.61 ERA in his wild but successful return in 2021 in A and AA.

Then, continuing the “oddly” career stuff, he oddly threw 57 minor league innings in each of the 2022 and 2023 seasons, had the same 4.89 ERA, and allowed the same number of unearned runs both years. 

Notably, though, he fanned 190 batters spanning the 114 innings in those two bookend seasons.

Over the next two years, he pitched in Dominican Winter ball, and in Japan, too, and even snuck in some AAA PCL in 2025 for the Rockies, putting up a stinky 7.28 ERA in those 27 AAA minor league relief outings.

Then, after his unconventional, and always wild, TWELVE YEAR, 2014-25 stretch of pitching and non-pitching, the Mets decided to give him a try in 2026, to see if that very live lefty arm could be tamed and harnessed. 

And that did happen, to a reasonable degree, pitching to a 3.24 ERA in AA and AAA, the higher quality portion of his pitching being in AAA, with an amazing 77 Ks, but also 28 walks, in just 42 innings in the minors this year.

His leaping exuberance on the mound began to catch everyone’s attention.

We live in social media times.

Then, the Mets’ pitching fire sale in late July occurred, which included the departure of quality lefty relievers Minter and Raley. 

The golden opportunity then arose for two lefties - Yan and Lavender - to join the Mets. 

Lavender is a worthy story in and of itself, but that is for another day.

I watched some of Yan’s strong two inning outing the other night gains lethal Milwaukee. 

He actually reminded me a bit of…RANDY MYERS, who had a hi-velocity left arm, fanned a lot of guys, and walked a bunch, too. 

Yan’s first 9 Mets pro innings were solid, with a 3.00 ERA. It will be interesting to see if the Mets can calm him down and get him to focus on throwing more strikes.

If he can, a long MLB relief career could lie ahead. Think Huascar Brazoban.

One big thing to help focus Yan’s attention right now is, after making little $ in pro ball, he is now pulling in nearly $5,000 every game that goes by.  That net worth sure starts to add up quick. “Once you have found THAT, never let it go.”

Hopfully, Jefry Yan will give us many “Enchanted Evenings” when he pitches for the Mets.

How? The 6’3” 185 athletic, youthfully exuberant southpaw needs to…

Throw strikes. And keep on leaping. 

He is theatrically a Savannah Banana…but with a 100+ MPH FB. 

What’s not to like?

P.S. He mentioned his favorite movie is “21 Jump Street”. 

METOYER DRAWS CLOSER

Another guy on a long journey, Brian Metoyer, drafted in the 40th round in 2018, draws closer to age 30.

November this year, his clock turns 30.

Amazingly, he is still pursuing his MLB dream.

He seemingly is drawing close to the majors, after his often-sputtering and injured minor league journey.

He is 5-2, 3.88 this year in 43 relief outings, with 76 Ks in 49 innings.

His ERA is that high due to 5 shaky outings out of 43.

He apparently is very tough to square up, allowing just 56 hits in 91 innings over the past two seasons. And just 105 in 175 pro innings.

Amazingly, over those 91 innings in 2025 and 2026, he has allowed 1 HR.

Since his promotion to AAA? 

3-1, 1.86, with a sizzling 18 Ks in 9.2 IP. DAD GUM!

He is clearly VERYCLOSE to achieving his long odds MLB dream.

Good for him. I surely hope he makes it like y/o Huascar Brazoban did.

Assuming he is still in the Mets organization next year, his odds are very strong that he will cross the MLB threshold in 2027.

A TALE OF TWO ROSSES

What do Dylan Ross and Shawn Ross have in common?  

First of all: Flaws.  Like regrets, they’ve had a few.

Besides that:

Both were playing in the Mets system in Syracuse in late August.

And both have power games.

Dylan is a high velo power arm, when healthy, and he is often erratic.

Shawn is HR blasting catcher who strikes out at an amazing rate. 

C Shawn seems to be the more flawed of the two. Perhaps fatally flawed.

Dylan the flamethrower has been written a lot about in Mack’s Mets. 

Whether he is a September call up remains to be seen. I say READY.

Shawn Ross meanwhile has hit  53 HRs in 884 minor league at bats.  Wow.

But he has fanned a crazy 412 times in 1,067 minors plate appearances. 

And he has fanned 192 times in the minors in 476 PAs (40.3%) in the minors in 2025-26. Future MLB life does NOT begin at 40%.

His major league career with Pittsburgh was very brief but fit his profile. 

Up 5 times, fanned twice, hit a HR. 

The HR traveled 438 feet, in his first of two MLB games.

He throws out base runners well. He has clear plus power.  But, flaws? 

He needs to cut the Ks. Drastically. Usually a lot easier said than done.

GUYS WHO CAN RAKE NEED BUCKETS AND WHEEL BARROWS FOR THEIR CASH

 

I LOVE 40-12 WHEN IT COMES TO BASEBALL GAMES WITH SCORING DELUGES

The Mets’ 4 minor league teams each won, by a combined score of 40-12.

Who hit? Everybody, which makes this particular writer very happy.

BUT…let me not just leave it at “everybody”. Let’s name names.

 I will note a few specifically:

Slamming’ Sammy Stafura had his first 2 Brooklyn HRs since his trade.

 - Both, naturally, came on the road.

And the “Vabulous” V Boys - Voit and Vargas - got on base 9 times. 

 - Voit has a .500 OBP in 22 AA games (“he’s ready”). 

Vargas .333 in August.

Parada had 2 more hits, and had a “Ted Williams” .411/.443/.679 in August.

J Ro, a/k/a Jefferson “Aaron” Rojas, had 3 hits, including yet another HR.

 - 7 HRs, 25 RBIs in 23 August games since his trade. Exuding greatness.

Formerly comatose Binghamton’s offense hit .288/.367/.494 in August, with 45 HRs and 7.2 runs per game. How? Removed several non-hitters and replaced them with robot hitting machines.

Aiden Robbins (.288) had 2 hits and 4 RBIs (16) for Lucie, adding to his so far quite successful post-draft pro debut.

Oh, and six Syracuse pitchers joined in throwing a no hitter.

A day after a Tong near-no hitter.

But…OTOH…St Lucie pitchers surrendered 7 ugly runs per game in August.

And…importantly…

The NY Mets were one loss closer to staying in the all important bottom 6 drafter team cluster.

It Was A Sweet Sunday.  

May September in the minors be a hitting repeat of thunderous August.

METS TRIED SO VERY HARD TO LOSE

But Robert Stock won his first MLB game since…2019? 

Against a division leader, Tampa, fiercely fighting to fend off the Yanks?

In Tampa.

Not just Stock, but a line up without Soto and with AAA Pache, Morel, Duarte, Lavender, Dedniel, and Devenski playing?  And Lindor hitless? Vientos first game back.

And the Mets nonetheless won?  

YA CAN’T LOSE THEM ALL.

Somewhere, the 2027 Draft Positioning Chart shuddered.