The Mets announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of righty Blade Tidwell in a move that was first reported earlier this week. Tidwell will take the 40-man roster spot of southpaw Danny Young, who is headed to the 60-day injured list due to an elbow issue that Will Sammon of The Athletic reports will require Tommy John surgery. Tommy John was first reported as a possibility for Young earlier this week.
The club optioned right-hander Austin Warren to the minor leagues to make room for Tidwell on the active roster, though Warren was immediately placed back on the roster as the club’s 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the Cardinals. That bit of roster maneuvering, according to Tim Healey of Newsday, will allow the club to option Tidwell to the minors after his start in today’s first game and call up Dedniel Nunez to make him available for Game 2. Mike Puma of the New York Post first reported that Nunez would be joining the Mets in St. Louis for today’s doubleheader earlier this morning.
Tidwell, 24 next month, was a second-rounder for the Mets in the 2022 draft and hit the ground running with a 1.93 ERA in five starts down the stretch in his draft year. He generally pitched quite well in the lower levels of the minors before hitting his first significant rough patch upon a promotion to Triple-A partway through the 2024 season. He posted a 5.93 ERA in 85 innings for Syracuse last year, and the results haven’t been much better this season as he’s posted a 5.00 ERA through his first six starts of the year. With that being said, Tidwell’s 31.6% strikeout rate is encouraging and an 8.5% walk rate is perfectly manageable. Tidwell’s struggles this year surely have at least something to due with an elevated .369 BABIP, so it stands to reason he could theoretically post much better results in today’s start than his Triple-A numbers might otherwise indicate.
Making way for Tidwell to join the 40-man roster is Young, who will miss the remainder of the 2025 season and at least some of 2026 as well. It’s a deeply disappointing outcome for the soon-to-be 31-year-old hurler. Young got his first extended look in the majors with New York just last year and pitched better than his 4.54 ERA in 42 appearances would indicate, striking out 29.0% of his opponents with a 3.64 FIP. It was enough to earn Young a spot in the club’s bullpen for this year, but he’ll unfortunately end 2025 with a familiarly pedestrian 4.32 ERA despite his strikeout rate improving to 35.1% and his FIP sitting at a fantastic 1.38 on the year. With Young and A.J. Minter both seemingly ticketed for season-ending absences, the Mets are known to be searching for lefty bullpen help even as the trade deadline remains nearly three months away.
Warren, meanwhile, will participate in today’s doubleheader before being sent back to Syracuse. The 29-year-old righty sports an impressive 1.69 ERA in 10 2/3 innings of work this year, but much of that is fortunate luck on batted balls and sequencing given that he’s walked (five) nearly as many batters as he’s struck out (seven) so far this year. The righty has only 48 2/3 innings of work in the majors to this point in his career, but he’s generally looked like a solid enough middle relief arm with a 3.14 ERA and 3.91 FIP overall. It seems likely that Warren will be shuttled between Syracuse and Queens frequently throughout the 2025 season as one of the few optionable pieces of the club’s bullpen mix.
Tidwell’s expected departure from the roster later today figures to make room for Nunez, who has not yet pitched in the majors this year but impressed in an up-and-down role last year with a 2.31 ERA, 35.6% strikeout rate, and 2.22 FIP in 35 innings of work across 25 appearances. The 28-year-old’s brilliant performance in the majors last year has not been replicated so far in Triple-A, as he’s posted a solid but unremarkable 3.48 ERA in 10 1/3 innings for Syracuse while punching out just 24.5% of his opponents. Even so, Nunez figures to be a solid addition to the club’s relief mix who could be counted on for multi-inning appearances or stick mostly to shorter outings like he has so far this year in the minors.
Interesting roster moves. Good luck to Tidwell. He’ll be the equivalent to the early Tylor Megill, up and down, wearing out the NY Thruway to Syracuse and back. But you never know when it clicks, and makes the waiting on Montas to be irrelevant.
imissjoebuzas: FWIW, the smarter, faster route is I-80 west from the GWB into Pennsylvania at Delaware Water Gap to I-380 to Scranton to I-81 north to Syracuse.
Agree that Tidwell is certainly going back down after today’s start. But it might be a while before he gets called up again.
I fully recognize that baseball rosters are fluid and dependent on many variables. But for now, I don’t think he gets called up again soon unless he pitches very well, or there are more injuries soon. The Mets will need a 6th starter again on 5/14 – Tidwell will not yet be eligible for another call-up yet. And Blackburn should be ready by the next time on 5/21.
And it’s not like the other two spot starters didn’t pitch well. They will use whoever is in line with their AAA start when they need a spot starter.
Mets as a competently run MLB org is hard to get used to.
True, that. They even have some tolerable depth bats to plug in to the LHH DH role, a couple with solid OF experience.
Alderson or Van Wagenen would yawn and give someone like post-decline phase Carlos Gomez 100 PA or post-decline Jose Reyes 250 PA because hassling with the Wilpons over calling up another player and paying him the MLB miniimum for the rest of the year was such a drag.
Mets SP are 5 IP and the Bullpen is burning out.
This has worked so far but in the long run is a self inflicted disaster.
Mets match up poor postseason against Dodgers, Padres, Cubs and Phillies. But if they add an ace and a one piece mid-season, that could change a lot.
They swept the Phillies already. They match up just fine with all of them and already have an ace.
Still think the Mets need another ace to party with Dodgers and Padres
Are we back to saying the Mets pitching is horrible already? I think at some point you would see Stearns knows what he is doing and stop with the nonsense.
Robrock30 is a Mets hating troll. Always a glass half empty attitude towards the Mets. Him and JackStrawb should get together for meetings.
Yes and no. I agree that the pen is overworked, and that always comes back around to bite you.
On the other hand, unlike last year at this time, the Mets still haven’t burned many of their bullpen depth pieces. So we still don’t know if or where this year’s Reed Garrett or Dedniel Nunez might be hiding in that group. And we do know that Dedniel himself is in that bunch.
Keep an eye on Felipe de la Cruz. Lefty, electric stuff, rocketing through the minors so far. Just got brought up to Syracuse. He’s a starter but could get pressed into relieving.
Hey Rob! How’s it going?
It’s interesting to compare the Mets starters to those of a team like Phillie, whose FO aimed specifically for starters as a group who go about as long as any in the game and who also prize overall seasonal durability.
Five main starters:
Mets 32 of 35 starts, average 5.24 IP per start.
Phil 33 of 34 starts, average 5.65 IP per start.
Normalize to 34 starts and that’s an additional 13 innings falling on the Mets pen. Let Tidwell and Suarez’s lone starts cancel out, and add 1 more set of 4 innings for a Brazoban game as opener and you’re up to roughly 17 additional innings going to the Mets pen vs the Phillies pen.
That’s at least a full time load for a pen arm as of May 5th, and those innings are going to the ninth man in the Mets’ bullpen pecking order—if not now, then later in the season when the innings catch up with Kranick, Brazoban, and Butto, though I suppose Stearns will compensate by picking up (or will anticipate the need for) replacements at the July Deadline. . .
JackStrawb,
I am doing well overall and happy to see you my Friend.
I watched the DH yesterday horrible performance all around by Mets.
SP, defense, hitting with RISP, managing all bad.
The problem is I have been around Mets since mid 60’s and I compare these slugs to Seaver, Ryan, Koosman, Matlack & Gentry.
baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN197105291.shtm…
baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN197105292.shtm…
Mets sweep Padres Seaver 1 ER 10 SOs CG Game 1
Ryan 1 ER 16 SOs CG Game 2
Best wishes to Young for his TJ recovery
Does THIS Tidwell also have JERRY MCGUIRE as his Agent ??
Mets just today dropped a DH vs. Cardinals.
Blade Tidwell SP 3.2 IP 6 ER 9 Hits Game 1
Tylor Megill SP 5 IP 4 ER 4 Hits Game 2
The bullpen injuries and burnout are mounting
Cardinals Game 2 RP Mike McGreevey 5.2 IP 1 Hit 0 ER Winning Pitcher Outstanding
I give Mendoza substantial credit for Megill’s loss in Game 2 and for the pitching staff’s implosion that cost the game when Mendoza sent out Megill, who was clearly gassed, for 105 pitches his previous start.
There was a cost to getting cute with a big lead and trying to squeeze a few more pitches out of a pitcher notorious for getting beaten up late in games, along w the additional cost we next saw in G2. Awful managing.
As for the org more generally, if you’re going to build a rotation full of guys with no real history of durability, then you’d better go ahead and be prepared to pile innings on your bullpen and stockpile enough depth to manage in-game intelligently—not squeeze yourself with very few pitchers with options who you actually want giving you innings. .
—My crowd of Mets fans gave McGreevey unironic applause at the end of the game. It was a helluva first appearance.
Fortunately I had a nice Kentucky Derby the night before watching the race with a Friend and we picked the winning 2 Horses and had a nice dinner sipping a mint julep. I should have bet the Exacta as the exotic bets pay. I am learning at my old age. Lol
Oh Well I’ll get them in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
I bet Journalism #2 Horse to Win and Win/Place/Show and Sovereignty # 1 Horse ( My Friend’s Pick ) to Win/Place/Show. I should have bet Exacta Box with these 2 Horses and also Sovereignty to Win and I would have cleaned up.
I also think Rodriguez is a great Horse but he was scratched in the Derby but should be ready for the Preakness and Belmont.
“Meanwhile” has to start the sentence, not come in the middle between commas.