Former NY Mets player you probably forgot about is back with a much different resume

David Stearns continues to add to the New York Mets depth chart. He may get dragged for the big moves he makes. He won’t get caught without a militia of pitchers with big league experience. One of the latest moves involved signing Robert Stock who, if you paid close attention to the Mets in 2021, was with the ball club for 2 games.

PItching in his age 31 season then, Stock rejoins the Mets with a much different resume. He spent time overseas, even pitching for the 2022 Doosan Bears alongside Brandon Waddell. In the 2024-2025 Mexican League season, Stock’s stock (hold your laughter) rose to a new level. A 1.60 ERA in 14 starts was enough to convince the Boston Red Sox to take a chance on him last year.

Unfortunately, Stock barely pitched in the majors. 3 earned runs allowed in 2.2 innings of relief, Stock’s success in Mexico and in Triple-A didn’t translate into MLB success in Beantown.

The Mets add experience but maybe not much upside with the Robert Stock signing

Stock turned 36 last week and although he pitched to a 3.92 ERA last year mostly as a starter, there doesn’t seem to be quite enough to believe he’ll do anything more than make a few long relief appearances. His 10.2 K/9 rate was one of his better stats from the minors last year. It even exceeded what he did in Mexico when he dominated. That year he was at 8.3 K/9.

Stock is the second Red Sox pitcher the Mets signed today. The oft-injured Nick Burdi was the other. Each is a wild card addition for a Mets team often willing to take chances, sometimes to their own detriment.

Like with practically all of these additions, there’s not much to whine about or praise. It’s kind of like a blind date where we have no clue what to expect.

Before pitching for the Red Sox this year, Stock’s last appearance was with the Mets in 2021. He has a 4.90 ERA in the big leagues through 75.1 innings. A bit irrelevant considering most of those innings came several years ago before  starting games in foreign countries. Amazingly, many of his early years were spent as a reliever. It wasn’t until pitching in Korea after his Mets experience when he began to start.