2 former NY Mets players cut from the roster show up at Braves spring training

There won’t be a bigger revenge tour than when Taylor Swift goes on one. A 2026 Super Bowl halftime show trashing Jalen Hurts? It could happen. In the meantime, New York Mets fans can cautiously move forward wondering if we’ll have to deal with a revenge tour of our own.

Over at the Atlanta Braves spring training facility, they’ve added two former Mets who know what it’s like to be rejected.

The Braves roster is filling up with rejected Mets players who might have vengeance on their minds

The Braves already signed Chasen Shreve this offseason to a minor league deal, but he doesn’t hold quite the same place in our minds as Jake Diekman or Dylan Covey. Covey was only cut from the roster a few days ago and opted to go into free agency rather than earn more money than he likely would on a minor league contract anywhere else. Catching on with the Braves as quickly as he did is telling. If there’s any will in his heart (or right arm) to pay back the Mets for signing him and then cutting him before the season began, the story writes itself.

Covey is probably more of an Austin Adams case from last year than anything else. Traded by the Mets in spring training to the Oakland Athletics, he memorably mocked the OMG celebration after returning to Citi Field and coming up with a clutch performance on the mound.

Diekman is a much bigger candidate to shove the Mets into a locker next year—if he manages to stick around with the Braves and pitch in the big leagues against New York at some point. Nasty stuff at times, Diekman’s biggest issue with the 2024 Mets was a lack of control. Then came the home runs he began to give up. He was cut midseason and failed to find a new team, likely hoping a major league contract would eventually appear out of nowhere.

Going from one NL East beast to another isn’t an uncommon occurrence of any scale. Last year, Luis Guillorme (who happened to sign a minor league deal with the Houston Astros yesterday) began his year with the Braves. It’s easy to forget but Danny Young came over from Atlanta last offseason. On a much larger scale, the Mets have invited A.J. Minter along for the 2025 ride.

It’s those larger, more impactful names we tend to focus on more. However, Diekman coming up with a big strikeout against Juan Soto in June is sure to gnaw at us.