Jefry Yan wins style points, this NY Mets player feels more likely to win a job

Jefry Yan, don’t make plans for the date of my funeral. I’d like you there to spice things up a bit. The eccentric New York Mets pitcher couldn’t help himself from making a highlight reel again on Friday. This time, it was on a baseball play.

When you make plays like this, you get to celebrate less monumental moments.

Yan has now pitched two scoreless innings for the Mets. It hasn’t been the cleanest, allowing 3 hits and walking a pair to go along with 2 strikeouts. He flirted with danger both times and escaped it.

A serious contender for a roster spot next year as well, his more balanced teammate currently undergoing an audition feels more likely to stick around and make the team.

Nate Lavender feels more in the wheelhouse of what the Mets would like in their bullpen

Yan’s story of making the major leagues is certainly unique. Out of baseball, working odd jobs, yadda yadda, it’s unique to him. Nate Lavender never quit baseball but an injury had him sidelined for almost two full seasons. Hurt after 7 innings in 2024, the Tampa Bay Rays took him in the Rule 5 Draft. Rather than allow him a full year on the 26-man roster in 2026 after sitting out the entirety of 2025 due to his injury, they returned him to the Mets. That brings us to August 2026 where he’s coming off of an impressive minor league season.

A 3.27 ERA in 33 innings, Lavender had the high punchout rate the Mets love to see from relievers. At 14.5 K/9 with only 3 BB/9, he was less prone to issuing a free pass like Yan was and will continue to be. Yan’s numbers were no doubt impressive. A 2.40 ERA in 15 Triple-A innings came with a ridiculous 19.2 K/9 but also an alarming 6 BB/9. With him, you never know where the ball is going to land. More often than not, it’s the catcher’s mitt. Only 6 hits allowed in Triple-A for a 3.6 H/9 rate, he was close to unhittable.

Lavender’s delayed big league debut has everything to do with his injury from 2024. His Tommy John surgery delayed the debut and failed to actually stop him from improving. Walks were one of the few downsides of his game. The improvement this year in Syracuse and no signs of getting flustered so far in 2.1 big league innings, he’s the less flashy lefty we can expect to carve out a role for himself in next year’s bullpen.

Averaging only 92.5 mph on his fastball, we should never expect him to hit 100 mph on any pitch unless he goes a full day of eating spinach. Both players have all of their minor league options left which makes them interchangeable in some ways. Yan’s tendency to walk batters at a high rate is something the Mets or anyone else will always have to live with. Two appearances out of both thus far, we can’t definitively say one is better than the other. A few years younger and

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow