Former NY Mets trade deadline bust is moving up the ladder in his new role

Of all the recent New York Mets trade deadline busts in recent memory, the one most often overlooked seems to be Tyler Naquin. The 2022 deadline featured an all-time stinker when the Mets swapped four players for Darin Ruf. Daniel Vogelbach’s poor 2023 campaign twisted how well he hit the year prior. We also recall Mychal Givens barely giving the team any confidence in the bullpen even if he was all right after a horrific debut in Washington.

Naquin’s career took a turn for the strange with the 34-year-old converting from outfielder to pitcher. He made his debut on the mound for the High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians this week, receiving rave reviews in his scoreless inning.

Shohei Ohtani doesn’t need to make room for Tyler Naquin just yet

The scoreless inning included a walk, a strikeout, and a wild pitch. Hitters failed to knock the major league veteran around in his new role. It’s something even batters in Rookie Ball struggled to do.

Prior to his debut for Lake County in High-A, Naquin tossed 14 innings in Rookie Ball. A 2-0 record, his 5.14 ERA is odd considering he gave up only 8 hits. They did come with 8 earned runs but not a single home run hit against him. Naquin’s issue there was finding the strike zone, issuing 11 walks versus 8 strikeouts.

Naquin has been wild. More troubling have been balks. He had 5 of them in his limited Rookie Ball sample.

Early jitters could be to blame. He gave up 3 earned runs in his pitching debut, another in his third outing, and 3 more in his fifth time entering a game in relief. Since then, Naquin has only one game where a run has scored against him in 9 tries. In fact, he has allowed only 1 hit over his last 10.1 innings. It doesn’t matter that he has hit at the major league level. He’s pitching as a relative newcomer.

Naquin’s journey is one of the most unique in the game going on right now. The Mets brought in a similar player, Anthony Gose, during the offseason and had him pitching in Syracuse. The lefty hurler has already lived out Naquin’s mission: pitching for the Guardians in the major leagues. Naquin probably won’t mind where his MLB pitching debut happens, just that it does.

Meanwhile, Mets fans hold their breaths and hope the name Hector Rodriguez is never mentioned in the same sentence as All-Star selections. The outfield prospect traded for Naquin is hitting .297/.357/.487 with 12 home runs in 79 games in Double-A for the Cincinnati Reds.