Mets prospect who battled back from injury was perfect on the mound in his 2024 debut

Kitchener, Canada’s very own Calvin Ziegler was back on the mound Sunday for the Brooklyn Cyclones. The second round pick of the New York Mets from back in 2021 has seen all of the hype surrounding many of the other pitchers taken by Zack Scott that summer.

The highest player actually signed by the Mets in a draft that at first looked disastrous because of the Kumar Rocker debacle, Ziegler’s professional career was put on hold for the 2023 season. He logged just one inning after a 4.44 ERA performance in 2022 with St. Lucie.

Baseball gods working hard against Ziegler must’ve taken Sunday off. In his 2024 debut, Ziegler was perfect.

Mets prospect Calvin Ziegler had his “don’t forget about me” game

You need to click the “show full list” button on some top Mets prospect lists to see where Ziegler ranks now. Missing time will do that. MLB Pipeline has him all the way down at number 22. In 2022, he finished the year ranked at number 11.

The subjective nature of top prospect lists are bound to become reactionary at times. Ziegler’s rough debut season, the injuries that followed, and the betterment of the Mets farm system as a whole had him getting lost in the shuffle. 

If there’s any way to remind the world of his existence, 4 perfect innings with 9 strikeouts is the way to do it.

Fortunately, Ziegler is still only 21 while Dom Hamel, the third-round pick from the same draft, has already celebrated turning 25. His debut in Syracuse, for what it’s worth, didn’t go as smoothly. He gave up 5 earned runs in 2.2 innings.

Ziegler was perfect but another Mets minor league pitcher out K’ed him. Jonah Tong of the St. Lucie Mets fanned 11 batters in 4.1 innings of work in relief. Coincidentally also a Canadian-born player, it was an amazing debut for him, too.

Who said all Canadians were so nice? Not to the batters they face.