Bundy joins Mets: ‘I’m happy I have a home’
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — For six weeks, Dylan Bundy sat at residence in Oklahoma, unsigned and not sure of his skilled baseball future. Once one of many sport’s brightest prospects, Bundy had seen his inventory fall far sufficient that when different gamers started reporting to spring camps in Florida and Arizona, he stayed residence, throwing alone to maintain his arm in form.
Finally, on Thursday, the cellphone rang. The Mets, having misplaced José Quintana to harm, have been on the lookout for extra beginning pitching. Bundy match the invoice as what supervisor Buck Showalter referred to as a “professional depth piece that we can use.”
“It was a long offseason,” Bundy stated upon reporting to Mets camp Saturday. “I’m happy I have a home.”
Over the following few weeks, Bundy will throw bullpen classes and dwell batting follow in prolonged Spring Training till he’s able to report back to a Minor League affiliate. In New York, he joins a bunch of depth starters together with Tylor Megill, Elieser Hernández and Joey Lucchesi.
There’s loads of familiarity at Mets camp for Bundy, who performed below Showalter within the Orioles’ group from 2012-18 and was subsequently traded to the Angels, the place Billy Eppler was the overall supervisor. Bundy can be acquainted with Orioles-turned-Mets bullpen coach Dom Chiti, in addition to Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, who lives about 20 minutes from him in Oklahoma.
That group will try to unlock any remaining potential in Bundy, the fourth general choose within the 2011 Draft who was MLB Pipeline’s second-ranked prospect heading into the ’13 season. In these days, Bundy threw within the higher 90s with a four-pitch combine.
“A lot of people tell you he was the best high school prospect they ever saw,” Showalter stated.
Injuries have modified that dramatically for Bundy, who averaged 89 mph on his four-seam fastball final season with the Twins. Despite the diminished velocity, he has mustered some success over the previous few years, most notably producing a 3.29 ERA over 11 begins for the Angels through the pandemic-shortened 2020 season — a efficiency that earned him American League Cy Young consideration. But Bundy was unable to duplicate these ends in ’21, throughout which he went 2-9 with a 6.06 ERA.
If nothing else, Bundy stays able to consuming innings, having soaked up 140 of them final season for Minnesota. He figures to be an possibility ought to the Mets want a spot starter or rotation fill-in later this summer season. To that finish, Bundy’s new membership intends to stretch him out to a starter’s workload as soon as he begins going through hitters.
“I’ve just got to get myself ready,” Bundy stated. “I’m way behind as far as these guys who have been here for five, six weeks now. I’ve got to get going and face hitters, I think, to be able to go pitch somewhere.”
