In the ultimate small victory a team can have when building its roster, the New York Mets got a pitcher back they thought was gone for good.
The annual Rule 5 Draft allows teams to purchase the contracts of other organizations’ minor-leaguers who have been in the farm system for a few years, but haven’t been added to the 40-man roster. The catch is that they must remain on the 40-man all season, or they’re returned to their old clubs.
In last year’s Rule 5 Draft, the Tampa Bay Rays snagged left-handed pitcher Nate Lavender from the Mets. But they never found out what the 25-year-old could do, as he was placed on the 60-day injured list in February and was rehabbing from internal brace surgery on his throwing elbow.
Now, Lavender is back with the organization that drafted him, as on Wednesday, he was returned from the Rays to the Mets, according to his official roster page. The Rays designated him for assignment last Thursday, which was the deadline to add back players from the 60-day IL.
Lavender has four seasons of minor-league action, with 75 of his 77 appearances coming out of the bullpen. And he’s looked fantastic, pitching to a 2.41 ERA over 115 2/3 innings and striking out a gaudy 174 batters.
A 2021 14th-round pick, Lavender has actually had two elbow surgeries in the last year and a half, as he had another procedure in August to remove bone spurs in his left elbow.
A year in a completely new organization while recovering from injury is no one’s idea of a perfect path to the majors. But Lavender is still young enough, and has shown enough talent while in the Mets organization, to elicit hope that he could be a legitimate bullpen weapon in the near future.
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