{"id":599131,"date":"2026-03-01T02:26:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T02:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/599131\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T02:26:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T02:26:36","slug":"jackson-cluff-pursuing-mlb-mets-dream-after-putting-career-on-pause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/599131\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackson Cluff pursuing MLB Mets dream after putting career on pause"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 In the wake of the hamate injury that has sidelined Francisco Lindor<\/a> for the spring, there have been more opportunities at shortstop. <\/p>\n

While the 29-year-old career minor leaguer Jackson Cluff is expected to be minor league depth<\/a>, he made perhaps the best play of the spring Friday in Jupiter, Fla., when he went deep into the hole on a grounder and fired a strong throw to first to get the out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how Cluff could find a path to Queens this season, but he isn\u2019t ruling it out after an unusual professional journey that\u2019s so far taken him to Triple-A, but not the majors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cluff, a practicing Mormon, played at BYU and following his freshman year, he took two years off from school \u2014 and baseball \u2014 to go on a mission for the church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So while players his age were continuing their baseball careers, Cluff was instead taking part in the voluntary mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to do it, but for people who grow up and are active in the faith, it\u2019s an expectation if you\u2019re asked,\u2019\u2019 Cluff said. \u201cMy dad did it and my little brother is on a mission right now. Most people do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After being unsure prior to BYU, Cluff said he became confident in his choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mets shortstop Jackson Cluff is on the field in the sixth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals during Spring Training at Clover Field, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Port St. Lucie. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided it was something I wanted to do and put my career on pause for two years,\u2019\u2019 Cluff said. \u201cEveryone was very supportive, saying, \u2018You need to do what you want to do.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cluff ended up spending his two years in Atlanta, not exactly the far-flung places others have gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should have seen the look on my face when I found out where I was going,\u2019\u2019 Cluff said. \u201cMy dad went to Norway and learned Norwegian. My father-in-law went to Japan. I had teammates go to Mexico and Brazil. But I went to Atlanta and it was awesome.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of his work, Cluff focused on proselytizing and community service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Mets infielder Jackson Cluff (l.) runs the bases during Spring Training at Clover Field, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Port St. Lucie. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knock on doors and walk around town,\u2019\u2019 Cluff said. \u201cYou get on a bus in Atlanta and talk to people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the two years were up, Cluff returned to BYU, this time as a 22-year-old sophomore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to play one more year and it was really important to have a good season because I wanted to play professionally,\u2019\u2019 Cluff said. \u201cMost college players are getting drafted as a 21-year-old junior.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cluff responded with a solid season and called it a \u201cno-brainer\u201d to sign with the Nationals when they took him in the sixth round of the 2019 amateur draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI told every team, \u2018If you pick me, I\u2019ll go,\u2019 \u201d Cluff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, Cluff\u2019s first full professional season was wiped out by COVID-19, before working his way up to Triple-A in 2024, where he spent all of last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His goal this year is to \u201chelp this team win games at the big league level at some point this season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cluff said he knows the infield depth with the Mets will make that difficult, and despite his slow road through the minors, he\u2019s only appreciative of his experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only time my religion comes up in the clubhouse is when people ask if I really took two years off,\u2019\u2019 Cluff said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any regrets. How the mission impacted me personally and helped my faith and perspective on life is much more important than baseball. It\u2019s given me so much direction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And as for his pursuit of his major league dream, Cluff said, \u201cAs long as I have a jersey on my back, anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 In the wake of the hamate injury that has sidelined Francisco Lindor for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,227,4,61,185,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-599131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-francisco-lindor","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-mets","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-spring-training"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116151557097899710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}