Heading into 2024, the hype around Nate Lavender was real. The 2021 14th-round pick cruised through the minors, making it to Triple-A in under two years from when he was drafted. Especially at the time, when the Mets were desperate for left-handed relievers, the lefty Lavender, 26, was on everyone’s radar.

Nate Lavender, Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Then, seven games into his 2024 season at Triple-A, he tore his UCL. Lavender underwent the internal brace procedure on his elbow and missed the rest of the season. The Mets didn’t add Lavender, who was still recovering from elbow surgery, to the 40-man roster ahead of 2025. The Tampa Bay Rays pounced, taking Lavender in the Rule 5 Draft. The Mets’ best chance at a homegrown lefty reliever was gone.

Lavender suffered a setback with the Rays and needed another surgery to remove a bone spur in his elbow. He never pitched for the Rays, and after the season, he was returned to the Mets, this time with much less hype around him.

Finally healthy, he slowly worked his way through Single-A St. Lucie and High-A Brooklyn through the first month of the season, easing his way into his first game action since early 2024. He rejoined Triple-A Syracuse on May 9, and since then, he has looked great.

Don’t let the ERA—4.41 at Triple-A and 4.78 overall—fool you. Lavender has been excellent.

Nate Lavender in 2026. Image courtesy of Thomas Nestico @TJStats on X.

ERA, especially in the minor leagues, can be deceiving. Minor league defenses can be ugly, and minor league ballparks themselves are weird. There are many other stats you can look at instead, and one of the best, and arguably the simplest, is K-BB%. Strikeout minus walk ratio is very important, and Lavender is killing it. He’s striking out a staggering 42% of batters in Triple-A, and walking 8.7%. That’s a 33.3% K-BB% at Triple-A, a Top 5 mark across all pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched at the level. It’s the best in the Mets organization among pitchers at any level.

Lavender doesn’t throw hard, but the stuff is good. He’s a funky lefty, and guys like him consistently get away with not throwing hard. He throws strikes, gets a ton of swing and miss, and keeps the ball on the ground at a rate well above average. The ingredients are there.

The Mets currently have two lefties in the bullpen with Brooks Raley and A.J. Minter, but there’s still plenty of room for Lavender. (Realistically, you can see a world where he sticks if the Mets decide to sell at the deadline and send Raley and Minter to contenders.) There’s no rule against three lefties, and if anything, it’s probably a good thing. At the very least, Lavender should join Jonathan Pintaro, Daniel Duarte and others in the group of relievers who ride the express from Syracuse to Queens and back throughout the year.

It’s time for the once highly anticipated MLB debut of Nate Lavender.