Al Leiter is the latest former Met to make an appearance at camp. Leiter who pitched for the Mets from 1998-to-2004 connected with a couple of new faces like Max Scherzer and Tylor Megill.
Leiter, now 56, last pitched for the Mets 18 years ago but he’s been involved with the organization since his retirement from the game in 2005. Mets training camp has been littered with familiar faces like Mike Piazza, Mookie Wilson, and Keith Hernandez, with more to come like David Wright.
Leiter had a 3.42 ERA in 213 games with the Mets but now it’s his turn to sit back and appreciate the current era of Queens baseball with Scherzer and Jacob deGrom.
“I use [deGrom] as an example of what it’s supposed to look like for pitching mechanics,” Leiter said. “Whether I am talking to college kids, high school kids, minor league kids, big leaguers, he is the benchmark.”
Leiter continued.
“[DeGrom] is perfect. If you have a kid and you want to have a delivery, it’s Jacob deGrom — not just because he is really good, but the delivery is solid.”
Additionally, Leiter had a chance to meet and speak with Scherzer. The three-time Cy Young winner and Leiter connected over their intricacies while pitching.
“[Scherzer] gets me and I get him,” Leiter said. “I relate more to that and he’s made it work better than I did, but as we often say as pitchers, there is a guy in the box who is trying to take food off your table. It’s like the whole mentality of me against you and [Scherzer] has the look and the presence of something I always liked.”
But, everyone knows what the two Mets aces are capable of. The player who really intrigued Leiter was Megill who was thrusted into the pitching rotation due to injuries last season.
“I like that Megill is 97 [mph] with a really good changeup and I like guys with depth breaking balls,” Leiter said Tuesday. “I like the look. There’s a look for some people … I get that from him. Not that you are going to be great every time. But to have the presence of ‘This is going to be tough. I am going to do everything I can to make quality pitches and let’s hope it’s favorable. And I also get the fact that if it’s not, OK what did I do wrong.’ ”
Megill went 4-6 with a 4.52 ERA in 18 starts at the major league level last season. Megill’s struggles came from the long ball, allowing 19 home runs in 89 innings pitched.
Megill doesn’t know if he’ll start the season in Queens or in Triple-A Syracuse. He’s thrown six and two-thirds innings and allowed five hits, and walked out seven. Megill has struggled with his command walking five batters as well.
Manager Buck Showalter said Leiter wasn’t there to “kiss babies and sign autographs.” Well, he certainly left a flowery picture of the Mets rotation.
