The New York Mets have had a plethora of players come through the system over the years; acquired in hopes of doing great things, trying to revitalize their careers, or to catch lightning in a bottle, all for it to fall by the wayside. Now, they live in obscurity .
Speedster Jeff Duncan, Chris “The Animal” Carter, Rule 5 selection Brad Emaus, veteran Trot Nixon, and the great-named Tobi Stoner were all popular responses on Twitter when I posed the question to Mets fans looking for obscure players.
Fans love reminiscing about the obscure and forgotten players to don Mets uniforms over the years. In fact, there’s an entire Twitter account dedicated to highlighting some of them.
This sparked the idea between editors and friends, me and Rob Piersall, to do a series that shines light on the guys you may have forgotten about over the years. Hey, and what better way to do so on this terrific platform that is MetsMerized?
The first installment of our series is pitchers who only appeared in one game as a Met. There have been quite a few position players who have pitched in just one game (Desi Relaford, Anthony Recker, Jose Reyes and Todd Zeile just to name a few), but this is focusing specifically on true pitchers.
The first on our list is…
Adam Wilk
Adam Wilk was signed by the Mets prior to Spring Training in 2017 and began the year in the minors. However, he was called up about a month into the season in interesting fashion.
It was a May 7, Sunday matinee performance that Matt Harvey was supposed to start. But prior to the game, it was reported that Harvey had been sent home and subsequently suspended by the team for violating team rules.
Wilk was the summoned from Triple-A on short notice to spot start for Harvey, and was lit up to the tune of six runs on eight hits over just 3.2 innings.
The next day, the left-hander was designated for assignment and shortly thereafter picked up by the Minnesota Twins where he pitched in three games. He has not appeared in the majors since.
The Wilk storyline was a microcosm of a disastrous 2017 Mets season. After going to the World Series in 2015 and narrowly missing the NLDS in 2016, the team dropped 92 games and finished fourth worst in the NL overall.
Akeel Morris
Selected by the Mets in the 10th round of the 2010 draft, Akeel Morris moved slowly through the Mets system but in 2015, ranked on the team’s top 30 prospects list by MLB Pipeline.
However, New York, in need of a reliever, decided to promote the righty directly from Single-A to the bigs for a series against the Toronto Blue Jays in June.
Morris debuted on June 18 at Rogers Centre and was tagged for five runs on three hits in just two thirds of an inning. He was sent back down shortly after and didn’t appear in another game for the Mets.
In 2016, New York shipped Morris to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Kelly Johnson. In 2017, he pitched in eight games for Atlanta and then nine games for the Los Angeles Angels in 2018. He has not pitched in the majors since and is now rostered by the New Britain Bees of independent ball.
Photo courtesy of the New York Times
Chan Ho Park
Chan Ho Park actually had a pretty nice career.
The South Korea native pitched 17 years in the bigs, racked up 124 career wins and had a passable 4.36 career ERA. He even appeared in an All-Star game back in 2001.
The Mets, coming off an NLCS loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006, signed Park with hopes of bolstering their rotation for the 2007 season. In February, the team inked him to a one-year, $3 million deal.
After a rocky Spring Training, Park began the year with the then Mets’ Triple-A affiliate, the New Orleans Zephyrs. However, Park was called up at the end of April to start in place of the injured Orlando Hernandez.
On April 30, Park toed the rubber against the Florida Marlins and was touched up for seven runs in just four innings.
Three days later, Park was sent back down and designated for assignment in June.
The right-hander went to pitch three more years in the bigs with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates in a primarily relief role before hanging up his cleats.
Doc Medich
Doc Medich is perhaps better known for pitching for the Mets’ crosstown rival, the New York Yankees, as well as the Texas Rangers over his 10 year big league career, But Medich pitched in one game for the Mets in the 1977 season.
Unlike the other guys on this list, it wasn’t a bad outing. In seven innings, Medich yielded three runs on six hits while striking out three.
Medich actually came to the Mets in a roundabout kind of way. He was traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Oakland Athletics prior to the 1977 season, and was reportedly upset, as we attending the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine at the time of the trade.
Medich then threatened to retire, but ended up pitching that year with the A’s. Oakland attempted to sign him to an extension, which Medich refused, so he was sold to the Seattle Mariners. Seattle later waived him and he was claimed by the Mets.
After his one game with New York, Medich pitched four more years in the bigs.
Honorable mentions: Jack Egbert (2012), Garrett Olson (2012), Scott Copeland (2018), Donnie Hart (2019) and Jon Adkins (2007).
Stay tuned as Mike and Rob will be keeping you locked in to the random Mets throughout the offseason and beyond, with some exciting potential ideas in the works!
