Mets close to naming John Gibbons bench coach, and the baseball part of Fantasy Camp

Gibbons, a former Met, served as the Blue Jays manager from 2004-2008 and then again from 2013-2018

🦃 Happy Thanksgiving from the entire Just Mets staff! 🦃

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What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎

• The Mets are set to hire former Met and Blue Jays manager John Gibbons to be their bench coach (New York Post)

• The Mets also hired Kevin Mahala to be their minor league hitting coordinator

• The club signed RHP Joseph Yabbour to a minor league contract

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Mets Fantasy Camp - Part 3 ✍️

On Tuesday, I wrote about a special moment (or two) Dwight Gooden and I shared at Mets Fantasy Camp. On Wednesday, I discussed the clubhouse life and culture as well as the training staff.

Today, I will get into the meat of Fantasy Camp, which is of course baseball.

It all started on Sunday afternoon, November 12 at the Mets Minor League Complex. If you’re not familiar with the grounds, the minor league side is on the far side of the complex, essentially 2 full baseball fields away from the main stadium and the major league side. Mind you, nobody has to park at the stadium and walk all the way to the minor league complex. One simply keeps driving on Peacock Blvd past the main stadium, and the lot for the minor league side is about 1/3 of a mile further down the road.

The ask was that nobody wear the full uniform for the workout, instead asking us to wear our assigned Mets Fantasy Camp tee (name/number on the back), shorts and cleats.

During the Sunday workout, we were sent around to multiple stations for around 15-20 minutes. The first station I went to was infield which was run by Kevin Baez. We were asked to cycle between second base and shortstop and we did basic throws to first along with double plays from both positions. My best non-pitching position was always shortstop - I was never the fastest player on the field but I always saw the ball best from that spot and the throw to first was never really a challenge for me (as long as I wasn’t pitching).

The next station was outfield which was coordinated by Mookie Wilson. I was never a great outfielder myself as I always had trouble going back on balls, and my vision has never been great so I always had trouble tracking balls in the air. But I also took great pleasure taking flyballs from Mookie who was fungo’ing one deep flyball after the next.

I mean, if that guy is hitting you a flyball, you cherish each and every one of them, and make sure to catch the damn thing.

Then came the pitching part which was held on the ten-pack in the back of the complex. If you have been a regular visitor to spring training, you will recall this is on the east side of the complex tucked into the eastern corner. The Mets used to hide Johan Santana on these mounds and keep the media away from him while he was throwing his bullpen sessions in camp.

I was always a pitcher by trade. That skill was perhaps my greatest asset on a baseball field. Its something I studied, tirelessly worked at as a youth and as an adult, and I was always blessed with a strong and flexible arm which, along with my size, gave me swing and miss velocity wherever I pitched.

My problem was and clearly still is remains simple - I don’t know how to pitch at 75 percent. I’m not wired that way, nobody ever really instructed me that way either. It was always get on the mound, get outs, be competitive.

Well, my bullpen session was just that. After a brief warmup, I stepped up on the mound and pitched in front of Turk Wendell, and Bill Pulsipher. The velocity was good, the slider was good but my change-up was not so good. Still, the stuff was to a point Turk asked me if I was old enough to pitch at Fantasy Camp (can’t pitch if under 35 years old). I said I was 43 and that was perhaps the best compliment I was going to receive during the week.

All three of Pulsipher, Turk and Nelson Figueroa advised that I pace myself, take it easy, it’s a long camp, etc. Again, it’s not that I didn’t take the advice, I just didn’t know how to execute the advice.

I threw about 25-30 pitches in the bullpen before shutting it down. I then decided to put on the catchers gear simply to help out and give other catchers a breather. It was a hot afternoon, we had all been running around for a while and we aren’t exactly spring chickens.

It turned out to be a smart move because Dwight Gooden got on the hill and decided to throw a few pitches, albeit very, very lightly. I got to catch one - it wasn’t photographed or recorded, but I’ve got that memory stored. I also caught for Doug Dickey for a while, who is the director of Fantasy Camp. He was throwing gas out there with a slider that was dancing all over the place. It had been a while since I had been on the other side of that kind of stuff.

Then we moved onto hitting which was more or less 10 pitches against Figueroa for everyone and that was that for the workout.

Teams were assigned that night. I was on a team run by Lenny Harris and Rodney “Crash” McCray. If you recall, Harris has more pinch hits than anyone in MLB history and he’s now a coach in the Reds organization. McCray had a brief big league career between 1990-1992 with the club. Both are characters with big, attention-grabbing personalities, and it was awesome to listen to their stories, listen to how they’re teaching baseball these days, and I undoubtedly brought lessons home for the kids I teach in my town.

Monday morning arrived with the first game, and of course Harris and McCray gave me the ball. When they did that, it felt like I was young again. I was in my element, in my zone doing what I truly loved and wished I could’ve made a career out of. The ball was coming out free and easy, the slider was moving, life was good.

Then the game started, and unfortunately I was a little rustier than I thought. I struggled with my command, struggled to follow through and really couldn’t trigger the adjustment in the first inning. I ended up issuing a couple of walks which of course translated to a run. I was able to settle in from there but I had thrown about 30 pitches in that first inning which limited my viability for the rest of the game. I ended up going five and allowing a couple of runs after finally adjusting, but had to leave after 101 pitches. In between, however, I snapped off a slider and felt my elbow grab. Lenny told me to quit throwing the slider from there, although I did keep going at that point for at least two innings with fastballs and change-ups, the latter of which wasn’t in peak form, but didn’t kill me.

The game kind of got out of hand from there. But like I said, for those five innings I was 18 again, and I enjoyed every single minute of that outing, even though it wasn’t the easiest of outings.

Then came game 2 of the day, which was a whacky loss for our team. I popped up in my first at-bat, but in the second I was hit by a pitch on my left wrist, and had to be taken to urgent care. It didn’t look good, it didn’t sound good. So, this is how I spent the rest of my day - getting an x-ray. Fortunately, it wasn’t broken but I still wasn’t able to move or rotate my wrist, which limited my ability to hit for the rest of the week (it’s better now but still not close to 100%).

Harris and McCray wouldn’t let me hit on Tuesday, although I kept insisting that I could get in there and at least drop a bunt down to try and help the team. Instead, I played right field, one of the safer places for an injured player to play. There were a few balls hit out to me which I was able to catch, but because my arm was spent from the day before, I wasn’t able to throw the ball anywhere.

So, that’s how I spent day 2 on the field. A player with no right arm, no left arm. Even so, I was happy to simply be out there, taking all of it in even at around 30% of the player I wanted to be.

Then came Wednesday. We were 0-4 and not particularly competitive since I left game 1 on Monday. But everyone makes the playoffs, so Crash and Harris told me in the clubhouse I was getting the ball.

Mind you, I am 43, my elbow has already been operated on, it wasn’t particularly clean to begin with, and my shoulder has been repaired several times as well (labrum, rotator, biceps tendon). My elbow still felt shot from the outing on Monday, although my shoulder was actually ok, albeit tired. I did have a feeling this might be my assignment, so I was working with the trainers for the past 24 hours to stretch and condition my arm to make every effort to be available.

Somehow, I was able to warmup. My elbow was wrapped tight of course, but I guess the adrenaline took over and once again, I was in my element.

I didn’t have my slider although I was able to snap a couple off when needed. It was fastball, fastball, fastball all day long, I had decent although not my best velocity, and I was effective for five innings. Unfortunately, we lost on a walk-off 3-2, so we were eliminated from championship contention.

Still, it was a great game, generally well played, competitive, and super fun to be a part of.

That was it for me on the mound, and really any sort of throwing since. My elbow isn’t in good shape now - I was not able to throw the ball back to my daughter during her pitching lesson on Wednesday, a full week after I had thrown a baseball. So, I am visiting HSS next Monday to assess the damage.

I was relegated to second base and the outfield the rest of the way. We managed to win one game on Thursday but finished the week 1-7. I ended up going 4-for-11 with seven walks and seven runs scored. The four hits were mostly poke jobs since I couldn’t really rotate my left wrist and my right elbow was a mess from throwing 203 pitches in what would end up being 10 innings with one day of rest in between.

While we didn’t play all that well, I still had a blast in every inning of every game. It was an honor and a pleasure to put on that uniform and play with the group of guys I played with. We played a few close games, a lot of people got hurt along the way, but we all saw it through to completion and contributed where we were able to. We did have some very good players and we produced the best offense of any team in camp overall. But while we played a number of close games, it just didn’t work out.

And that’s ok! It’s Fantasy Camp.

It’s about the experience and trapping ourselves in a world that doesn’t exist for a week. The wins and losses are ultimately inconsequential with respect to the ability to rub elbows with the pros, meet new people and be able to speak the same language with each other (that being baseball) for a few days.

And falling into that trap is truly what made the week one to cherish.

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If you are interested in being a part of Mets Fantasy Camp, contact Doug Dickey: DDickey@nymets.com.

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Hot Stove 🔥

• The Diamondbacks acquired 3B Eugenio Suárez in a trade with the Mariners

• Nearly half the league has reached out with interest in RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Kyodo News)