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[New York Mets]

Mets announce 2026 promotional schedule

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 11: A detail shot of a New York Mets London Series 2024 bobblehead during the game between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets at Citi Field on Saturday, May 11, 2024 in New York, New York. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images

Earlier today, the Mets announced their 2026 promotional schedule for all home games through June.

The Mets will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1986 team all season long with some unique giveaways. If you’d like to rock a replica ring from the ‘86 squad, you have to be one of the first 15,000 fans in the ballpark on Saturday, March 28. If clothing is more your style, the team will distribute a 1986 World Champions retro t-shirt on Tuesday, May 26, and a 1986 Retro Jersey on Saturday, July 12. It’s worth noting that the jersey will be given out in a game against the Red Sox, whom the Mets famously defeated to earn their second, and most recent, championship. The Mets will also give out four bobbleheads to celebrate iconic moments from the 1986 team, but these games require a special ticket in order to procure the promo. These are: a Gary Carter bobblehead (Thursday, April 9), a Jesse Orosco bobblehead (Friday, April 24), a Mookie Wilson bobblehead (Tuesday, May 12), and a Ray Knight bobblehead (Sunday, August 2)

Beyond celebrating the 1986 team, the club also has a number of cool bobbleheads that could be yours if you don’t value your time enough and can wait in line two hours before gates to guarantee the promo (side note and opinion of this writer, but all promotions at sporting events should be available to all fans; you purchase a ticket, you get the promo. End rant). The Mets have two unique Juan Soto bobbleheads: One highlighting his 40/30 season on Saturday, April 11, and one baseball card bobblehead on Thursday, June 25. The Mets also have a Mr. Met Unisphere Light Up bobblehead on Saturday, April 25, and a Hello Kitty Bobblehead on June 13 that is sure to be very in-demand. Those promos go to the first 18,000 fans through the gate.

The Mets didn’t forget all you kids out there, because they lined up some child-friendly promos. The first 5,000 kids 12 and under at the Sunday, March 29 game on Opening Weekend will get a 5-borough race kids puzzle, which seems to suggest the popular race is returning in 2026. There is also a Crayola “Color Your Own Mrs. Met” Bobblehead on Sunday, June 14, which also goes to the first 5,000 kids at the game.

All fans in attendance to Opening Day will get a magnetic schedule (I suppose the Mets heard my pleas in one specific instance). Beyond that, probably the most unique and creative giveaway is the “Bobby Valentine Disguise” promo, which goes to the first 15,000 fans at the Friday, May 29 game against the Marlins. There’s also a soccer jersey (Thursday, June 11), a Mets purse (Monday, June 22), a Mets chain necklace (Tuesday, June 23), a Marcus Semien replica jersey (Wednesday, June 24), and a Pride Night sleeveless jersey (Friday, June 26).

Which promo are you most excited for?

Source: https://www.amazinavenue.com/new-york-mets-news/90451/mets-announce-2026-promotional-schedule

 

[New York Mets]

Mike Baumann has a knuckle-curve, will travel

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - MAY 11: Mike Baumann #53 of the Baltimore Orioles pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on May 11, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) | Getty Images

One of the my favorite bits in Mets discourse these days is that the only part of roster building that David Stearns is actually excited about is dumpster diving for relief arms. Signing a young superstar to a record-setting contract? Boring. Trading for a potentially electric center fielder or a very affordable #2 starter? Grunt work. Digging into NPB stats to pick out some minor league guys to invite to camp? There we go, that’s the good stuff.

Enter Mike Baumann (not to be confused with Michael Baumann the Fangraphs writer). A third round pick out of Jacksonville University in 2017, Baumann was never a top prospect not even a particularly notable one; even in the dog days of the Orioles rebuild, his stuff was never good enough to merit an extended chance in the rotation, nor was he very good out of the bullpen. The Orioles eventually cut him loose during the 2024 season, and he’d wind up bouncing between not one, not two, but four other teams before heading off to Japan for the 2025 season. After 15 mediocre innings with the Yakult Swallows (where he walked 7.2 batters per nine), he’s now back stateside on a minor league deal with an invite to camp.

What did the Mets see here? Well it’s definitely not the top-line performance as we just discussed, so it must be the underlying stuff. And indeed, all the public-facing stuff models have something positive to say about Baumann’s 2024 arsenal. His knuckle-curve was scored a 67 by PitchingBot (20-80 scale), a 118 by Stuff+ (100 is average), a 122 (100 is average) by Rob Orr’s metrics, and -1.1 by Baseball Prospectus’s StuffPro (negative is better). The movement profile isn’t amazing, but he throws it hard for a curve at 87.8 MPH. You can catch a couple shots of this pitch proving to be an effective put away offering in this 2024 compilation – watch out for the Miguel Sano jump scare at the start.

Baumann also has a fastball that’s consistently graded out as slightly above average (ignoring what I assume is a calibration or small sample size issue from PitchingBot in 2024), so you can see the potential building blocks. Maybe it’s a tweak to the fastball shape to make it a more effective offering and get Baumann two above average pitches. Maybe it’s an adjustment to his mix to focus more on the knuckle curve. Perhaps it’s a new third pitch or an improvement to his current slider or changeup that makes it all work better together. It could even be that some of this has already happened in Japan last year and we just can’t see it because we don’t have the data. There are a lot of different directions this could go.

Most minor league signings of this type never amount to much – a single appearance or three in the dog days of summer, or potentially only a couple of Spring Training outings before the club goes in a different direction. The success the Mets have had recently with pitching development is infectious though, as is David Stearns’ track record with building bullpens. You almost believe that everything they touch will turn to gold. Maybe that will be the case for Mike Baumann, providing him a respite from his professional odyssey and the Mets meme creators more fuel for their most reliable bit.

Source: https://www.amazinavenue.com/new-york-mets-roster/90369/mets-season-preview-mike-baumann