Memories of A.J. Minter

[Edgy MD]

He was part of a devastating Braves bullpen for a lot of years, and was absolute money — big outs he got — at the top of 2025 for the Mets, and losing him and Danny Young for the season early on was a grim foreshadowing of the unsustainability of the team's explosion out of the gate.

They certainly never really found the lefty they wanted out of the pen after that.  Brandon Waddell and Jose Castillo had their moments, but Gregory Soto and Richard Lovelady not so much.

In our age of exploding elbows, it seemed funny that a strained lat could lead to season-ending surgery, but so it went.  He never really became relevant this season as the more the team worked to develop him into a role where he might get key situations, the fewer the key situations there were for him.

As 33s go, he was no John Maine, but he got the job done.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

More memorable as a Brave than as a Met. To the extent a competent guy in the bullpen is a total rarity today he was really accomplished but as a Met he was going to waste--we can finish 17 out without him.

[Cowtipper]

As with most relievers with some pedigree the Mets sign, I was cautiously optimistic about Minter. I remember thinking of him as damaged good when he arrived and he ended up becoming damaged goods with us. But I have no bad memories of his actual performance with the club, when he actually pitched for them. 

Minter kinda reminds me of Justin Wilson. Very good relievers with the Mets, but because he played basically two partial seasons with the club instead of one full season, he's gonna be harder to remember. If he had done all his work in one campaign a la Mark Guthrie or Ricky Bottalico, he would be a lot more memorable.