Memories of Ryne Stanek

[Edgy MD]

The hard-throwing long-locked bullpenner will be dealing for St. Louis for the immediate future, signing a one-year deal with the Cardinals.

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[The Hot Corner]

Like a lot of relievers, he could be very solid one outing, then frustratingly ineffective the next. I always felt that he should have be better and more consistent than he often was. He had great velocity and "stuff", but I felt that his command was hit or miss.

[MFS62]

He led the Mets pitchers in appearances with 65.

More often than not it was " well, he pitched" and not "he pitched well".

I recall thinking that he was the second reliever named Ryne that I had seen. The other was Ryne Duren in the 1950s.*

Later

* = ****, I feel old

[Fman99]

I like a reliever who looks like they sell meth in the off season. Hopefully the 2026 Mets get a guy to fill that role.

[Cowtipper]

I remember how bad he was, how he looked like he listened to Slipknot, how annoyed I was they kept him over Phil Maton and how each of his appearances almost uniformly resembled a large pile of steaming poop. Finished his Mets career with a 5.47 ERA, but hey at least he threw really really fast.

[ashie62]

I loved Stanek

I will remember him for an epic hold late last year at Citified

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I went to see the Mets in Detroit on Sept. 1. After the debacle in Pittsburgh I was hoping to get to see at least one Mets win in person last season, and the Tigers were good while the Mets were reeling. I was surrounded by Mets fans in the stands

Bottom of the fifth, Mets are ahead 6-5 after Juan Soto's grand slam.

Gregory Soto pitching, gives up a single to Spencer Torkelson, strikes out Riley Green, then gives up a single to Andy Ibáñez, which moves Torkelson to third base.

Stanek comes in to replace Soto and immediately throws a wild pitch to allow Torkelson to score and tie the game. You gotta be kidding me.

Mets went ahead to win 10-8, with Soto driving in six of the runs. There was much joy.

Footnote: The Tigers have a thing where you can buy a game-used ball online, and you can pick the game. I wanted a cool souvenir of that special game and went ahead and ordered one. The one the Tigers sent me was the one thrown for the wild pitch. Whenever I somehow get a game-used ball I put it in one of those holders that have a spot for the ball and a baseball card. I discovered there are no Mets cards of Ryne Stanek. Closest I could find was a Topps Now card from 2024 that had several players on it. Travis Jankowski got a Mets card in the 2025 Update Set for playing in four games. Stanek gets nothing.

[metirish]

I liked him, had plenty of balls , probably not the guile though, for a middle reliever he seems to be in the thick of things a lot

[cal sharpie]

I was at that game that Marshmallow attended. My first time in Detroit. Not totally surrounded by Met fans but there were some - have to say that the Tiger fans were really nice people as well.

[Lefty Specialist]

Had his moments. But boy was he inconsistent- alternating between being unhittable and very hittable. I was always nervous when he came in.

[Edgy MD]

One specific memory was his very last appearance. While there are a thousand reasons why the Mets didn't reach 2025 post-season glory, the final difference maker ultimately fell into his lap and onto his record.

Carlos Mendoza — who, along with the other button-pushers in his braintrust, is the real culprit in my book — insanely chose to pull Sean Manaea after 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball, inexplicably turning the game over to his bullpen before some patrons had found their seats. So all hands were on deck, and it was a lot to ask everybody to be on top their games. Stanek relieved Brooks Raley with one out in the fourth and Connor Norby on first. When a double by Eric Wagaman three pitches later brought Norby home, that would effectively be the end of the season, as the Mets would end up being shut out.

There was no knowing that at the time, of course, so Stanek gave up two more runs of his own to help seal the deal.