CINCINNATI \u2014 Brandon Nimmo journeyed out toward the left field line, the only non-pitcher, non-catcher or coach in the vicinity as much of the Mets\u2019 bullpen and some of their rotation stretched.<\/p>\n
About five hours before Saturday\u2019s 6-3 loss to the Reds<\/a>, he wanted to talk with the new guy.<\/p>\n \u201cI want you to take 15 seconds and just look around and just soak it all in,\u201d were Nimmo\u2019s words of advice, according to Brandon Sproat, \u201cbecause whenever your debut is done, you\u2019re going to realize, \u2018Oh, wow, it\u2019s already over.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n For Sproat and the Mets, perhaps this is just the beginning.<\/p>\n Brandon Sproat makes a pitch during the Mets\u2019 Grapefruit League game in February. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n The young, hard-throwing righty will become the organization\u2019s third top starting pitcher prospect to debut in the past three-plus weeks on Sunday, when he gets the ball for the series finale against the Reds.<\/p>\n The journey of a talented arm twice selected in the draft by the Mets \u2014 the two parties could not agree to terms after Sproat was selected out of the University of Florida in the third round in 2022, and the Mets then picked him again in the second round in 2023 \u2014 will culminate with being thrown directly into a playoff race<\/a> while facing a team chasing the Mets in the wild-card hunt.<\/p>\n Triple-A Syracuse manager Dick Scott called Sproat into his office this week and told him he would be throwing a light bullpen session that day. <\/p>\n Brandon Sproat prepares to throw a pitch during the Mets Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n Brandon Sproat addresses reporters during a Sept. 6 press conference. Screengrab via X\/@SNY<\/p>\n That did not jibe with Sproat\u2019s minor league schedule, which projected to see him start Friday. <\/p>\n A confused Sproat questioned the plan before Scott revealed that he would be starting Sunday in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n The Florida native held his emotions in check before calling his mom and dad.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe sat there and cried for some time together,\u201d said Sproat, who will have his parents, two sisters, two grandmothers, aunt, uncle and one cousin at his debut \u2014 while another, 12-year-old cousin will stay home in trying to achieve perfect attendance at school. \u201cEverything we\u2019ve been through this year \u2014 they\u2019re my backbone. They\u2019ve been through it all with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Sproat has been through plenty this year. <\/p>\n He entered the campaign as the organization\u2019s top pitching prospect after a thoroughly dominant first season in pro ball, in which he rocketed all the way to Triple-A. <\/p>\n Brandon Sproat is pictured during a Grapefruit League game for the Mets in 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n He looked promising during spring camp, returned to Syracuse and stumbled upon the first real adversity of his professional life.<\/p>\n Through his first 15 starts with Syracuse, the 24-year-old pitched to a 5.95 ERA, struck out too few (43 in 62 innings) and walked too many (32). <\/p>\n Nolan McLean leapfrogged Sproat in the pecking order and debuted first. <\/p>\n Jonah Tong, who spent most of his season with Double-A Binghamton, also passed Sproat on the highway to Queens.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Clarity for Sproat came with a catchphrase \u2014 \u201cLet it eat\u201d \u2014 in which he tells himself to simply let loose and throw each pitch with maximum effort and conviction.<\/p>\n The turnaround was instant. <\/p>\n With more overwhelming stuff, the righty pitched to a 2.44 ERA with 70 strikeouts in 59 innings of his last 11 minor league starts. <\/p>\n His most recent \u2014 a seven-inning, three-hit, no-run gem last Saturday \u2014 manager Carlos Mendoza interpreted as a \u201cmessage\u201d to the team that he was ready.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Several times this season, Sproat publicly has said he felt he could help the major league team this year.<\/p>\n The Mets did not officially agree until this week when they demoted a struggling Kodai Senga<\/a> and moved up Sproat as the sixth starter<\/a> of a group that also includes McLean and Tong.<\/p>\n Sproat will lean upon his friends and already pestered McLean and Tong about the attire required for pregame throwing, the timing, the location of the weight room \u2014 standard questions for a wide-eyed kid on his first day of school.<\/p>\n If Sproat had begun to worry whether he would join his pals this year, he did not want to acknowledge it.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m just being where my feet are,\u201d Sproat said. \u201cI just stood on my faith, and whenever it was God\u2019s time for me to be called up, that\u2019s when it was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 Brandon Nimmo journeyed out toward the left field line, the only non-pitcher, non-catcher or coach in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":207352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,98412,1266,405,403,1305,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-207351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brandon-sproat","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-mets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115162507047091225","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}