As the Mets navigate their second stretch of 13 consecutive games without a day off, they’ve occasionally turned to bullpen games, relying on Triple-A pitchers to carry the load. For Sunday’s game, it’s not yet clear whether the team will go with a traditional starter or an opener/bullpen approach, but either way, Mets prospect Blade Tidwell is expected to throw the most innings.
Although the Mets haven’t officially announced the plan and probably won’t until after Saturday’s game, several sources — with Daniel Wexler reporting it first — have indicated Tidwell is in line for the outing.
Ranked as the Mets’ 16th-best prospect by the minor league staff, Tidwell has made six starts for Triple-A Syracuse in 2025 with mixed outcomes.
In three outings, he gave up four or more earned runs, while in the other three he allowed two or fewer. He has yet to pitch into the sixth inning this season but has steadily increased his strikeout numbers. So far, he holds a 5.00 ERA with 37 strikeouts and 10 walks across 27 innings.
Here’s what Steve Sypa had to say about Tidwell heading into the season:
Standing 6’4” and weighing 205 pounds, Tidwell has a strong pitcher’s build. He throws from a high three-quarters arm slot with a quick, whippy delivery that’s somewhat violent, resulting in good control but inconsistent command.
This leads to him staying around the strike zone but occasionally getting hit hard or giving up home runs, despite having quality strikeout stuff.
Tidwell boasts a diverse pitch mix that includes a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, cutter, gyro slider, sweeping slider, curveball, and changeup. In 2024 with Syracuse, he used his four-seamer most frequently (37.4%), followed by the cutter (20.8%), sweeping slider (14.3%), gyro slider (11.9%), two-seamer (7.7%), changeup (6.2%), and curveball (1.7%).
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