Not long after joining the Mets in Spring Training, Chris Bassitt took a piece of advice from one of his new teammates and deleted all the social media apps on his phone. No more Facebook. No more Instagram. No more Twitter, his personal favorite.
“I just want to have fun playing with this team,” Bassitt said. “I feel like social media can really affect that. I think it can be a really negative thing — not just for this team, but especially for myself. I just said, ‘Why? I don’t need it.’”
In Oakland, Bassitt loved using Twitter to stay up to date on the golf and football worlds. Invariably, things would pop onto his feed about baseball as well, often directly involving him. But the market was small enough that the noise never seemed too loud; Bassitt mostly managed to ignore it.
In New York, given warnings from several of his new teammates, Bassitt decided that the benefits of Twitter and other services didn’t outweigh the drawbacks. So, much like Pete Alonso did before last season, Bassitt simply quit.
“For me, getting rid of Facebook and Instagram, that was easy,” said Bassitt, who will start the Mets’ home opener against the D-backs on Friday. “But Twitter? I love Twitter. I love looking up random things that are 0 percent baseball related. It was just more like regular, everyday news. Not having that at my fingertips, I’m Googling a lot more stuff now.”
If Bassitt had scrolled through Twitter this past week, he would have seen nothing but praise following a Mets debut in which he struck out eight Nationals batters over six scoreless innings. Afterward, Bassitt won over additional fans when he described his mentality upon falling behind Nats star Juan Soto, 3-0, in an early at-bat.
“I don’t care who you are, I’m coming after you,” said Bassitt, who came back in the count to fan Soto on a 94 mph fastball down the middle of the plate. “I’ve faced Ohtani a lot. I’ve faced Trout a lot. I don’t care [about] the name on the back of your jersey, I’m coming.”
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Asked later why he relishes those types of matchups, Bassitt noted that it’s the mentality he’s needed to become an All-Star pitcher. Staying aggressive against the game’s best hitters was not a concept that came naturally to him, but instead something he learned to do to survive. He relishes those challenges. Bassitt’s favorite opponent to face over the years has been Miguel Cabrera, despite the Tigers slugger’s lifetime .400 average against him.
As for the added fame that comes along with pitching in New York, Bassitt has about as much use for it as he does for social media.
“I know it’s kind of weird in this profession, but it makes me uncomfortable talking about myself,” Bassitt said. “The less people that talk about me, I’m happy. I have no problem with flying under the radar. I’m actually happy about it. Let’s talk about Jake and Scherzer more. I don’t want the spotlight, and I don’t need it. I just like playing.”
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A CONVERSATION WITH … JEURYS FAMILIA
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When Jeurys Familia was 17 years old, he signed with the Mets as an international free agent. With the exception of two months in Oakland in 2018, he remained a member of the organization exclusively until signing a one-year, $6 million contract with the rival Phillies this offseason. When the Mets traveled to Philadelphia earlier this week, I caught up with Familia about his decision to leave:
What made you decide to sign with the Phillies?
I want to win championships before I go home, and I think this is the team that can compete and win championships. Our lineup, starting pitching, we’ve got everything. We just have to stay healthy all the way through.
Did you come close to returning to the Mets?
No. I didn’t talk to them at all. It didn’t surprise me. At the end of the day, I know this is a business. The good thing is there are 30 teams out there. Somebody’s going to talk to you.
You still have a home in New Jersey. Did you spend most of your offseason there?
No, most of the time I was in the D.R. I started training there Monday through Friday. We played a couple of games down there, too. We had guys like Soto and [Eloy] Jiménez from the White Sox. Every Tuesday and Friday, we played nine-inning games. I threw like three innings. Honestly, we did it because we didn’t know what was going to happen [with the lockout]. At some point, they were going to agree to a deal, so we did it trying to get as ready as we could for Spring Training.
Do you keep in touch with your former teammates on the Mets?
Yeah, I still talk to some guys. [Francisco] Lindor, Alonso. I miss everybody out there. It was a long time for me over there. They’re part of my family. The last time I talked to those guys, I was wishing them the best this year. I texted [Seth] Lugo — not everybody, just a couple guys, wishing them the best this year and to stay healthy. To be honest with you, it’s not weird, because at the end of the day, we have to understand this is my job. When we cross the line, we don’t think about that. We just want to go out there and do the best we can, trying to help the team to win.
The Phillies, I faced these guys a lot [when I was a Met]. Everybody knows me here. As soon as I got here, I felt [at] home because they know me. Honestly, I feel good here. We all have the same goal, and that’s to win a World Series.
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On Friday morning, the Mets will reveal their long-awaited Tom Seaver statue outside Citi Field. The statue was designed to be a scaled model of Seaver, two times his actual size. It’s 10 feet high and 13 1/2 feet in length, weighing 3,200 pounds (of which 2,000 pounds is bronze and the rest is structural stainless steel). That’s not including a granite base that adds three feet to the height of the statue, weighs 33,600 pounds and had to be shipped in nine separate pieces.
Sculptor William Behrends also designed the Willie Mays statue outside Oracle Park in San Francisco, the Tony Gwynn statue outside Petco Park in San Diego, and many others.
To dedicate the statue, Seaver’s widow, Nancy, will be on hand for a 10:30 a.m. ceremony before the home opener, as will his daughters, Sarah and Anne. His grandsons, Thomas and Tobin, will throw out ceremonial first pitches. Mets Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, who caught Seaver’s final pitch at Shea Stadium and his first pitch at Citi Field, will also be present.
“You can’t measure what Tom Seaver meant to this organization,” Mets owner Steve Cohen said. “This magnificent statue will be a wonderful daily reminder to Mets fans coming to Citi Field that Tom Seaver is forever a Mets legend.”
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In the early days of Spring Training, Mets top prospect Francisco Álvarez stated rather matter-of-factly that his goal was to make the Majors this season. As a 20-year-old who had yet to play a game above High-A, Álvarez probably understood the unlikelihood of that happening.
He also knew the only way to increase that likelihood would be to rake. So Álvarez has done precisely that, hitting three home runs and two doubles over his first three games at Double-A Binghamton, where he’s one of the youngest players at that level. If Álvarez maintains anything even close to this pace throughout the first half of the season, and James McCann continues slumping at the big league level, the calls for Álvarez’s rapid promotion will only grow louder.
For now, the Mets are focused on Álvarez’s development, while appreciating his desire to play at the highest level.
“I don’t think it’s overly ambitious,” Mets farm director Kevin Howard said recently. “Listen, that should be everybody here’s goal. I don’t think there’s anybody here that should say, ‘I don’t want to try to get to the big leagues this year.’”
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