Heading into Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline, there was a lot of debate as to whether the Mets would actually trade Justin Verlander. After all, he just signed a massive two-year, $86.67 million deal with New York this past winter.
Well, general manager Billy Eppler did just that. It was one part of a significant sell-off of players on short-term deals. The Mets’ social media team was very busy switching out player pictures and their autographs on the following background as a way to say thank you and goodbye:
Thank you, JV. pic.twitter.com/JK20ZIK9Sc
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 1, 2023
Verlander obviously wasn’t a Met for very long. His year began on the injured list, as well. Once he was back on the active roster, he racked up just 94.1 innings in 16 starts before getting traded back to the Houston Astros.
But the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, the Mets’ Double-A affiliate, wanted to make sure everyone has the facts straight. Before JV took the mound in the orange and blue in a regular-season game, he did it for the Ponies. They made sure to also thank him for his time with them:
Thank you, @JustinVerlander. pic.twitter.com/SkQidHwG7o
— Binghamton Rumble Ponies (@RumblePoniesBB) August 2, 2023
This is just A+ work from the Rumble Ponies social media team. They even let the initial trending wave of the Verlander trade die down slightly before ramping it back up all on their own.
On his way back from that teres major injury, the right-hander made one rehab start. And yes, you guessed right — it was with Double-A Binghamton. He allowed two hits with no walks and one strikeout in 4.2 shutout innings as a Rumble Pony.
The image of JV all #Mets fans had in mind when he signed, lol. (At least it means he’s close to coming back!) #LGM pic.twitter.com/XIBV3ticnr
— Matt Musico (@mmusico8) April 28, 2023
Simpler times, folks. Simpler times. We’ll hopefully be able to look back on these last few days of trades and be thankful for how much it changed the organization’s long-term outlook. But we’ll also be able to chuckle at stuff like this.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
