Mets activate LI's Stephen Ridings from injured list, send him to Triple-A Syracuse
Mets pitcher Stephen Ridings during a spring training workout on Feb. 19 in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Stephen Ridings is, finally, healthy.
The Mets activated the righthander reliever from the injured list and sent him to Triple-A Syracuse on Thursday.
With the team likely to see more bullpen turnover than normal over the next week-plus — a ripple effect of playing shorthanded because of Drew Smith’s 10-game foreign substance suspension — Ridings immediately becomes a candidate for a call-up the next time the Mets need a new reliever.
Ridings, a 27-year-old Commack native, was on IL all of last year (with the Yankees) and this year (with the Mets) because of shoulder and lat issues. He recently completed a three-game rehab assignment with Low-A St. Lucie.
In a five-game cameo in the majors with the Yankees in 2021, he impressed with a fastball that averaged 97 mph. He long has shown big-time potential — including a career rate of 12.7 strikeouts per nine innings in the minors — but rarely has been healthy enough for it to matter. He joined the Mets when they claimed him off waivers from the Yankees in November.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
