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<\/p>\nThe New York Mets were buyers at the 2024 trade deadline. The team picked up Ryne Stanek from the Mariners, Paul Blackburn from the A\u2019s, Huascar Brazob\u00e1n from the Marlins, Tyler Zuber from the Rays and Jesse Winker from the Reds.\n<\/p>\n
With this comes a need to clear spots on the 40-man roster. Six players were designated for assignment by the Mets between July 26 and July 30. Five were directly replaced by a player the Mets acquired via trade, with the only exception being Shintaro Fujinami, who was DFA\u2019d after Kodai Senga was activated from the 60-day IL. Four of those players\u2014Adrian Houser, Jake Diekman, Ty Adcock and Logan Porter\u2014cleared waivers. Houser, Diekman and Adcock were released, and Porter was outrighted to the minors.\n<\/p>\n
Josh Walker, who was DFA\u2019d by the Mets on July 27 as the corresponding move for recalling Tylor Megill from Triple-A, was the only one of the group to be subsequently traded for another player. That player was Nicolas Carreno.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nicolas Carreno, when he was with the St. Lucie Mets. He\u2019s now in Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of the St. Lucie Mets \/ X.com<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, [I] didn\u2019t know how it worked,\u201d Carreno said through Cyclones outfielder Yohairo Cuevas, who was acting as an interpreter. \u201cBut then, thank God, called [my] family, and [I] also called somebody that was here\u2014he was in Brooklyn last year\u2014Raimon G\u00f3mez. [I] knew him pretty well, so [I] called him first.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Carreno was less than two months past his 18th birthday at the time of the trade, eight games into his second year in the Dominican Summer League. He moved stateside in 2025 and reached Single-A for the final weeks of the season. He returned to Single-A to begin 2026, and broke out. In 11 games and six starts for St. Lucie, Carreno posted a 1.94 ERA with 58 strikeouts in 41 and 2\/3 innings.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Cyclones pitching coach Luis Alvarado, who was St. Lucie\u2019s pitching coach last year, said he\u2019s seen an increase in maturity from Carreno this season. He saw the young lefty come into spring training and spend time with other Mets minor leaguers who had the experience of spending most of a campaign in full-season ball (Single-A and above), like current Cyclone Jose Chirinos, and said he took that as a challenge.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said I\u2019m going to be on par with you guys and take things to the next level, whether that is playing catch, bullpens and obviously in the game,\u201d Alvarado said.\n<\/p>\n
On June 11, two days after his 20th birthday, he was promoted to Brooklyn. He\u2019s had mixed success in his first four appearances as a Cyclone, but his first was a gem. Carreno threw six innings, allowing four hits, two walks, and one earned run while striking out nine. It was the first time in his career that he completed six full innings.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPreparation was incredible,\u201d Carreno said. \u201c[I] just felt amazing, felt great.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Carreno throws a pair of fastballs that sit at about 95 mph, and said he is very confident in both.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has one of the most special fastballs I\u2019ve seen,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lefty that throws in the mid-to-upper 90s; four-seam has really good ride, the sinker gets in on hitters \u2026 so it\u2019s a really good mix. He\u2019s an aggressive pitcher, and as I said, he has a special fastball.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Despite this, his slider is his most-used and best pitch. It\u2019s easily the pitch that Carreno has the most confidence in. It\u2019s for a good reason, too.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can throw it in any count to any hitter,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cHe can throw it early, late, in, out, wherever he wants. It\u2019s his best pitch, but at the same time, he has a really good combination with the fastballs, and that\u2019s what makes it really good.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The three-pitch mix, with two of them being fastballs, reads more like the arsenal of a relief pitcher. For now, though, that\u2019s not a bridge to cross another day, Alvarado said. He\u2019s 20 years old and, in his view, has two special fastballs and a special slider. Maybe they add a changeup or something down the road, but that\u2019s not on the table at this time. He\u2019s started each of his first four games with the Cyclones and should continue to do so.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cJust letting him pitch, letting him compete,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cHe has been competing really well, he\u2019s striking guys out. We like where he is right now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Walker never appeared in a game for the Pirates, so Carreno has a chance to make this a very lopsided trade for the Mets. The way he\u2019s tracking, it looks like he\u2019ll at least have a very real chance to become a big leaguer. From there, who knows what could happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Mets were buyers at the 2024 trade deadline. The team picked up Ryne Stanek from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-285680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}