Patience Now, Reward Maybe

In 2014, the Mets acquired two minor leaguers from the Pirates, including pitcher Blake Taylor. Taylor advanced gradually through Mets-affiliated stops such as Kingsport, Brooklyn, Columbia, St. Lucie, and Binghamton, then reached Syracuse, reflecting a slow climb. His rise continued until the Mets later restructured their Triple-A presence in 2019, after which he pitched for Las Vegas. He later appeared in the Arizona Fall League alongside David Peterson. In 2019, the Mets traded for veteran outfielder Jake Marisnick, sending Blake Taylor to the Astros. Taylor then earned a major-league promotion, pitched from 2020 to 2022, and reached postseason action in his first two seasons, including a strikeout of Freddie Freeman in the 2021 World Series.

"In 2014, the New York Mets traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for two minor leaguers who seeped deep into my baseball subconscious, each of them laying low down there for a very long time. One of them was named Blake Taylor, a pitcher who rose slowly from rookie ball in the Gulf Coast League until he made it to Syracuse. Syracuse is the giveaway that Blake Taylor's rise was slow, because the Mets didn't replant their Triple-A flag in the Eastern half of the United States until 2019."

"Blake had worked his way up the Met chain in classic fashion, stopping at Kingsport, Brooklyn, Columbia, St. Lucie, and Binghamton before plateauing near the top of the ladder. At the end of his Met journey, he was assigned to the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League, where he pitched on the same staff as current Met David Peterson. Peterson selected by the Mets in the first round of the 2017 MLB draft, nine years after the Mets selected Ike Davis in the first round of the 2008 MLB draft."

"On December 5, 2019, the Mets traded for veteran outfielder Jake Marisnick, sending the Houston Astros two minor leaguers, one of them Blake Taylor. "Blake Taylor, guy we got for Ike Davis? He's still around?" Indeed he was. Soon enough, Taylor would do what Ike had done in 2010, earning a promotion to the majors. It took Taylor longer, but the destination was the same, whatever the city."

"Blake pitched three seasons for Houston, 2020 to 2022, making it into postseason action in his first two years. I watched the 2021 World Series and saw Blake Taylor strike out Freddie Freeman to end an inning. "Hey, it's that guy again. The Ike guy. Ike Davis was out of baseball for four years by then."

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