Last December, the Mets’ 1B/DH situation was in flux. Pete Alonso was a free agent and demanding far more than the Mets were seemingly willing to pay him. JD Martinez had retired. Faced with a serious need for thump at the cold corner after signing Juan Soto, the Mets did something very creative and inked Jared Young to a split contract.

A former Cub and Cardinal, Young was trending towards the dreaded Quad-A label in 2023. Despite hitting well in Triple-A (albeit with a BABIP-boosted line), he looked generally overmatched in very limited MLB playing time in Chicago, who waived him in in November. The Cardinals snapped him up, and something seemed to click; Young cut his strikeout rate in Triple-A from the mid-20s to 18%, driven by a significant improvement in his whiff rates against brea

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