Mets prospects support each other as members of 'Double TJ' club

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BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Late last month, Mets pitching prospect Brian Metoyer was chatting in the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones’ dugout, reliving the story of his two Tommy John surgeries, when the subject of one of his teammates came up.

“Matt Allan, dude,” Metoyer said. “I’ve told him before, he probably has no idea how much he’s helped me.”

The two pitchers met toward the end of the 2019 season as a study in contrasts. Metoyer was a 40th-round Draft pick in ‘18 who had done nothing but post bloated ERAs to that point in the Minors. Allan was an elite talent around whom the Mets engineered their entire ‘19 Draft strategy. When Allan arrived in Brooklyn to help win the New York-Penn League championship, it was big news on the farm.

Then adversity hit. Allan and Metoyer didn’t see each other much the next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an elbow injury prevented Allan from making it out of camp in 2021. He underwent his first Tommy John operation that May. Another surgery followed to transpose a nerve in his elbow, followed by a second Tommy John in ‘23. Allan did not appear in a professional game for five consecutive seasons.

For much of that period, Metoyer was enduring a similar fate in relative obscurity. In 2021, Metoyer had enjoyed a breakout season thanks to a curveball that Baseball America rated the best in New York’s farm system. He was on his way to beating his late-round Draft rep when his own elbow blew out, necessitating Tommy John surgery that August.

Seven months later, Metoyer learned that the anchor locking his new ligament in place had broken off and was floating around his elbow. He needed another operation, but doctors couldn’t know the extent of the damage until they cut him open a second time. Before going under, Metoyer gave his surgeon permission to fix whatever was needed.

When he awoke to find his leg wrapped in ice, he knew immediately that he had undergone another Tommy John.

In the months that followed, Metoyer said, “it was hard to block out those negative thoughts, you know? Because those thoughts just creep in. You can’t really control them. They’re there. That was the hardest part -- staying positive, keeping that flame alive, not letting that flame die.”

By the time Metoyer came out of surgery in March 2023, Allan was two months removed from his second Tommy John. The pair spent the summer rehabbing together at the Mets’ Spring Training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla., then did it all again the next year. As throwing partners and members of the woebegone “Double TJ” club, they talked constantly about their rehab programs, encouraging each other at difficult points.

Mostly, Metoyer said, their conversations revolved around “just how much it sucked, really.”

“We kind of just shared in the struggles of rehab,” Allan said. “But also the triumphs and the positive things, too, of overcoming injury. The good days, the bad days, everything in between.”

These days, both pitchers are enjoying more good days than bad. In his first 13 2/3 innings back on the mound, Metoyer has allowed only two earned runs. He’s supplemented his signature curveball with a brand new slider that one rival scout called “[expletive] nasty.”

Allan, meanwhile, earned an early promotion from Single-A St. Lucie to Brooklyn, where he reunited with Metoyer. Between the two levels, Allan has 22 strikeouts in 19 innings. He’s been sitting in the mid-90s with his fastball, and while Allan has yet to throw more than 49 pitches in an outing, the Mets hope he’ll begin taking on larger workloads this summer.

Recently, during a road trip to Jersey Shore, Allan and Metoyer began reminiscing about their long, frustrating rehabs -- processes that involved years away from the mound for both, that “really just forced you to mature,” as Allan put it. They talked about all the hours they spent worrying about their arms, wondering if they’d ever be healthy enough to contribute in meaningful ways.

For both pitchers, those days now seem deep in the past.

“Rehab is so hard, but what makes it a little bit easier is leaning on people around you,” Allan said. “You look back and you’re like, ‘Man. We really did it.’”