METS’ SWAR OF WORDS!
Reliever tells Yanks: See you in October
PORT ST. LUCIE — This wasn’t quite Curtis Granderson declaring upon leaving the Bronx for Flushing in 2013 that he’d “heard true New Yorkers are Mets fans.” But reliever Anthony Swarzak, who pitched briefly (and mostly ineffectively) for the Yankees in 2016, also introduced himself at Mets camp on Sunday with an unmistakable tweak of the Bombers.
Asked if he’s looking forward to meeting the Yankees in a Subway Series, Swarzak cracked: “Both teams got to be there. I know we will.”
Swarzak, 32, signed a two-year contract worth $14 million in December with the Mets following a breakout year in which the journeyman righty posted a 2.33 ERA with 91 strikeouts over 77 innings (70 appearances) last season with the White Sox and Milwaukee. He credits his career turnaround with some frank advice as a minor-leaguer in the Cleveland organization in 2015, when new Mets manager Mickey Callaway was the Indians’ pitching coach.
“I got sent down over there and he was one of the last guys I talked to and he told me that there were some things that I needed to get better at,” Swarzak said. “Most of it was in the weight room and really dedicating myself off the field.
“I didn’t really want to hear it at the time. But I took his advice and here we are three years later and I’m better than ever and throwing harder and doing things athletically in my delivery that I couldn’t do before. I know that’s what he was trying to get at, and I thank him now.”
After he was released by the Indians later that season, Swarzak signed as a minor-league free agent with the Yankees for 2016. He appeared in 26 games for them bridging June and August — with 10 homers allowed and a 5.52 ERA in 31 innings — before he was sent back to Triple-A Scranton.
“I went there and never want back,” Swarzak said. “I had some good games, I had some bad games. It was just a consistency thing.
“It was the next year removed from when I had my conversation with Mickey. And it was that offseason that I really dedicated myself to getting into the gym. I felt stronger and I was bigger and I didn’t really know how to work with all of that. I’m not making excuses, the stuff was there. I just had to get better at it. I wasn’t good enough at that time. I’m better now.”
The Mets envision using Swarzak among a foursome of relievers Callaway plans to mix and match in the later innings, along with lefty Jerry Blevins and past closers Jeurys Familia and A.J. Ramos. Like the others, Swarzak expressed he has no issue with that arrangement at the start of camp. “I think we have the ability to be one of the best bullpens in baseball,” he said. “I completely understand everybody’s desire and will to be the best. That’s the closer, that’s the No.1 starter, that’s the starting shortstop, right? That’s why we all get out of bed every day to continue to fight to be that.
“At the end of it all, all that matters is if you win the World Series or not. So what does it matter if I’m pitching in the ninth or I’m pitching in the sixth? I’m going to be down there ready to go, working hard, and when that phone rings, that’s all I worry about. … I’m excited to see what’s going to happen.”
Swarzak certainly sounds excited to show Callaway — and perhaps, the Yankees — the improvements he’s made since they were last together. “He knows me from the past so he knows he doesn’t want to coddle me,” Swarzak said of Callaway. “He knows he can say whatever he needs to say to me, however it comes out, I’m going to take it the best way. He also knows that I’m going to take the ball whenever he needs me to take it. We’re just going to try to push each other throughout the year and have some fun and see where it takes us.”