

Matt Allan, once the New York Mets’ top pitching prospect and a top-100 prospect in the sport, made his first game appearance since 2019 on Sunday. Starting for the Single-A St. Lucie Mets, Allan pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits while striking out five.
Allan hit 97 mph on the radar gun with his fastball while working in a cutter and curveball.
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Allan, now 23, was a jewel of the Mets’ 2019 draft class, conducted under then-general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. After taking Brett Baty and Josh Wolf in the first two rounds, New York maneuvered its entire draft around securing Allan, a first-round talent, in the third round at No. 89.
After throwing 10 1/3 innings that summer, Allan and all of minor-league baseball sat out the 2020 season because of COVID-19. Allan underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2021, and he required nerve transposition surgery in 2022. A second Tommy John surgery on New Year’s Day in 2023 further pushed him back.
Take a bow, Matt! 2.2IP 2H 0ER 1BB 5SO pic.twitter.com/GtOHCuZu1Z
— St. Lucie Mets (@stluciemets) April 6, 2025
But Allan arrived at spring training rejuvenated in body and mind. He’s no longer on top prospect lists, and the Mets have been cautious with their expectations. But they marvel that Allan is still here at all.
“A reasonable expectation would have been that he never pitches again,” director of player development Andrew Christie said. “He doesn’t really care about reasonable expectations. He just has an insane amount of belief in himself.”
That six-year gap — it started before COVID — feels long, of course. But it has been a lifetime in the Mets organization. In the time since, the Mets were purchased by a new owner, who fired the front office that drafted Allan and has hired five different people to head baseball operations. The club has employed five field managers during that span.
Of the 31 players the Mets signed out of the 2019 draft, just six are still in affiliated ball. Baty and fourth-round pick Jake Mangum, who debuted this season with the Rays, are the only two to reach the majors.
Allan’s short outing is not unusual for starters in April at St. Lucie. Nate Dohm went only 3 1/3 innings in the club’s opening game on Friday.
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“There’s been a lot of breath wasted on pitch and innings limits and determining a limit on a guy prior to seeing how a guy responds to each outing. That’s not what we want to do,” Christie said. “We want to see how he’s bouncing back and how his body and his arm feel and just keep stacking days. That’s been the theme for the last year.”
(Photo of Matt Allan from March 1: Gordon Donovan / NurPhoto via Associated Press)
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