HOUSTON -- Seven years after the Mets selected him in the 24th round of the Draft, four years after he reached the upper Minors for the first time and two years after he took an offseason job at Whole Foods to keep his dream alive, Hayden Senger is officially a big leaguer.
The Mets informed Senger before departing Port St. Lucie, Fla., this week that he would be on their Opening Day roster. To break the news, manager Carlos Mendoza brought Senger into a room with Glenn Sherlock and Bob Natal, two longtime catching instructors and organizational coaching pillars.
“I feel like I couldn’t really get words out,” Senger said. “All the years that I put in kind of overwhelmed me. Pretty speechless.”
When Francisco Alvarez suffered a left wrist injury midway through camp, it opened the possibility of Senger making the team alongside second-string catcher Luis Torrens. Understanding that the offensive ceiling was limited for any backup catcher they might carry, Mets officials valued what Senger could give them behind the plate. The organization’s Minor League Platinum Glove winner in 2023, Senger is “an elite defensive catcher,” as president of baseball operations David Stearns put it, that “pitchers love throwing to.”
“It is a good story,” Stearns said. “He’s not getting the job because it’s a good story. He’s getting the job because we think he can help us win games.”
After Mets officials informed Senger, he called his wife, Ryann, a physician’s assistant who “has worked for a lot of years to support me through this.”
“It kind of made it all worth it now that I can say I’m a Major League Baseball player,” Senger said.
Ryann hopes to travel to Houston for Opening Day on Thursday, along with Senger’s parents and a couple of his college friends. His time in the Majors could be limited, with Alvarez due back in mid-to-late April. But now that Senger is on the 40-man roster, he’ll have an easier time returning to the big leagues in the future.
More than that, he can forever say that he’s a big leaguer -- something he wasn’t sure would be possible when the Mets took him in the 24th round in 2018.
“It feels worth it,” Senger said of his journey. “There’s a lot of downtime, and a lot of times when I felt like I was on top of the world. It’s a roller coaster playing in the Minor Leagues for that long. To be here, it does make it all worth it.”
Five years after the Mets drafted him, Senger took a job stocking shelves at Whole Foods to support himself and Ryann with extra cash. Asked if he intends to go back to the market this winter, Senger laughed.
“Still up in the air,” he said. “I’ve got to tell my boss.”
Full circle
One other feel-good story on the Mets’ Opening Day roster is reliever Max Kranick, who spent time in the Majors in 2021 and ’22, but has never been active for Opening Day. A childhood Mets fan, Kranick came to the team on a waiver claim two offseasons ago, suffered a Spring Training injury and spent the rest of the summer converting from the Minor League rotation to the bullpen.
Kranick made it onto the active roster as an emergency reliever last postseason, but never pitched. Now, he’s an important part of a bullpen that just lost Paul Blackburn to a knee injury.
“Today kind of feels like when they first told me I was going up with Pittsburgh,” Kranick said. “It’s a similar feeling. Something about Opening Day is just special.”
With Blackburn sidelined at least for the start of April, Kranick and veteran Huascar Brazobán both made the Opening Day roster.
Final answer
Luisangel Acuña spent much of this week in limbo, traveling to Houston with a realistic chance to make the team -- but without any assurances from club officials. The Mets finally eased his mind after their workout on Wednesday, informing Acu?a that he had indeed made the club, according to a source.
Acu?a will serve as the primary backup at shortstop and second base, with a chance to start at the latter position against lefties. The Mets just so happen to be facing one Thursday in Framber Valdez, giving Acu?a a solid chance to crack the Opening Day lineup.
“He had a nice Spring Training,” Stearns said. “Luisangel is a very, very gifted defender. … Offensively, I think we saw some really good signs. We saw some ability to go the other way. We know he’s got some pop in the bat when he gets to his pull side. And then we also saw where there still needs to be some growth, and he’s very aware of that as well.”
Mets officials had waited to inform Acu?a because they thought they might acquire an infielder from outside the organization. That didn’t ultimately come to pass.
The team still must make a decision on outfielder Alexander Canario, who is out of Minor League options but has no obvious path to a roster spot. The team can trade Canario up until Thursday’s 12 p.m. ET roster deadline. If they can’t complete a deal by that time, they’ll need to place him back on waivers.