Carlos Carrasco’s fame as a person and teammate will only take him so far if he doesn’t produce for Mets.
But a former Carrasco pitching coach with experience in New York expects the right-hander to thrive with his new team.
“He’s going to do very well there,” former Mets manager Mickey Callaway told The Post on Monday. “This guy can throw, and that’s three shots or more. Your change is devastating – it is one of the best changes I have ever seen. He and King Felix [Hernandez], its pitch shape and the way it spins, is almost identical. “
Carrasco, 33, will be introduced on Tuesday in a Zoom conference call, after last week’s exchange with Cleveland, who sent the right-hander to the Mets along with Francisco Lindor.
Callaway, now the Angels’ pitcher trainer, had Carrasco as a 2013-17 student with Cleveland. For most of this stretch, Carrasco was among the best pitchers in the American League, going 51-33 with an ERA of 3.24 in the past four seasons. Callaway recalled a mechanical adjustment that Carrasco implemented that helped transform him.
“We talked about his front arm getting up to cheat, because when we looked at him he had a fast 160 km / h ball that was being hit very hard and we thought, ‘Why are you being hit so hard?’ ”Callaway said. “It was just a mistake. He had a very low arm and was showing the ball very early to the hitter and we worked on it. “
So that Carrasco would not forget the lesson, he sent the message – “Raise the conducting arm” – sewn on his Spanish glove, according to Callaway.
Carrasco defended Corey Kluber, a former head of Stetson University, for much of his tenure with the Indians. With Mets, he will be somewhere behind Stetson’s other notable son in Jacob deGrom.
“[Carrasco] it was No. 2 in Cleveland just because Corey Kluber was there, but he is No. 1 for most teams, ”said Callaway. “And just an unbelievable teammate, worker and family guy.”
For Lindor, the shortstop star who was the centerpiece of the business, there will be comfort in joining a new team with an old friend.
“Going from a place that I know everything to a place that I know very little, with someone I care about, makes life a lot easier, knowing that I have someone there that we share the same feelings and experiencing the first time together,” Lindor said . “It will mean a lot and I can’t wait to be with him and win.”