12 years after pro debut, electric reliever Yan ready for MLB chance with Mets

CLEVELAND -- For most of half a decade, Jefry Yan woke up daily at 5 a.m. and went straight to one of the odd jobs he held at that time. Yan liked roofing because of the camaraderie, but it was difficult work in the Arizona heat. He despised home delivery, because “I had to carry a lot of refrigerators.”

At 2 p.m. each day, Yan would hustle home, shower and eat a quick lunch. Then he would head to the baseball field or the gym, where he spent his afternoons and evenings trying to revive his career as a professional pitcher.

Yan was 17 when he made his debut in the Dominican Summer League, pitching for the Angels organization. He had just celebrated his 19th birthday when he blew out his elbow, resulting in a lengthy rehab process that led to him spending four years out of professional baseball. He was 25 when he returned and began attracting attention for his demonstrative mound celebrations following strikeouts. He was 26 when those histrionics began to go viral.

Yan is two weeks shy of his 30th birthday now. He still possesses an electric left-handed fastball that, earlier this month, reached 101.6 mph in a Triple-A game. And he still has his dream. Before a 6-2 win over the Guardians on Tuesday, with their bullpen half-barren following a Trade Deadline selloff, the Mets called up Yan for his Major League debut.

“I never gave up,” Yan said through an interpreter. “When I was pitching in Arizona, that was never a thought in my mind that I couldn’t make it. I never gave up, always kept my faith in God and continued to work. Now, all that’s left is to be able to go out there on the mound today and pitch in a Major League game.”

Even within a post-Deadline bullpen that includes multiple rookies on the older side of the aging curve, multiple pitchers recently recovered from Tommy John surgery and one newly converted starting pitcher, Yan’s story stands out. That’s partially because of his 12-year journey to reach this point, and partially because of the reputation he’s engendered with his postgame celebrations. Often when striking out an opponent, Yan will jump high off the mound, pumping his fist and or mimicking an umpire’s call. The celebrations are organic, different each time he strikes out a batter.

And Yan strikes out an awful lot of batters. Relying on his electric four-seam fastball, plus a sinker and a slider, Yan fanned 50.8 percent of the opponents he faced at Triple-A. The downside is that he also walked 15.9 percent of them, which tends to be unsustainable even for a one-inning reliever. But Yan’s raw skillset is difficult to ignore.

“The stuff is there,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said. “It really just comes down to how often he gets that stuff in the zone. When he’s done that, he’s shown that he is an incredibly unique and gifted left-handed pitcher … who jumps really high.”

Twenty years ago, when he was a player himself, Green would have been concerned with how other teams perceived Yan’s antics. Not only has the game changed since that time, Green said, but Yan has developed enough of a reputation that most opponents don’t seem to take his celebrations personally.

“People have accepted largely that this is just a good-natured human who’s enjoying being on the field playing baseball,” said Green, the Mets’ former farm director. “It’s more personality than I think we’re all accustomed to seeing after a strikeout, but we didn’t have many Minor League teams take issue with him or his enthusiasm. I think they end up smiling at it if they’re not the one that’s getting punched out.”

From Yan’s perspective, the celebrations are nothing more than a manifestation of his joy playing baseball. Now that he’s reached the game’s highest level, it’s not something he intends to change.

“The most important thing for me is to do my job, to focus on the hitter, attack the hitter, try to get ahead in the counts,” Yan said. “Once I strike him out, that emotion or that celebration comes out on its own. It’s very important obviously to respect the hitter. But I also want to have fun and enjoy the game the way that I always have.”