This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

About a week before the Mets traded Justin Verlander to the Astros, Drew Gilbert sent Blade Tidwell a text joking about the possibility. For two seasons, Gilbert and Tidwell had played as college teammates at the University of Tennessee. They remained close friends off the field, even as Gilbert was drafted by the Astros and Tidwell went to the Mets. When Gilbert began hearing rumblings about Houston’s interest in Verlander, he wanted to let his buddy know he might soon be joining him.

Once news of the trade broke, Tidwell only let a minute pass before punching Gilbert’s number into his phone.

“How ’bout it?” Tidwell said when his friend picked up.

“Yeah,” a somewhat stunned Gilbert replied. “How ’bout it?”

Midseason trades can be difficult on anyone, but for Gilbert, the transition was easier thanks to Tidwell. Both were selected in the 2022 Draft -- Gilbert in the first round, Tidwell two dozen picks later in the second round -- and spent barely a year apart before reuniting this month at Double-A Binghamton. Gilbert, who had been playing for Houston’s Double-A affiliate, began his Mets tenure there. Tidwell had earned a recent promotion to that level.

More than friends and prospects, the two have become massive pieces of the Mets’ future plans. Gilbert, a center fielder, is the organization’s second-ranked prospect behind Luisangel Acuña. He profiles as an everyday center fielder featuring defense, speed, power and a playing style that many around the team -- Tidwell included -- have described as “hair on fire.”

Before arriving at Double-A, Gilbert batted .360 with a 1.107 OPS and six home runs in 21 games at High-A Asheville -- less than a two-hour drive from his alma mater.

“My time at Tennessee was priceless,” Gilbert said. “I couldn’t imagine where I’d be if I didn’t go there -- just the coaches I had, the teammates I had. I mean, I thought I was going to be a pitcher coming out of high school. Basically where I learned to play as a position player came from Tennessee.”

One of those teammates, Tidwell, was Pipeline’s top Mets pitching prospect entering this season. He struck out 112 batters over 81 2/3 innings to earn a promotion from High-A Brooklyn to Binghamton, where he pitched into the eighth inning in his second start. He’s now part of a rotation that also includes well-regarded prospects Christian Scott and Tyler Stuart, and part of a clubhouse that includes one of his college buddies.

Tidwell described Gilbert as the type of person who can change his personality to fit in with the setting, alternating between “laid-back” to “a lot of times you’ll be ready to punch him because he’s so loud and obnoxious.”

“Not a lot’s changed,” Tidwell said with a grin. “It hasn’t really been that long since we were teammates.”