CLEVELAND -- Jefry Yan jumped skyward off the mound, seemingly suspended in midair, his arms and legs splayed every which way. When he finally landed, Yan tilted his head downward and raised his arms above it. Then he spun, almost moonwalked a short distance back up the mound and prepared to face his next hitter.
It was peak Yan, unleashed upon the Major Leagues for the first time.
“Once I had him at two strikes, I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to throw that slider,’” Yan said through an interpreter after the Mets' 6-5, 10-inning win over the Guardians on Wednesday. “And if I freeze him, which is exactly what I did, I’m going to celebrate accordingly.”
Yan, whose journey from teenaged pitching prospect to 29-year-old rookie included more than four years out of professional baseball, has become known for this sort of thing. Over the last five seasons in the Minors and the Dominican Winter League, Yan has developed a reputation for celebrating his strikeouts in flamboyant fashion -- such an entrenched reputation, in fact, that Mets interim manager Andy Green said he doesn’t really fear teams taking offense.
Angel Martínez, Yan’s first career strikeout victim, is a friend and former teammate. So is Guardians rookie Angel Genao. When Yan struck Martínez out, Martínez walked back to the dugout quietly, without paying much heed to the histrionics happening behind him. The same could not be said for the Progressive Field crowd, which began jeering Yan during his celebration.
When Yan later induced an inning-ending fielder’s choice to strand the bases loaded in the sixth, many of the 29,033 in attendance booed him off the mound.
“Honestly, I don’t think about that,” Yan said. “They can do whatever they want there. They’re paying their tickets, so if they want to yell at me, they want to boo me, they can do whatever they want. I’m in my zone, and I’m going to enjoy my game any way that I want to.”
Asked afterward about Yan’s celebration, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said simply: “I had seen it in the past. Everybody’s got their own style.”
For years now, Yan’s style has been a niche curiosity on social media. Now, Major League Baseball is about to see it fully unleashed. After dealing away half their bullpen at the Trade Deadline, the Mets called up Yan and several others as a sort of audition to see who might be able to help them in 2027.
To be clear, Yan’s presence here is no mere gimmick. In his MLB debut Wednesday, Yan threw five pitches of at least 100 mph. The firmest of them topped out at 101.1. In a single outing, Yan threw the eight fastest pitches of any Met this year.
“It’s real stuff,” Green said. “The fastball is alive.”
With all that heat comes a drawback: scattershot control. That showed up as well in his debut, as Yan loaded the bases with one out in the sixth on two singles and a free pass. He responded by retiring Chase DeLauter on a check-swing strikeout that resulted in Vogt’s ejection, before ending the inning on a fielder’s choice.
When he did, Yan jumped off the mound again, smacked his glove, yelled multiple times and blew a kiss to the sky. The Progressive Field crowd booed him all the way into the dugout, but his teammates were there to meet him with an explosion of cheers, high-fives, back slaps and hugs.
“The energy that he brings is something that we need,” starting pitcher Christian Scott said. “He’s got electric stuff, too. The celebration’s one thing, but he’s also coming in throwing 100, so that’s a big weapon for us out of the bullpen.”