Welcome back to the Mets Beat newsletter! Anthony DiComo has covered the Mets for MLB.com since 2007, including the past 15 seasons full-time on the beat. |
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Last month, Mark Vientos was working out in the Mets’ Clover Park weight room when José Iglesias whipped out his phone and keyed up a music video. It was “No Voy A Volver,” a single that Iglesias had released with the Cuban musician Lenier in early February. Initially, Vientos thought the whole thing was a joke. Then he looked closer and realized it actually was his teammate singing and dancing around a garden pool.
“I was like, ‘Bro, you actually sound pretty good,’” Vientos said, laughing. “I was surprised. I didn’t know that.”
Consider Vientos one of a shrinking few. As of Thursday afternoon, “No Voy A Volver” had racked up nearly 1.7 million views on YouTube and another 137,000 streams on Spotify.
“It was time to do it,” Iglesias said of going public with his music career. “I love music. That’s what I do in my down time in my hotels, in my travels. I write songs. It’s pretty cool. It’s something fun that I really enjoy doing.”
A veteran shortstop with parts of 11 seasons in the big leagues, Iglesias said he became interested in music production shortly after defecting from Cuba to the United States as an 18-year-old in 2008. Along the way, Iglesias created a network of artistic friends, including singer Marc Anthony. Those two met through their mutual agency and grew so close that they now sport matching tattoos on their forearms. (The script reads: “The secret to having it all is believing you already do.”)
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Iglesias hired a staff to help him film and produce “No Voy A Volver,” and he expects to drop more music in the near future. Although Iglesias considers this a serious endeavor, which he plans to continue after retiring from his day job, it does remain second behind baseball in his mind. After a difficult 2023 season that saw him sign three different Minor League contracts and be released from each of them, Iglesias inked a similar deal with the Mets this offseason. He’s battling Zack Short and others for an infield spot on the team’s crowded bench.
“I’ve got so much baseball left in me,” Iglesias said. “The Mets saw that, and that’s why I’m here working hard like I’m a rookie.”
Just two years ago, Iglesias appeared in 118 games for the Rockies, batting .292. He hit .373 with the Orioles during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, boasting a .279 career mark in the Majors.
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Defensively, the sure-handed Iglesias has never produced a negative Outs Above Average total in a single season, topping out at +11 in 2019.
And if things go his way this season, Iglesias eventually plans to merge his two artforms. His idea: a postgame concert at Citi Field after the Mets win the World Series, featuring “No Voy A Volver” and other songs. He may even recruit Anthony for the show.
“There’s no concert if we don’t win,” Iglesias said. “We need 40,000 people in the stands in order to sing, so we’ve got to make the playoffs.”
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Typically, intrasquad games occur with little fanfare on sparsely populated back fields. But when Edwin Díaz approached the mound for an intrasquad appearance earlier this week, he was surprised to hear the pulsing beats of “Narco,” his earworm warmup music, blasting from a loudspeaker.
“That was a surprise for me,” a bemused Díaz said, noting that his kids play “Narco” all the time at home. “I said, ‘These people are crazy.’”
Díaz, who is returning from patellar tendon surgery on his right knee, declared himself “100% ready” after that perfect inning. He’ll make one more appearance on a back field Friday, probably with trumpets again, before graduating to his first Grapefruit League game next week.
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Keen-eyed observers noted that when reliever Drew Smith made his Grapefruit League debut this week, he did so wearing a new number for the second consecutive year. Quite by accident, the uniform shuffle became a lucrative endeavor for this longtime Met.
When Smith debuted, the Mets issued him No. 62, which he considered distinctive enough to keep forever despite having no previous connection to it. But when José Quintana joined the Mets on a free-agent deal before last season, the left-hander requested No. 62 -- the number he had worn for most of his career -- and offered Smith a Louis Vuitton bag as compensation. Smith accepted and switched to No. 40.
Then, during the offseason, free-agent signing Luis Severino texted Smith asking if he could have No. 40. Smith again obliged, shifting to No. 33 to accommodate his new teammate. When he arrived in Port St. Lucie, Smith found a Rolex sitting on his clubhouse chair.
He joked that he’ll need to continue choosing popular numbers to reap the benefits in future years.
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March 8: Original Mets manager Casey Stengel became the second person elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on a special ballot, as revealed to him during a visit to Mets camp in St. Petersburg, Fla., on this day in 1966. The Hall decided to waive its typical five-year waiting period for Stengel, who had retired the previous August due to health issues. Stengel was fifth on the all-time managerial wins list when he retired and still ranks 14th today, with 1,905. His final 175 victories came with the Mets from 1962-1965.
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