Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #87 : Josh Edgin Sometimes You Find a Met Where You Least Expect Him

Last week, in Forgotten Faces of Flushing, we turned the clock back and remembered Masato Yoshii.

And if you read that column and thought, “Wow, I completely forgot about Masato Yoshii,”then congratulations. You understood the assignment.

Because that's really what this series is about.

Not necessarily the greatest Mets.

Not necessarily the most famous Mets.

Just the guys who once wore the orange and blue, contributed something to the franchise, and somehow got pushed into that giant mental file cabinet Mets fans have labeled:

“Oh yeah…THAT guy!”

This week's Forgotten Face is Josh Edgin.

And unlike some of our previous selections, I didn't have Edgin sitting on a list waiting for his turn.

I found him while doing something completely different.

This week was my Strat-O-Matic draft.

We're playing the 2016 season, so I was doing what any perfectly normal baseball person does when preparing for a fantasy-style draft involving imaginary baseball games:

I was buried in statistics from 2016.

And there, somewhere in the rabbit hole of Mets statistics, near Logan Verrett was a name I hadn't thought about in quite a while:

Josh Edgin.

I actually stopped and said to myself:

"Josh Edgin. Now there's a guy I haven't thought about in years."

Which, naturally, meant only one thing.

He belonged in Forgotten Faces of Flushing.

The funny thing is, Edgin didn't even have a Strat card for our league.

But his name had resurfaced.

And once it did, I started looking back at his Mets career and realized something:

Josh Edgin was a much more interesting Met than I remembered.

Edgin wasn't exactly a can't-miss prospect.

The Mets selected him in the 30th round of the 2010 draft — 902nd overall.

That's not a typo.

There were 901 players selected before Josh Edgin heard his name called.

He had started his college career at Ohio State before transferring to Francis Marion, where he eventually settled into a relief role.

The Mets signed him and began moving him through their minor-league system.

And Edgin moved surprisingly quickly.

By 2012, he was pitching for Binghamton and Buffalo.

Then came the call.

On July 13, 2012, Josh Edgin made his major-league debut for the Mets against Atlanta.

It didn't take long for him to introduce himself.

He entered with three runners on base and escaped the inning by striking out Juan Francisco and Michael Bourn.

Welcome to the big leagues.

Of course, because this is the Mets, there had to be a little drama.

The next inning, Edgin gave up a home run to Chipper Jones and a double to Freddie Freeman.

Apparently, the baseball gods wanted to make sure he understood that getting to the majors was the easy part.

Edgin's first couple of seasons were uneven.

But the Mets eventually figured out where he could help them most.

He was a left-hander.

And more specifically, he became the kind of pitcher every bullpen wanted to have in the late innings: a guy who could come in and make a dangerous left-handed hitter disappear.

Then came 2014.

And this is where my memory of Josh Edgin needed a serious reboot.

Because he was really good.

Really, really good.

Edgin appeared in 47 games for the Mets and finished the season with a 1.32 ERA in 27⅓ innings.

https://youtu.be/FsxkB4TN7c0?si=rDivMeG2A4gdkh48

He struck out 28 and walked only six.

His WHIP was an excellent 0.91.

But the most impressive number might have been this:

Left-handed hitters batted just .185 against him.

He was doing exactly what the Mets needed their lefty specialist to do.

In fact, MLB notes that Edgin retired the first 23 batters he faced to begin the 2014 season, a Mets franchise record. He also didn't allow an earned run during August or September.

Suddenly, that anonymous 30th-round draft pick had become one of the more reliable pieces in the Mets' bullpen.

Here's where the story takes the turn that unfortunately became all too familiar for Mets pitchers.

During spring training in 2015, doctors discovered a problem with Edgin's left elbow.

He needed Tommy John surgery.

Just like that, his 2015 season was over before it started.

And this wasn't some fringe roster player the Mets were losing.

Edgin had just finished his best season.

The Mets were counting on him to be their left-handed bullpen weapon.

MLB described the loss of Edgin as creating a significant hole in the Mets' search for a dependable lefty specialist.

And while the Mets eventually found other ways to fill that role, Edgin's absence was a reminder of just how quickly a bullpen can change.

Which brings us right back to the reason I rediscovered him this week.

2016.

Edgin spent part of the season rehabbing and working his way back.

The numbers weren't pretty.

He eventually appeared in 16 games for the Mets, going 1-0 with a 5.23 ERA in 10⅓ innings.

But there's a little more to the story.

He had missed an entire season because of Tommy John surgery.

And when he was trying to return, his velocity wasn't immediately back to where it had been.

Before surgery, Edgin's fastball had averaged around 92-93 mph. During his 2016 rehabilitation, he was struggling to consistently reach that level.

So 2016 wasn't really a comeback story with a Hollywood ending.

It was more complicated than that.

He was trying to become the pitcher he had been before his elbow betrayed him.

Edgin did make it back to the Mets in 2017.

And he actually pitched in 46 games, posting a 3.65 ERA over 37 innings.

He even picked up a save.

But by the end of July, the Mets designated him for assignment.

His time in Flushing was essentially over.

His Mets career ended with 177 appearances, a 3.49 ERA and 116 strikeouts.

Those aren't numbers that are going to get a statue outside Citi Field.

They aren't numbers that are going to put him on a Mets Mount Rushmore.

But that's not the point.

Josh Edgin was a 30th-round draft pick who made the major leagues.

He became a legitimate weapon in the Mets' bullpen.

He had one spectacular season in 2014 that probably deserves to be remembered more than it is.

Then he suffered an elbow injury, underwent Tommy John surgery, missed an entire season and fought his way back.

And eventually, like so many players who pass through Flushing, he moved on.

After baseball, Edgin returned to his roots. In 2022, Mercersburg Academy announced that the former major leaguer would return to his high school as its head varsity baseball coach.

Which seems like a pretty fitting ending.

The kid who once wrestled, played college baseball, transferred schools, went undrafted until the 30th round and eventually pitched in the major leagues is now teaching the next generation how to play the game.

And all of this because I happened to stumble across his name while preparing for a 2016 Strat-O-Matic draft.

That's baseball.

You can spend hours looking for the perfect player to draft and somehow end up rediscovering a Met you haven't thought about in years.

So, thank you, Strat-O-Matic.

You gave me a player.

And you gave me this week's Forgotten Face of Flushing.

Josh Edgin.

I suspect I'm not the only Mets fan who just said:

"Oh yeah…Josh Edgin."