The unheralded 29-year-old right-hander Tyler Zuber began tallying the remaining pitchers on the roster when someone informed him that he needed to meet with Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash late on Tuesday afternoon.
The Rays were one of the busiest clubs in baseball prior to Tuesday’s trade deadline. Players like Zuber claimed that they were riveted to their phones in the clubhouse, speculating on which of their teammates might be the next to go. Just days before, the Rays had recalled Zuber from Triple A, so he figured Cash was going to break the news that the organization was returning him to the minors.
“I’m probably the odd man out here,” Zuber remembers thinking.
Rather, Cash revealed some surprising news: Zuber had recently been traded. When Zuber learned the news inside Cash’s office, he stared down at his feet and seemed surprised.
“Yeah. You’ve just been traded to the New York Mets,” Cash told him.
“Are you sure? Are you sure you’re talking about me?” Zuber replied.
If there was a Mr. Irrelevant trade deadline, Zuber would be on the shortlist. However, there is not one. Teams trade prospects that many fans have never heard of every summer. However, they do not usually trade them in for players that are not as anonymous. But the Mets did just that when they acquired Zuber, who has only pitched 3 1/3 innings this season—his first major league action in three years—for Double-A relief Paul Gervase.
In his post-trade deadline news conference on Tuesday, Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns addressed the last query regarding Zuber. I wanted to know what it was about Zuber that captivated you. Another possibility was: Who is he?
Stearns smiled. Then he said, “This is an interesting story.”
Just a few months ago, Zuber was about to hang up his cleats, as he later recounted.
At that moment, emotionally, Zuber claimed, he was very well done with baseball. Zuber was a sixth-round selection by Kansas City in 2017; he appeared in 54 games for the Royals in 2020 and 2021 before being placed on waivers in 2022. He never played for either team after jumping from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Cleveland Guardians. Later in March, the Guardians cut him loose following a string of subpar performances at spring training earlier this year. After overcoming shoulder surgery, Zuber struggled so much that no organization showed interest in signing him. Zuber also absolved them of any guilt.
“I was a couple days away from calling it quits,” Zuber said. “I was very upset with baseball. After I was released, it all kind of just exploded in my face. I was over baseball. Forget baseball. I was like, ‘This game stinks. My kids will never play. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through. This is miserable.’ I remember not wanting to even watch another game of baseball and almost deleting the MLB app.”
However, Zuber continued to train and throw. He would promise himself that he would quit if he heard nothing by Friday the following week. But next Friday never truly came. He insisted on delaying his termination by one more week. And still another. Next one, and yet another.
Zuber claimed that eventually he persuaded himself that his work still looked fine. He had worked on his mechanics at Driveline for the better part of the previous year. He reached a top speed of about 95 mph. Scouts subsequently reported that he had constructed a sweeper that leaped off the page in terms of numbers and qualities.
So Zuber gave ACES Baseball’s Adam Groff a call as his agent to see if any teams were interested. Nobody had asked questions. However, Groff indicated that Zuber’s best option would be to take advantage of an opening presented by the independent Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks. Zuber considered it for a moment before deciding it was worth a try.
“I had one of those come-to-Jesus moments,” Zuber said. “I got to thinking that I invested all this money into getting back, had the surgery and I’ve put in so much blood, sweat and tears to try to get back. I told myself, after a month or two, if it’s not happening, if I’m not doing well financially, then at least I am going out on my terms and not someone else’s.”
Zuber was only with the Ducks for a few weeks. Spending time with baseball lifers made him forget that he was playing for a salary and instead concentrate on having fun. He also made good pitches along the road. He had two saves, ten strikeouts, and a 1.59 ERA in six games and five and a third innings pitched.
“It was the greatest blessing that happened to me,” Zuber said. “Going to Indy ball made me love the game of baseball again.”
Major League teams decided to give Zuber another try after his time with the Ducks. According to league sources, the Mets were one of the teams considering him. However, Zuber was traded to the Rays, who then sent him to Triple-A Durham, where he was promoted after recording a 2.49 ERA in 21 2/3 innings with 29 strikeouts and six walks.
According to Stearns, the Mets have been attempting to acquire Zuber for the past few weeks. According to people who were privy to the talks between the Rays and Mets, Tampa Bay demanded a minor-league player in exchange. With just two hours remaining on deadline day, the Mets and Rays agreed to deal Zuber.
Zuber, a plain country-type outdoorsman from White Hall, Arkansas (population: 5,600), said, “Not in the slightest,” in response to the question of whether he expected a team to trade for him.
Although Zuber was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse by the Mets on Wednesday, New York anticipates that he will contribute to their bullpen depth. Stearns—Jake Cousins and Justin Topa come to mind—has shown a penchant for finding unknown relievers and creating results out of them. Zuber could become something. Maybe not. In any case, Zuber expressed his contentment with the direction his path has led him.
“I’ve thought about this, and being that low really opened up my eyes to where I could see the big picture,” Zuber said. “Getting to the lowest point, I feel very strongly it was God’s way of humbling me and saying, ‘Hey, listen, you’ve been at the top, you’ve been in the major leagues, you’ve had success up there. So now I’m gonna take you all the way back down to the roots, and we’re gonna start from the ground up again.’
“I’m thankful, to be honest. I would not have changed anything that has happened at all because it has made me a whole lot better person, better pitcher, completely different mindset and outlook on things than I ever could have imagined. So I’m thankful for everything that happened.”
(Top photo of Tyler Zuber from July 28: Steve Nesius / Associated Press)
