The 2025 Mets have brought us a lot of things, and one of them has been the influx of Immaculate Grid legends.
Baseball teams rely on a myriad of things to run efficiently and effectively. From the stars whose jerseys we buy, to the coaching staff, to everyone behind the scenes, to the front office and beyond, there are so many people that make the team function.
One of the more unsung parts of a baseball roster, and frankly an important one, is something I have internally dubbed Immaculate Grid legends. For those of you who do not know what Immaculate Grid is, it is a wonderful game created by a software developer named Brian Minter, and subsequently purchased by Baseball-Reference, in which you have to remember some guys. You have to complete a 3×3 grid answering questions such as “player who played for both the Mets and Yankees” or “player with a .300 career batting average and 100 RBI on the season”—and so on and so forth. The key is to get the lowest score possible by remembering the most obscure guys and celebrating their impacts to whichever teams they played for. Guessing Francisco Lindor for Mets x Guardians is correct, but is it really correct?
An Immaculate Grid legend is someone who you may not remember appeared in the organization, for one reason or another. A good example of that is a Jeff Conine, who played for the Mets for literally one month out of his 17-year career.
The 2025 Mets have given us a ton of these guys to remember and celebrate. It has gotten them through some very bad times in terms of injury crises, and these players have kept the roster afloat during (hopefully) the worst time of the 2025 season overall.
To start us off, the offense has not really had many true Immaculate Grid legends. They have certainly suffered injuries, but the replacements have been prospects like Ronny Mauricio, Luisangel Acuña, Brett Baty, and the like. These are far from obscure individuals.
To my mind, there are four hitters that could qualify. Jared Young, who was an interesting signing out of the KBO after a short stint as a Cub, makes sense for this list. Travis Jankowski, who has now played as a Met in two different stints, has suited up for the Padres, Rangers (winning a ring in the process!!), Phillies, Rays, White Sox, and Mariners. If that is not a Swiss army knife, I am frankly not sure what is. Another HUGE feather in their caps is that they both pitched this season, and there is a “pitched in one game” category, which can be dominated by position players pitching.
Guys like Hayden Senger and Jose Siri may qualify here, but Siri will come back this season, and Senger will be a third catcher in the organization for a little bit longer. But they are on the radar.
Pitchers, though, that is where the money is made here. The Mets have used 37 different pitchers this season, which is ludicrous behavior and evidence of the unending roster churn that the Mets have had to do since the injuries really started to hit.
Anyone above 10 appearances does not count, in my opinion, mostly because those guys will probably be moderately memorable for the time being. Those include AJ Minter, Danny Young, Dedniel Núñez, Griffin Canning—players of that nature.
The Mets have had six different relievers appear in just one game: Colin Poche (also of the Rays and Nationals), Jonathan Pintaro, Zach Pop (also of the Blue Jays, Marlins and Mariners), Tyler Zuber (also of the Royals and Rays), Kevin Herget (also of the Rays, Reds, Brewers, and Braves), and José Ureña (also of the Marlins, Rockies, Tigers, Blue Jays, White Sox, Brewers, and Dodgers, which is wonderful for this exercise). Pintaro is currently in Syracuse so his number will likely rise, but many of these men did their job, got a shot, and got DFA’d or optioned—and they should be remembered for their efforts.
Rico Garcia pitched in two games before being claimed by the Yankees off of waivers, and Mets x Yankees feels kind of popular as a category. Génesis Cabrera appeared in a few games before leaving the organization for the Cubs, who then let him go before he joined the Pirates.
There’s also a handful of guys who are still with the Mets but have nebulous futures. Ty Adcock (also of the Mariners), Alex Carrillo, Austin Warren (also of the Angels and Giants), Justin Hagenman, Justin Garza (also of the Guardians and Red Sox), Richard Lovelady (a true legend here, also of the Royals, Rays, A’s, Cubs and Blue Jays), all are currently with the Mets organization, have pitched a fair bit, and may not be regulars with the Mets after the deadline.
The Immaculate Grid is a very fun game, a nice brain exercise, and a fun excuse to remember some guys—and their contributions to the organizations they have played for. The Mets have been a secret goldmine for this over the first half of the season, as they have battled injuries and roster churn to their 55-42 record.