Baseball fans were busy watching the All-Star Game while a familiar name to New York Mets fans was busy finding a new employer. Back on February 14, 2024, the Mets were finalizing a roster full of risky pitching moves. It was an introduction to David Stearns that had many doubting him. Things worked out pretty well with many of his gambles. Not all of them were a roaring success.
Shintaro Fujinami signed with the Mets on that mid-February day with the same hype he surely had when he inked a deal the year prior with the Oakland Athletics.