Who has the edge if Tyler Rogers faces his former Giants teammates? ‘I guess we'll find out'
José Buttó, acquired in the same deal, flew back from the West Coast with his former team, too, and now both pitchers are likely to make their first big-league appearances ever away from their original teams ... against those same teams.
'To go out there and pitch for a new team for the first time ever is going to be weird, and then to look up and see the Giants uniform in the batter's box is going to be something,' Rogers said. 'I'm just going to take it in stride, and it's going to be memorable, for sure. That's the only team I haven't faced yet, so it will be interesting.'
With that much familiarity, who has the edge? 'Good question,' he said. 'I guess we'll find out.'
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Rogers was unsurprised to be dealt, thanks to his free-agent status after the season, but he did have to ask for his bag to come off the team plane at least briefly so he could change out of Giants sweats after he was traded.
'That actually worked out great, to be able to say goodbyes and kind of put a bow on it,' he said.
The 34-year-old was the Giants' longest tenured player, and there is at least some chance he'll be back in the not-so-distant future. Asked whether he'd consider the Giants in free agency, Rogers said, 'Yeah, I think so. But right now my focus is on helping the Mets go as far as we can go.'
He did leave something behind: Rogers gifted his beer fridge, stocked with Miller Lite, and his wine collection to the bullpen. He'd just gotten a new shipment of wine, too.
After 13 years with the Giants' organization, Rogers had nothing but positive things to say about the fans and the club.
'It's a great place,' he said. 'I gave them everything I had. I can't say enough about my time there.'
Midweek was wild in general for the Rogers family. Tyler Rogers' twin, Taylor, was traded from the Reds to the Pirates on Wednesday, then from the Pirates to the Cubs on Thursday. Wednesday was the first time in big-league history that twins (not Twins!) have been traded on the same day.
'Mom was having a day, that's for sure,' Tyler Rogers said.
Buttó, who signed with New York as an international free agent at 19, was visibly upset after learning he'd been traded during the Mets game on Wednesday, but Friday, now in the visitors' clubhouse at Citi Field, he said he'd absorbed the news.
'At first, I was very sad, of course, hearing the news,' Buttó said, working with team interpreter Erwin Higueros. 'I'm sure a lot of you saw the video. But as the hours go by, you start getting used to it, accepting the fate of what the business of baseball is.'
With Rogers getting dealt Wednesday and closer Camilo Doval going to the Yankees on Thursday, manager Bob Melvin said that Randy Rodriguez, a first-time All-Star this year, will now be the closer and Ryan Walker will be back in a later-innings role along with lefty Erik Miller (elbow) when he comes off the injured list in another week and a half or so. Buttó can pitch in a number of roles, and he's started in the past.
'I consider myself a warrior,' Buttó said. 'Every time I step on the mound, I give 100%.'
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