Domenic Leone: Short Time Mets Relief Pitcher (2023)

Dominic Joseph Leone was born October 26th,1991 in Norwich, Connecticut. The Italian American boy grew up in the New London area attending Norwich Free Academy high school.

The five foot-ten, right-handed pitcher attended Clemson University. There he earned a win in an elimination game during his freshman year, getting the Tigers to the 2010 College World Series.

In 2012 he was selected by the Seattle Mariners as a 16th round draft pick.

Leone came up with the Mariners in 2014, he started out collecting three holds then earned his first victory on May 22nd, in a win over Houston. After evening his record to 2-2 he won five straight decisions through the end of the season. 

In August he was 4-0 with a 2.57 ERA as opponents batted just .157 against him. For the season he was a career best 8-2 posting a 2.17 ERA notching 70 strike outs in 66.1 innings of work. The Mariners won 85 games that year but finished third.

The journeyman relief pitcher would move on to Arizona (2015-1016) Toronto (2017) where he was 3-0 with career highs in strike outs (81) & appearances (65). He moved on to St. Louis (2018-2019) Cleveland (2020) & San Francisco (2021-2022). 

In back-to-back seasons he posted 4-5 records with the Giants appearing in 55 & 57 games respectively. 

On October 3rd, he finished off the Giants 11-4 win over the Padres advancing them to the post season.

2021 Post Season- NLDS: In the NLDS loss to the Dodgers, Leone appeared in two games. In Game #2 he gave up two runs in the 9-2 loss at home. In Game #4 at L.A., he gave up a run in the 7-2 Giants loss. In his ten-year career this was his only post season appearance.

Leone was signed by the Texas Rangers then released at Spring Training. At the start of May, he was signed by the New York Mets.

Mets Career: On May 4th, Leone debuted with the Mets pitching a scoreless 7th inning in a 2-0 loss at Detroit. On May 13th, he gave up a 7th inning HR to the Nationals CJ Abrams, in a tie game taking the 3-2 losing decision.

On June 14th, he pitched a scoreless top of the 10th inning in the subway series at Citi Field. He was the winning pitcher when Brandon Nimmo won the game with a walk off RBI double.

A week later he gave up a pair of HRs & four runs to the Astros in a 10-8 Mets loss.

 Leone would go 1-3 earn two holds & have a 4.40 ERA then get traded to the L.A. Angels at the trade deadline.

Post Mets Career: Leone pitched 11 games in Anaheim then was placed on waivers & picked up by the Seattle Mariners where he appeared in nine more games finishing off seven of them. He was granted free agency in November.

Career Stats: In his ten-year career he is 22-23 with eight saves & 81 games finished posting a 3.82 ERA. He has 427 strike outs & 178 walks in 410 innings in 404 appearances.

Family: Dominic married his wife Lauren (Carr) in 2016.