Grant Hartwig: Mets Relief Pitcher (2023)

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Grant Alexander Hartwig was born December 18th, 1997, in Detroit Michigan.

The six foot-five right-handed reliever attended Miami University where he majored in premed & micro-biology. 

While pitching at Miami he tore his Ulnar Collateral Ligament & underwent Tommy John surgery. Upon his return Covid struck & the season was cancelled. The next year he went undrafted at first until the Mets called him a few days later as he was taking exams, offering him $20,000 to sign. 

Quotes- Grant Hartwig: "I was thinking I was done with baseball. It seemed less & less possible that anything was going to happen."

Hartwig began his career at A ball St Lucie. In 2022 he began with the Brooklyn Cyclones & was promoted to AA Binghamton that May. By September he was at AAA with the Syracuse Mets. 

2023: Hartwig was invited to Spring Training & impressed by throwing four shutout innings. He
began 2023 there striking out 35 batters in 25.3 innings of work posting a 4.25 ERA.

Mets Career: On June 19th he made his MLB debut relieving Max Scherzer & finishing off an 11-1 win at Houston. On June 28th, in the 7th inning of a tied game with Milwaukee, he gave up a two hits & a run in the Mets eventual 5-2 loss, earning him his first career loss.

On July 2nd, Hartwig threw two scoreless innings in middle relief, while striking out three Giants in an 8-4 Met win at Citi Field, giving him his first career win. Two more scoreless outings had his ERA at 0.79 until he gave up three runs to the Dodgers n a 5-1 Mets loss.

Starting on July 18th, he went on a personal three game win streak with victories over the White Sox & Red Sox in Boston in back-to-back outings. The third win came on August 9th at home against the Chicago Cubs to get him to 4-1. 

On August 18th, he was optioned to Syracuse then recalled in early-September. On September 28th he added his fifth & final win of the season, with a scoreless 8th inning in a 1-0 win over the Marlins. The game was suspended in the 9th inning with the final result coming days later.

On the season he was 5-2 with a 4.44 ERA & two holds to his credit. He struck out 30 & walked 15 in 35.1 innings over 28 appearances.

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