Jefry Yan didn’t exactly tiptoe into Mets life.
In his MLB debut during New York’s 6-5 win over the Guardians on Aug. 5, the reliever came out firing, struck out two, and escaped a bases-loaded jam in one inning of work. But the pitches were only part of the show. Yan’s post-strikeout leap - the one that has already made him impossible to ignore - followed him straight into the big leagues and immediately had the baseball world buzzing.
That reaction isn’t new for Yan. The 29-year-old right-hander has built a reputation around two things: a fastball that can climb past 100 mph and a celebration that looks like it was drawn up on a trampoline.
After a strikeout, he jumps. Sometimes he kicks his legs out.
Sometimes he explodes straight up with his knees tucked. He’s even mixed in a fist pump or a wild arm flail.
However it looks, the message is the same: he’s enjoying the moment.
Yan’s path to the Mets is just as unusual as his routine after a K. A native of San Rafael del Yuma in the Dominican Republic, he first signed with the Angels as an international free agent at 16.
Tommy John surgery followed when he was 19, and Los Angeles released him after the operation. Baseball went on hold.
For five years, Yan worked construction and delivered packages in Arizona while his career sat in limbo.
Then came another shot. The Marlins signed him to a minor-league deal in 2021 after discovering him while he was playing in a men’s league in Arizona.
He moved quickly through Miami’s system, reaching Double-A, then spent three years in the organization before heading to Japan to pitch for NPB’s Seipu Lions. His lone season in Saitama was rough - a 5.58 ERA in 30.2 innings - and after that he returned to the United States and joined the Rockies.
Colorado eventually let him go, and Yan landed with the Mets’ Triple-A club, where he turned heads with a 2.40 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 15 innings. That run earned him the call to the majors ahead of the Guardians series.
The celebration, though, is the part that has stirred the most noise. In the past, a move like Yan’s might have drawn the usual lectures about baseball’s unwritten rules.
Not this time. Mets interim manager Andy Green described him as someone whose energy comes from a place of genuine joy.
“People have accepted largely that this is just a good-natured human who’s enjoying being on the field playing baseball,” said Mets interim manager Andy Green of Yan's leaps, per MLB.com. “It’s more personality than I think we’re all accustomed to seeing after a strikeout, but we didn’t have many Minor League teams take issue with him or his enthusiasm. I think they end up smiling at it if they’re not the one that’s getting punched out.”
Yan’s roots in the Dominican Republic also place him in a strong line of countrymen who have become standout relievers in the majors, alongside Jhoan Duran, Camilo Doval, Seranthony Dominguez and Abner Uribe.
Not everyone was smiling in Cleveland, though. When Yan took the mound against the Guardians, Jose Ramirez and Rhys Hoskins mimicked his leap, and the home crowd let him hear it with a steady wave of boos. Yan didn’t flinch afterward.
"They can do whatever they want," Yan said through an interpreter."They're paying for tickets so if they want to yell at me or if they want to boo me, they can do whatever they want. I'm in my zone."
“The most important thing for me is to do my job, to focus on the hitter, attack the hitter, try to get ahead in the counts. Once I strike him out, that emotion or that celebration comes out on its own.
It’s very important obviously to respect the hitter. But I also want to have fun and enjoy the game the way that I always have.”
And if the radar gun is any clue, there may be plenty more moments like that ahead. Per Sarah Langs, Yan threw five pitches over 100.0 mph on Wednesday, the most by any New York pitcher this season. If the strikeouts keep coming, so will the jumps.
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