Three former Mets are headed to the 2026 All-Star Game in Philadelphia, and the twist is that their combined time in orange and blue barely added up to a cup of coffee. Those three players logged just 24 major league games for the Mets, but each one left a different kind of imprint on the franchise.
Michael Wacha is back on the midsummer stage for the second time in his career, and this one feels like a full-circle moment. The right-hander first reached All-Star status in 2015, then spent years trying to recapture that level after a promising start to his career.
By the time the Mets signed him as a free agent after the 2019 season, he was in the middle of a rough stretch. In the covid-shortened 2020 season, Wacha made eight appearances, seven of them starts, and posted a 6.62 ERA while giving up nine home runs in just 34 innings.
Since then, though, he’s rebuilt himself. From the start of 2022 on, Wacha has thrown 720.1 innings with a 3.51 ERA and settled in as a steady presence in the Royals’ rotation. This season, he has a 3.77 ERA in 119.1 innings, the most in the American League entering the second half, and that work earned him his second All-Star nod at age 35.
Justin Verlander’s trip to the All-Star Game comes with a different kind of weight. The resume is already overflowing: three Cy Young Awards, Rookie of the Year, an MVP, and two World Series titles. Now he’s become just the 10th pitcher ever to make 10 or more All-Star teams, joining Warren Spahn (14), Mariano Rivera (13), Tom Seaver (12), Roger Clemens (11), Clayton Kershaw (11), Steve Carlton (10), Randy Johnson (10), Tom Glavine (10), and Chris Sale (10), who also hits that mark this season.
Verlander returned to the Tigers on a one-year deal this past offseason, but the season hasn’t gone according to plan. He made only one start before landing on the injured list, where he remains.
Still, the commissioner selected him as the American League’s “Legend Pick,” which fits a pitcher with this kind of standing. His Mets stint was brief - only 16 of his 556 career starts came in New York - but it was productive, producing a 133 ERA+ and 2.2 bWAR.
And in a roundabout way, he still has a Mets connection in Philadelphia: Ryan Clifford, one of the two prospects the Mets got from Houston in the 2023 Trade Deadline deal for Verlander, was the club’s lone representative at Sunday’s Futures Game.
Then there’s Pete Crow-Armstrong, who may be the most painful of the three for Mets fans to revisit. His 2025 season alone was a monster: 30 homers, 30 steals, a Gold Glove, and a top-10 finish in National League MVP voting.
But 2026 has pushed him even higher. At the break, he ranks second in the majors with 5.7 bWAR, trailing only Shohei Ohtani, leads the majors with a 17 Fielding Run Value, and sits ninth with a .917 OPS.
He has 21 home runs and 24 stolen bases so far this year, after finishing with 31 homers and 35 steals last season.
Crow-Armstrong is only 24, and the 2021 Trade Deadline deal that sent him to Chicago for Trevor Williams and a half-season of Javier Báez is the kind of move that can linger for years. It already looks like one that will haunt Mets fans for a long time.
He also already owns the third-most career bWAR of any Mets first-round pick since 2003, behind Brandon Nimmo (27.7) and Cubs teammate Michael Conforto (17.4). And if Mets fans want one last sting, they can revisit the first answer he gave about player comparisons in his introductory press conference after being drafted.
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