PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Matt Allan unfurls his right elbow to show the longest of a few scars on his body, markings that work like a roadmap of an arduous journey no pitcher hopes to take.
“It’s long,” Allan said as he slapped it while grinning, “but she’s pretty.”
Allan, 23, smiled often as he sat on a bench Wednesday, talking with a few reporters for the first time since he last appeared in a game — six years ago.
Allan is healthy.
Allan is throwing and is no longer in a rehab phase.
Allan expects to start the season with a New York Mets minor-league affiliate.
“I feel, honestly,” Allan said, “like I’m the best version of myself that I’ve ever been.”
In using those words, Allan was referring to how he felt as both a pitcher and a person.
The Mets selected Allan with the 89th pick of the 2019 draft and paid him a $2.5 million bonus, nearly four times his slot value. Put differently, the Mets that year revolved their draft class around him. They envisioned him helping the Mets on the mound for years to come. That hasn’t happened. Not yet, at least.
Looking forward to what’s ahead, thankful for this awesome opportunity- Go Mets!! #LGM pic.twitter.com/fXFYwmY6jo
— Matt Allan (@matthew_allan2) June 29, 2019
As an 18-year-old in 2019, Allan appeared in six minor-league games, spanning time in rookie ball and Class A. The pandemic robbed Allan of pitching in a minor-league game in 2020. From there, injuries bear the responsibility for Allan’s absence. In May 2021, Allan tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery. Less than a year later, Allan required a second operation to transpose a nerve in his arm. Then in February 2023, he had a UCL revision surgery.
Over the past few years, Allan leaned on his faith and family. All the while, he said, he remained confident in his ability. But he still wondered if he’d ever get to showcase it.
“It was less about, would I get back to the player that I was?” Allan said. “It was more about, would I be given a chance? Would my body figure itself out? Would my arm figure itself out? Would I even have a chance to go out there and be myself again?
“I’m so confident in who I am as a person, so confident in who I am as a player, that it was never in question for me. It was always just, like, am I gonna have the health required?”
Now, he finally does.
Allan is scheduled to throw 25 pitches or two innings worth of a live bullpen on Thursday. He’s already thrown two other such sessions. He said his stuff is better. His velocity is better. His cutter, curveball, changeup … it’s all better, he said.
“Each bullpen, each live, things have been kind of just trending upwards and upwards,” Allan said.
When Allan talks about the possibility of finally pitching in a real game, he beams.
“It’s crazy to think that it’s like, slowly, week after week, like, just kind of breaking off the shackles a little bit,” Allan said. “The thought of just being able to pitch in a real game … It’s crazy. Honestly, I don’t know if you asked me last year if that’s where I thought I’d be up until this point.”
Around this time last year, Allan participated in the Mets’ minor-league camp (he’s not part of the major-league camp in 2025, either). But he was just playing catch.
“There were just a lot of days that I would show up and it wouldn’t look like a lot of other guys,” Allan said. “And so it got very easy for me to get complacent or comparative about this guy’s doing this at this timeline, and I’m at this timeline, and why am I not doing this and stuff like that. And that was hard.”
But Allan kept going. He kept showing up. He kept improving.
By the time Allan arrived here for a camp in January, he showed Mets officials that he was ready for more.
“He’s a phenomenal guy on and off the field,” said infielder Brett Baty, whom the Mets took in the first round of Allan’s draft class. Baty and Allan used to room together. “He’s been through the wringer. We both got drafted in 2019. I’ve played a lot since then. He’s kind of just been here. I can’t imagine what he’s gone through. But we’re all super pumped to see him healthy and just see what he can do this year.”
Allan doesn’t care where he starts the season. He doesn’t care what his role will be. At this point, why would he? The way he sees it, where he starts isn’t going to be where he finishes.
Around the time he was wrapping up his rehab last year, Allan watched the Mets in the playoffs. He thought to himself, “Wow. That’s incredible.” As he made progress with his rehab, he’d tell his parents, “Wow, it’s really happening. Things are starting to show up.”
“And I think now,” Allan said, “like, definitely, that the dream is there. And I think it’s easy to get caught up in where I want to go, but the biggest thing I learned from rehab is I just have to be where my feet are, be present, grounded in where I am today. And just be thankful for the work that is able to be put in today, and stack as many of those days as possible.
“And then we’ll see. We’ll see that dream lived out.”
(Photo of Matt Allan from March 8, 2021: Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)
