A former New York Mets first-round pick wants to make it back to MLB.
Anthony Kay has been away for two seasons, but he's "expected" to attempt a comebabck to the majors for the 2026 season, according to Jon Heyman.
Kay has spent the past two seasons pitching in Japan's NPB with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.
In the 2025 season, Kay led NPB in groundball rate, and he set the Yokohama single-season ERA record at 1.74. Heyman shared that Kay's fastball averaged 94.6 miles per hour.
Kay is 30 years old, and he was the Mets' first-round pick in 2016.
The Mets traded Kay to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2019 to get Marcus Stroman.
Kay went on to pitch parts of four seasons for the Blue Jays before also getting MLB time with the Chicago Cubs and then back with the Mets.
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Through his MLB career so far, Kay has thrown 85.1 innings and put up a 5.59 ERA.
Kay's first season in Japan, 2024, was solid. He had a 3.42 ERA in 136.2 innings.
The BayStars won the Japan Series last year, and then Kay put up his massive 2025 season with the 1.74 ERA in 155 innings while leading the league with a 21.9% strikeout rate.
It's clearly the best time for Kay to try to make it back. He's likely never going to have a season that good again.
There surely will be at least one or two MLB teams that believe Kay can make it in their starting rotation as a southpaw, and it'll be intriguing to see how his free agency progresses.
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