A point of pride for Mets right-hander Dom Hamel has always been his durability as a starting pitcher. Since his first full professional season in 2022, he’s thrown no fewer than 119 innings, and threw 124 or more in Double-A and Triple-A in each of his last two seasons. So when the Mets came to the 26-year-old farmhand earlier this season with the idea to have him work out of the bullpen, he was admittedly “bitter.”

The Mets sold him on a clearer path to the big leagues as a reliever. The big league rotation was — and still is — full, and he was blocked by top pitching prospects Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean.

“I’ve thrown at least like, 115-120 innings the last four years of my career, and felt good handling that workload, so I was a little bitter at first just because I know I can

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