Through Family and Faith, Hamel Wants to Be ‘It Guy’

Editor's note: This article initially appeared in the May edition of the Rumble Ponies' gameday program “Who’s Next?” Dom Hamel earned his sixth win of the season with the Rumble Ponies on Tuesday against the Somerset Patriots. Hamel is currently tied for the seventh-most strikeouts in all of Minor League Baseball this season (122).

By Matt Levine

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – New York Mets pitching prospect Dom Hamel has always been close with his family and in touch with his faith. Now as he keeps moving up levels in the game of baseball, he wants to be the ‘it guy.’

Hamel’s late mother Lisa passed away 11 days before he was selected by the Mets in the third round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of Dallas Baptist University. Losing his mother caused him to not be himself for a long time.

“I asked my close buddies in this [Mets] organization what they thought of me when they first met me last year,” Hamel said. “They said I seemed really quiet and just on my own … I didn’t have that social battery to talk to anyone at that time.”

Despite all the hardship off the field, Hamel shined on the mound. He was named the 2022 Mets Minor League Pitcher of the Year, leading all Mets minor leaguers with 10 wins and 145 strikeouts in his first full season in professional baseball.

The right-hander from Chandler, Arizona, appeared in 25 games (24 starts) between St. Lucie (Low-A) and Brooklyn (High-A) in 2022, posting a 10-3 record with a 3.25 ERA, while holding opposing hitters to a .196 batting average and averaging 10.97 strikeouts per nine innings. Hamel allowed one or zero runs in six of his 11 starts with the Cyclones.

“I had a lot of emotions that I was trying to balance out,” Hamel said. “Dealing with my mom’s passing and then I’m living my dream of playing with a New York based team, which is something I’ve always wanted to do … It was tough and I know my mom is happy for me, but I still gotta be a rock for my family. I want to provide for them, and I want this dream to happen.”

One of the biggest things that helped Hamel grieve was the ability to play close to his family. His father, Jason, moved to Florida in 2019 and lives about 40 minutes from the Mets’ facilities in Port St. Lucie, where Dom spent part of 2022. Hamel also has family in Poughkeepsie, New York, so when he was promoted to High-A Brooklyn, he was just a couple hours from them.

“I’m a big family guy, massive,” Hamel said. “That’s all we got.”

Staying true to his family, the 24-year-old represented his mother’s heritage and honored her by playing for Team Puerto Rico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Hamel and Victor Ramos, his pitching coach in St. Lucie, had discussed the WBC last year. Ramos, who knew exactly what Hamel had been going through, was on Team Puerto Rico’s coaching staff in the past and helped him get an invite.

Hamel, the Mets’ No. 2 pitching prospect and No. 10 overall prospect, got a phone call from Ramos two weeks into spring training and when he picked up, it was Team Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina on the other end. Molina told Hamel they had picked up his contract. As Hamel was preparing to send them his birth certificate, he felt a sign from his mother.

His mother used to do beauty pageants and won Miss Puerto Rico in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio, and as Hamel opened the folder with his birth certificate, a photograph of his mother in a Puerto Rican traditional dress and tiara fell out at the same time.

“You can’t tell me someone’s not in control of my life right now,” Hamel said. “I get goosebumps every time just thinking about it. That was surreal.”

The experience at the World Baseball Classic, with some of baseball’s most talented players, gave Hamel more of an idea of how to keep moving forward in the game. He was on the same pitching staff as José Berríos (Blue Jays) and Marcus Stroman (Cubs), along with Mets closer Edwin Díaz.

Hamel was also teammates with Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, along with Javier Báez (Tigers), Kiké Hernández (Dodgers), Martín Maldonado (Astros), MJ Melendez (Royals), Eddie Rosario (Braves), and Christian Vázquez (Twins). He was able to see different players’ routines, along with their demeanor and how they go about their business.

“You can just tell they’re a ballplayer but understand there’s so much more to life than baseball and that is what frees them up,” Hamel said. “Everyone up there is a ballplayer, but if you got ‘it’ that is what makes you go and I’m trying to be the ‘it guy.’”

For Hamel, being the ‘it guy’ won’t cause him to change anything about himself.

“[I’ll be the ‘it guy’] by doing me man,” Hamel said. “Doing the same thing and just trusting it. I’ve been told I was the ‘it guy’ in the past and I didn’t believe it. But now that we’re at this level and I’m climbing the ladder … my stuff is there, it’s just about me competing and putting pressure on them every time I go out there.”