Huascar Brazoban, at age 35, finally enjoys a full spring

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — For 15 years, Mets reliever Huascar Brazoban navigated a professional baseball career with a major problem: He had trouble legally entering the United States.

Because of perennial visa-related issues stemming from a lie he told as a teenager, Brazoban almost always has been delayed in reporting to spring training. Last year, with the Marlins, he missed all of camp and didn’t appear in the majors until June. Other years, he said, permission never came, so he had to sit out the season altogether, sending him down a winding path to pitching in his native Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Mexico.

Not this time, though. The Mets helped solve his visa issues, so Brazoban is enjoying a full, normal major-league spring training for what he told manager Carlos Mendoza was the first time in his life — at age 35.

“It’s been different being here from the beginning, being able to ramp up in a normal progression,” Brazoban said through an interpreter. “Usually I come in during the middle of spring training, at the very end of spring training. But now, getting here early, I’ve been able to bond with the guys. I feel a lot more relaxed and a lot looser because I’ve been around and I’ve been on a normal routine.”

Mendoza said: “It helps him because now he’s preparing in a big-league environment for a big-league season.”

Brazoban fits into the bullpen puzzle as a multi-inning option who did well in that role with the Marlins. Whether or not he is on the Opening Day roster, he is “in the mix,” as Mendoza put it, and figures to get the call at some point. The Mets can option him to the minors, making him an important depth piece.

The first step in setting up Brazoban for success: fixing the immigration headache.

At the end of last season, months after the Mets acquired him from Miami at the trade deadline, he approached team higher-ups with a heads up: He has problems getting into the country every year.

Their response was quick and assuring: Yep, working on it.

“They said don’t worry, we’re already starting to take care of that. When you get back home, do this, this and this,” Brazoban said. “That’s how we went through the proper steps. So I don’t know everybody who was involved, but they were the ones who took care of it.”

Starting the process early was the key, according to one Mets official involved. Brazoban needs an additional layer of approval, from the Department of Homeland Security, which is usually the hangup, so giving the parties extra time before spring training proved effective.

Brazoban’s case is complicated because when he signed with the Rockies in 2007, he used his brother’s name, Gustavo, he said. Huascar was 18, but Gustavo was 16. His later birth date made him more attractive as a prospect.

“And when I was trying to come to the United Staes in 2010, that’s when I fessed up to it,” Brazoban said. “That’s where the process started.”

The identity falsification has followed him for the decade and a half since. He didn’t reach the majors until 2022, when he was 32. In parts of three seasons with the Marlins, he had a 3.56 ERA and 1.34 WHIP.

“He’s got really good stuff — the power sinker, and the changeup is real,” Mendoza said. “So I like how he’s attacking the zone. I like how he’s using his pitches.”

In seven Grapefruit League appearances, he has a 2.25 ERA and 10 strikeouts (three walks) in eight innings. He said he believes he has done enough to make the club at the outset but knows that decision is not up to him.

“Whether it had gone well or it had gone badly,” Brazoban said, “I’m really, really grateful just to be here.”