Meet Jefry Yan, the Mets’ Rookie Pitcher Whose Strikeout Celebrations Are Already the Talk of MLB

Mets rookie pitcher pitcher Jefry Yan made his MLB debut Wednesday night, throwing one scoreless inning in a 6–5 win for New York.

While the Mets (49–66) are basically just playing out the string for the rest of the season, they now have arguably the most viral player in MLB, as Yan and his very fun strikeout celebrations have been introduced to the world.

Yan struck out two batters in his debut and he had a lot of fun afterward as he was seen jumping high in the air before slapping the ground, doing a bit of a dab and sliding his foot against the mound.

Here’s what that looked like after his first career K:

Jefry Yan records his first career strikeout and has the celebration to match! pic.twitter.com/2aW0HdrViM
— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2026

Pretty darn smooth, if you ask me.

Here’s another angle:

Jefry Yan brings his energy to the majors 😮‍💨 https://t.co/nQYCljo0fg pic.twitter.com/26X3ZDuUyR
— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2026

He then showed off some more moves after he and the Mets were able to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning:

Jefry Yan's reaction as he escaped a bases-loaded jam 😤 pic.twitter.com/cwGFZlOUZg
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 6, 2026

That is all a lot of fun, right? I’m sure there will be some old-school baseball heads who will get upset about a player celebrating after doing their job, because people like to complain about everything. But this all seems pretty harmless. This is a game, after all, and Yan is finally getting a chance to show off his stuff at the big-league level. Shouldn’t he be able to fully enjoy the moment?

Yan had this to say after the game about his celebration after striking out Angel Martínez, via The Athletic:

“I went out to attack him,” Yan said. “Once I have two strikes, I was going to throw that slider, and if I freeze him, which is exactly what I did, I celebrate it accordingly.”

It seemed like his celebrations caught the attention of Cleveland’s José Ramírez, who was seen imitating it a little bit in the Guardians’ dugout:

Jose Ramirez does his best Jefry Yan impression 🤣 pic.twitter.com/P40lEWhfEu
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) August 6, 2026

The Mets are a disaster this season and need to have a lot of life pumped into the franchise. It seems like Yan is the type of guy to do just that.

Who is Jefry Yan?

That’s the first question I asked myself when I saw his highlights on Wednesday so I went digging into the internet to find out some answers. What I found out was this: Yan’s journey to his MLB debut was a wild one.

Yan is a 29-year-old left-hander from the Dominican Republic. The Angels were the first team to sign him way back in 2014, with hopes that he could rise through their farm system and become a factor in the big leagues.

That, however, didn’t work for Yan and the Angels. Instead, he ended up having Tommy John surgery in 2016 and then didn’t play anywhere for five years. According to The Athletic, he worked a number of different jobs during that break, including as a construction worker and a delivery man.

He came back to baseball in 2021 and has spent time with four different organizations, pitching in 211 games over seven seasons in the minors.

Yan has been celebrating at all different levels of the sport and it looks like he has some more moves that he might break out with the Mets.

Check out this collection of his celebrations over the years:

The Mets are calling up the most entertaining pitcher in baseball! pic.twitter.com/8LsL5CzK94 https://t.co/i7Ldq1N0BC
— Mets'd Up Podcast (@MetsdUp) August 3, 2026

Yan did hear some boos in Cleveland on Wednesday night but he didn’t let that get him down.

“They can do what they want. They’re paying for their ticket,” Yan said to The Athletic. “I’m in my zone, and I’m going to enjoy my game the way I want to.”

Hopefully he keeps doing just that.

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