PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – Taijuan Walker is taking a back seat on his new team — to Mr. Met. A day after the Mets finalized his $23 million, three-year contract, Walker said he was aced out of his preferred jersey number by the rotund mascot with the baseball-shaped head. “I was 44 growing up, and I finally got it with the Mariners in 2016,” Walker said Tuesday. “And then I ended up getting traded at the end of the year, and when I got traded to the Diamondbacks, Paul Goldschmidt was No.
44. So I was, OK, I'm never going to get that again." So Walker thought: “What number can wear that not a lot of people in the league have it?" He chose 99. “And I think the only way I don’t wear 99 is if I get traded to the Yankees," he said. "So I was, OK,