Excited About the Bullpen? I am

The bullpen and bench are usually unglamorous parts of a team’s 25-man roster.  Sure, the superstar closers are able to make a name for themselves, but usually everyone else is just part of a revolving door of unproven youngsters, failed starters, and veterans trying to hang on.  However, the bullpen plays a significant role in a team’s success.  During the regular season, a bullpen’s resiliency is important as it can take pressure off of the starting rotation in the later innings.  In the playoffs, the pens play an even more important role as they regularly find themselves in close and pivotal games.

The Mets of recent years past have fallen victim to the underperformance of their respective bullpens, something that the previous FO (and so far the current FO as well) could not seem to solve.  However, this year in addition the debuts of Wheeler and d’Arnaud, we could also see the coalescing of the Next Mets bullpen.  Normally I wouldn’t be all that excited about it, but the ramifications of this for building the entire team cannot be understated.

First, it looks like Bobby Parnell has found himself as a closer.  I expect him to at least be as good as he was last year.  Josh Edgin came up quickly through the system last year, came out strong in his debut, and then faded as the year progressed.  I still have faith in him and think he needs to make adjustments.  Jeurys Familia has been considered one of the Mets top prospects for a few years now.  He had an impressing spring and has made the club as a reliever out of camp.  Jack Leathersich has been striking out just about every batter he faces it seems and some think he’ll make it to Queens by September.  Darin Gorski is a lefty and was the FSL pitcher of the year.  He has success against lefties and would make a fine LOOGY.  He was recently cut but I think we’ll see him promoted at some point.  Finally Cory Mazzoni is another Alderson draftee who has shown good stuff, will likely hit the bigs this year as a reliever.

The Mets aren’t going anywhere this year, especially now that Santana’s tenure is over.  When the trade deadline comes, contending teams will be looking for all the bullpen help they can get.  With all of these young pitchers waiting in the wings during a ‘lost’ season, I’m sure they’ll put whatever attractive relief talent they want on the block, hoping to bring back prospects.  By the end of the year, the bullpen could look something like:

Closer: Parnell

Set-up: Leathersich

LOOGY: Gorski

Edgin

Mazzoni

Familia

That’s a young and talented group that could be together CHEAPLY for a long time.  When I think about the team’s overall salaries paid, I break the budget into four pieces – Lineup, Rotation, Bench, Bullpen.  We’re already expecting that the Rotation will be inexpensive going forward with the talent projected to fill it over the next few years.  The Bench will also likely be filled with internal options of cast-offs from other teams.  This Bullpen could be the best bang for the buck on the team after the rotation, getting quality innings for next to nothing.  This will allow the FO the spend like a real big-market team on its lineup.

The bullpen doesn’t have to have this look exactly like this either, some of the names could easily be switched out for other talent rising through the ranks as the Mets have great depth.  If that is the bullpen, it would leave Montero, Mateo, Fulmer, Gee, Mejia, Verrett, Pill, Tapia, and DeGrom (I’m sure I’m leaving some out) essentially homeless and therefore available for trade.  Even still, maybe in the next offseason Sandy signs 1-2 veteran relievers for a low cost, moving another young arm or two into the ‘TRADE’ bin.

I never thought I’d be excited to see how a bullpen comes together and how our relievers develop, but with all the talent coming up it’s difficult not to.  Besides, I need something to look forward to this year.