It wasn’t that long ago that the Mets bullpen featured such
legendary arms as D.J. Carrrasco, Tim Byrdak, Dale Thayer and Mike O’Connor. Then came Jenrry Mejia out of necessity when
Bobby Parnell got hurt, but after one solid season he’s been a non-entity due
to some bad decision making on his part.
Jeurys Familia was thrust into the role as next available man, and he
turned in a season for the ages. The
cast around him, however, was less than stellar for most of the year. Alex Torres, anyone?
This black hole has turned into something of a strength for
the Mets as they learned last year in the second half what a powerful pen can
do to shut down games. Watching the
Royals who perfected this approach clean up against the team had to reinforce
what had already been gleaned through observation. In today’s game it’s not merely about the
closer.
Towards that end the Mets made some good acquisitions,
betting first on the recovery of Jerry Blevins, the late season audition of
Addison Reed and the signing of solid lefty Antonio Bastardo to complement the formidable
Familia. However, lose in the shuffle
were some of the other arms who turned in a number of quality appearances last
year and who hopefully will continue to flourish as the team sets its sites on not
just a World Series appearance, but a championship season.
Hansel Robles was a somewhat unheralded starting pitcher in
the minors who could never seem to harness his live arm. In 2014 in AA they began his transition to
the bullpen and his strikeout rate advanced dramatically. His role in the majors has been exclusively
in relief and he’s been able to turn it up a notch or two whenever the
situation demands it. He finished his
rookie season last year having appeared in 57 games with a respectable 3.67 ERA
and an enviable 10.2 K/9 ratio. He’ll
start the 2016 season on the suspended list but look for him to get the ball
quite a bit throughout the year.
Rule V pick Sean Gilmartin was quite a story last year. He was a starting pitcher throughout his
minor league career with 79 of his 80 appearances coming as a starter. The Mets gambled he could be a lefty reliever
for them when, at the time, they had none.
How did he do? Well, in 50 low
leverage games he finished with a 2.67 ERA, a respectable 8.5 K/9 IP, a 3:1 K
to BB ratio and a paltry .230 BAA. He’s
made everyone forget Brad Emaus of Rule V infamy. The irony is that he may not even crack the
pen that goes north given the plethora of options the Mets now have.
Converted starter Erik Goeddel has also flourished since
being thrust into the bullpen role.
After a 2014 Las Vegas record with a 5.37 ERA, it appeared that he had
hit the wall. Still, the Mets gave him a
late season look and were encouraged by his 6 appearances that resulted in a
2.70 ERA and a tidy 1.050 WHIP. In 2015
he put in 33 games at the major league level, and the ERA dropped to 2.43 with
better than a strikeout per inning pitched, a WHIP of less than one baserunner
per inning pitched and a BAA of just .195.
That’s pretty dominant stuff, folks.
The only problem with Goeddel lately has been health as he’s missed time
each of the past couple of seasons due to arm and muscle issues, but he’s
showing he belongs in the big leagues.
I’ll leave out the cameo appearances by Logan Verrett,
Rafael Montero, Dario Alvarez and others, but it appears that the Mets are well positioned both
now and in the future with reinforcements named Josh Edgin and Jenrry Mejia
coming down the pike as well. It’s
almost enough to make you forget Mel Rojas.
2 comments:
The Pen is looking Powerful. It is a far cry from the marginal dudes of not too long ago. This pen is built to win.
I'll say it again. Gilmartin, the former first round pick of the Braves, was selected to be a starter. As a Rule V guy, they had to keep him on the 25-man roster and you're not going to throw a guy like that into a major league rotation (especially a pretty good one) Willy Nilly. Also, he was working his way back from an injury. They used him wisely and somewhat sparingly. You didn't see him in any high pressure situations. And he handled himself well. But he's a starter and, now that we don't have to keep him on the 25-man, he'll be pitching at AA or AAA this year...as a starter. And that was always the plan. Generally, you'd like to have more than one lefty in your rotation. Right now, we've got Matz as the only starting southpaw. And we traded away a lot of our minor league depth at the deadline last year. Gilmartin has the stuff to be a #3, no worse than a #4 certainly. He'll be around if anyone gets hurt or traded. Or maybe he'll be the one traded. But don't be fooled into thinking the Mets selected him Rule V to be a bullpen guy. They didn't.
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