Early in his tenure as Mets GM, "Shecky" Alderson quipped, “What
outfield?” when asked about the dearth of quality players roaming the greens
behind the infield dirt. However, after
having endured the man’s team building philosophy for seven long and painful
years, perhaps the question he should have asked is, “What bullpen?”
Now to be fair to the man, he has perhaps recognized this
flaw in his recent past. To wit, he’s
overcompensated to the tune of seven relievers added to the organization during
the great selloff of 2017. How much is
quality and how much is quantity is still to be determined, but perhaps a few
years down the road he will be vindicated instead of vilified for how seemingly
little he obtained in return for some solid major league talent departing.
Going into 2018 there appear to be four locks for the
bullpen – closer, Jeurys Familia, former Marlins closer and now the new Addison
Reed, A.J. Ramos, and lefty Jerry Blevins.
Rookie Paul Sewald is an odd-on favorite to have a role as well. After that there are likely to be open
auditions including out-of-options Rafael Montero, lefty Josh Smoker, and righty
Erik Goeddel. Also, you must consider
that if any of the walking wounded are indeed ready to resume their spots in
the starting rotation the leftovers like Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman might be
in the mix for pen assignments as well.
Then there are the folks who are pretty much playing themselves out of a
role like Hansel Robles, and the ones with an incomplete grade like Chasen
Bradford and Kevin McGowan.
As documented yesterday by Tom Brennan, some of these
newcomers are off to nice starts. The
ones to focus on in particular are Drew Smith, Jacob Rhame and Jamie Callahan.
Smith, for some reason, was assigned to Binghamton where he
is dominating as he has done at each level in the Tampa organization prior to
coming here in exchange for Lucas Duda. His
career ERA in the minors is a sparkling 1.75 with a WHIP of 0.93 and over 10 Ks
per 9 IP. They may have him skip over
AAA to see if he can carry that momentum to the big club next year.
Next up is recent Dodger import Jacob Rhame. He’s pitched to a respectable 3.10 ERA for
his career, sports a 1.13 WHIP and decent control for a young pitcher – 2.9 BBs
per 9 IP while fanning nearly 11 over the same span. His Oklahoma City numbers showed greater
control than in the past, but unfortunately he gave up more hits than innings
pitched. He’s a definite possibility for
the 2018 pen.
Finally, there is flame thrower Jamie Callahan. He has actually gotten a bit better in terms
of strikeouts as he’s ascended through the ranks. He’s fanning 11 to nearly 14 batters per 9 IP
but unfortunately he’s walking as many as 5 per 9 IP as well (shades of Josh
Smoker). He’s at best a
work-in-progress and not someone I would bank on for future stardom.
If you consider that the Mets have at minimum three slots to
fill, then it’s an interesting competition.
Right off the bat you could make the argument they would go to Lugo,
Gsellman and Montero. However, both Lugo
and Gsellman have options, so if relieving is where they see their futures,
then they might be sent to AAA to work out of the pen there to adjust.
Other pitchers in the organization include the recently
outrighted Josh Edgin, the currently injured but prior to Las Vegas dominant
David Roseboom, this year’s top reliever in AAA, Kyle Regnault and assorted
other warm bodies.
If there is a change afoot in the front office then there
may be an attempt to bring in major league talent with an established track
record in the bullpen. Given the
struggles the rotation has had with health each of the past two years, it
certainly can’t hurt to have someone who knows how to retire hitters once the
starters falter. Then again the Mets
have not been fond of paying for bullpen talent despite how, for example, Tyler
Clippard and Addison Reed were instrumental in helping to get them to the World
Series.
Methinks the stockpiling of bullpen arms is a prelude to dealing away relievers in trades. There is clearly a surplus here though you could argue what good a surplus does you if much of it is bruised, damaged or rotting on the vine. Right now you figure Jacob de Grom, Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey are locks for the 2018 rotation. Then you have the various injured starters – Zack Wheeler, Steven Matz and Seth Lugo. Throw in Rafael Montero, Robert Gsellman, Chris Flexen, Corey Oswalt and perhaps Tyler Pill all seeking a back-of-the-rotation slot. That’s a lot of pitching, though the quality and health are most definitely suspect. I expect to see deals made to bring in more starting pitching and it may take folks like Montero who is out of options and some of this reliever surplus to get it done.
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