DAVID RUBIN: THE "BULL - - - --" PEN DIARIES

When last we left our "hero", Mets GM Sandy Alderson, he was dangling on the ledge of Mets Tower (don't worry- it's only 2 stories high), frantically dialing every GM in the game, trying to sell off every free agent-to-be prior to the trading deadline - ANY trading deadline - football, baseball, NYSE, you NAME it!!!! Sandy proceeded to trade Duda, Rivera, Granderson, Reed, Bruce and Walker and in return, the majority of what the team received was bullpen arms, of varying quality and ages.

A lot of the team's fans called Sandy's return "Bull Excrement" but a number of fans thought that Sandy got all he could for his limited assets, including myself. Let's face it - it's not like he was dangling the likes of Thor or deGrom (thank GOODNESS!!!)

Once upon a time, a call to the Mets bullpen meant that fans got to see the sweetest ride in all of baseball- the famed Met-Cap Bullpen Cart!!! As a 7 year old, I couldn't understand why it took a vehicle-ride to get a reliever to the dugout area so that he could walk over to the mound, when he could have walked himself in half the time- but I DID love seeing that buggy and actually owned a model of it at one time (wish I still had that now) so if nothing else, from a PR standpoint it was a home run. Also, since the bullpen wasn't used that much in the late 60's through the mid-80's, when the car DID come out, it still meant something!

A non-baseball fan once asked me why the place where our relief pitchers warm up is actually referred to as a bullpen. I gave him some of the folklore behind it, and in case you've never looked it up but simply accepted the term, the following explanation comes from Wikipedia:

"The origin of the term bullpen, as used in baseball, is debated, with no one theory holding unanimous, or even substantial, sway. The term first appeared in wide use shortly after the turn of the 20th century^[1] and has been used since in roughly its present meaning. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the earliest recorded use of "bullpen" in baseball is in a 1924 Chicago Tribune article from October 5. The earliest known usage of the term "bull pen" relating to an area of a baseball field is in a New York Times article from June 24, 1883.^[2] The earliest known relief pitching related usage of "bullpen" in the New York Times is in an article dated September 18, 1912.^[3]" 

You can read more about it here: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullpen


But back to our Mets and THEIR bullpen for 2018. As the 2017 season ended, this is their bullpen as it stands now:

This list, of course, does NOT take into consideration whichever candidates for the rotation who aren't locked in end up being moved to the bullpen, besides Montero, a list that could possibly include Wheeler, Lugo and Gsellman. If, as Sandy recently disclosed, the team ONLY goes for bullpen arms and NOT any additions to the rotation, that means that an already very crowded bullpen gets far more crowded if the likes of Mike Minor, Joe Smith, Boone Logan, Brian Shaw or another name from a very large list are brought in to shore up what has become to baseball what the Offensive Line once was to football- underpaid and under-valued! With the added announcement that the team is going to start taking starters not named Noah and Jacob out after five innings, the need for an 8-man bullpen makes it a necessary evil to give out 2 and 3 (and even 4) year contracts to potential relievers, something we all know Sandy has always been loathsome to do. Furthermore, it starts to make fans question why Sandy traded over 100 home runs worth of value in expiring contracts in exchange for bullpen arms if he's only going to need to boost the bullpen once more this off-season, using free agents, a commodity that costs something the team is reluctant to part with like the big market team they forget that they are - MONEY!!!!!

Well, there IS a reason behind these moves, and it seems to be a 2-part plan by Sandy.

Part One: since the minor leagues were not exactly laden with hard-throwing relievers, particularly at the mid-to-higher levels, he needed to restock those arms due to the fact that Familia, Ramos & Blevins are all scheduled to become free agents after the 2018 season. Therefore, part of the plan is the hope that one or more of these arms can step up, either in AA or AAA (or even in the bigs) and show that they have what it takes to take over the back end of the pen, or at the least supplement it if they choose to move a top minor league arm like Marcos Molina into their future closer.

Part Two: since the team is still over-loaded with potential starters in the form of Thor, deGrom, Harvey, Matz, Wheeler, Lugo, Gsellman, Montero and Flexen, not to mention somewhere between 3 and 5 future starters between 1-3 years from being ready for the big leagues, there's just nowhere to comfortably fit durable, reliable arms into their equation unless it's in the form of a bullpen arm. Now remember- long before anyone came out for it, I advocated bringing in an arm like RA Dickey, Lance Lynn or Jason Vargas to give the rotation innings in order to help bring along the many-injury-challenged starters coming back to health (hopefully) in 2018. Our new manager seems to be a "pitcher whisperer" but just how much is it acceptable to ask of him and new pitching coach Dave Eiland in one season? Since that is NOT going to happen, apparently, with one of the reasons being that even guys like Lynn and Vargas are going to be receiving over-priced, multiple year offers, Sandy's plan has become strengthening the bullpen out of necessity and hoping that the variance of arms can help cover whatever shortcomings the rotation will have as they return to prior form. 

To be fair, I have ALWAYS been a fan of a quality bullpen overflowing in hard-throwers and featuring differing looks (whether arm action, pitch selection, etc) - and most teams have been in search of that very same grail since Tony LaRussa set the league on the path of over-using specialists some 30 years ago or so.That being said, I STILL favor my proposal wherein you utilize paired starters - having Thor and deGrom pitch regularly, and pairing up, say, Matz with Montero, Lugo with Wheeler, Gsellman with Flexen and saving the bullpen for the eighth and/or ninth innings, and not on every day, but as we all know change comes very slowly to baseball and so I'll have to continue to dream about this paired-pitching for a number of years to come...

So- with the Winter Meetings in bloom, the trade season upon us free agents making plans for moving their families come February, who do YOU want the team to sign? It WON'T be Wade Davis or Greg Holland, so amongst the "realistic" acquisitions available via free agency, whom do YOU want to see making the walk in 45 - 70 times next season from the team's bullpen? I personally would love to see a reunion with Smith and the addition of Shaw, both of whom our new manager is very familiar with - but I'd love to hear some creative suggestions - so let it flow in the comments section and, within a few weeks we'll all know who those lucky men will be? Lucky? Yes - because at least they won't be abused the way that our old manager, Mr. Collins, loved to do!