Reese Kaplan -- Tyler Bashlor and the "Live Arm"

GMs, scouts, managers and pitching coaches all begin to salivate when they see a guy hurling BBs at the plate at speeds approaching 100 mph and racking up prodigious strikeout totals.  During the great selloff of 2017 which netted over a half dozen relief pitchers, we heard the phrase “live arm” ad nauseum to justify the return. 

While it was heartening to see the club move in the direction of improving depth, there were already a number of live arms in-house who now face stiffer competition as they seek to ascend to the show.  Tyler Bashlor indeed possesses that magical energy in his right arm and has produced some enviable strikeout totals.

As our own Mike Friere stated, at first glance Bashlor’s 2017 season (and his career, for that matter) might not jump out at you.  After all, he’s just 7-6 with a 3.42 ERA for his minor league career, notching a mere 16 saves over parts of three seasons.  However, when you get to the strikeout column, now you know why baseball personnel begin to drool.  He’s struck out 13 batters per 9 IP and that number is going UP each season.  Last year, for example, the 24 year old fanned a 15.7 per 9 for Port St. Lucie.  Wow!

Unfortunately, the issue facing a great many hard throwers who post gaudy strikeout totals is it sometimes comes at the expense of handing out free passes.  So too with Bashlor, walks have been a major concern, having allowed 5 per 9 IP over his minor league career.  It’s going to be a major challenge to the coaches in AA and AAA to try to get Bashlor to ease off a bit in order to harness his control lest he toil as Wild Thing II. 

He calls to mind the LeatherRocket – Jack Leathersich – who pitched similarly for the Mets in their minor league system before blowing out his arm.  He averaged 14.9 Ks per 9 IP while also walking 5.  Unfortunately he’s never been able to harness that control and has only spent 24 games in the majors which saw his strikeouts drop and his walks increase.  At age 27 this year his prospect window is closing rapidly.

Bashlor now joins Gershon Bautista, Jamie Callahan, Jacob Rhame, Drew Smith and others who hope to set up or close games for the Mets in the future.  Let’s also not forget the spectacular season logged by Adonis Uceta who delivered a stingy 1.26 ERA over 29 games for Columbia before being promoted.  With both Jeurys Familia and AJ Ramos slated to be free agents at year’s end this plethora of talented arms is reassuring.