Mets360 - Drew Smith, Jacob Rhame and the 2017 deadline deal righty relievers

Drew Smith, Jacob Rhame and the 2017 deadline deal righty relievers

by Brian Joura

A lot of times it feels like the Mets are trying to catch up to the rest of the league. At one point the trend in the game was to have power arms available in the bullpen to blow hitters away in the late innings. While other teams were loading up their pen with guys who could throw 97 mph, the Mets would trot out guys like Dana Eveland and Carlos Torres. Solid relievers, no doubt, but guys whose velocity was at least five mph slower.

Then when the club was waylaid by injuries in 2017, then GM Sandy Alderson traded off whatever assets he could, looking primarily to cut salary but also looking to stockpile righty relievers in the minors who could throw gas. Seemed like he picked up half a dozen of them and to date none of them have provided any elite innings in the majors for the Mets. 

Here’s a list of the guys acquired back then and what they’ve done for the club since:

Gerson Bautista – Acquired from the Red Sox in the Addison Reed deal, Bautista was the hardest thrower of the bunch. But his ability to throw 100 mph came with two other things which hurt his development. One, he had serious command/control issues which made his stuff play down, way down. And the other was that because of his potential, he was added to the 40-man before he was ready. He was already on the 40-man when the Mets acquired him. Decisions were made on his MLB usage because of his 40-man status, not his performance in the minors. He allowed 6 ER in 4.1 IP for the Mets in 2018 before he was included in the disastrous Robinson Cano following the season. He didn’t pitch well for Seattle, either, and also missed a good chunk of the year injured.

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