Mets360 - Tyler Bashlor and Mets relievers with 50 or more IP the last decade

Tyler Bashlor and Mets relievers with 50 or more IP the last decade

by Brian Joura

Last season the Mets used 30 different pitchers, with 21 of those not making a single start. In 2009, those numbers were 24 and 13, respectively. Over the last decade, the trend has been towards more pitchers in general and specifically more relievers. On top of there being more relievers, we’ve also seen more innings from the bullpen here recently. In 2009, Mets’ relievers combined for 501.2 IP. In 2018, the club’s relievers tallied 546.1 IP. That number fell in 2019 to 519.2 IP but was still above the 2009 total.

So, it was a bit surprising to me to find out that over the last decade, the Mets had “only” 30 relievers deliver a combined 50 innings. After all, the Mets had four relievers to top that total in 2019, alone. Sure, maybe you cycle through guys and they can’t do it in one season but we keep seeing a lot of the same guys in multiple years and it’s not that hard to get to 50 IP if you’re on the team for parts of three seasons. In his first three years with the Mets, Josh Edgin never came close to 50 IP in a single season. But he combined for 81.2 IP from 2012-2014. My expectation is that we would have had a bunch more guys like that, pushing our total of relievers with 50 IP the past decade to well over 50.

Still, 30 is a good total. In fact, it’s an ideal total, since that’s exactly how many people are listed on a standard leaderboard page over at FanGraphs. No toggling between multiple pages to see results here! Generally, I’m not a fan of using fWAR for relief pitchers but since that’s the default on these leaderboards, let’s note that the top Mets reliever in the past decade was Jeurys Familia, who amassed a 5.5 fWAR in 377.1 It’s hard to remember now but Familia actually made one start for the Mets back in 2012. That four-inning outing is not included, nor are starts for any other relievers mentioned here.

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