SAVAGE VIEWS – Any Relief in Sight

April 1, 2021

This is meant to be a follow up to my previous two posts projecting hitters and pitchers for the 2021 season.

Well here it is April fool’s day and we are on the cusp of the long-awaited baseball season.  As a Mets fan, it’s uncommon to have such a giddy feeling.  We may have the best offensive lineup in our 60 years of existence.  Our starting pitching looks strong especially with Carrasco and Syndergaard scheduled to return by June 1^st.  

However, I am less than enthusiastic about the caliber of our eight relievers.  Given the fragility of the starting five or six and following a short season, I expect that most of our starters do not routinely make it into the seventh inning.  That means our relievers will need to eat around 500 or more innings this year.

Obviously, the main man is Edwin Diaz.  I’m not terribly concerned about his outing against the Marlins on Sunday.  Clearly, Diaz can and will be dominant most of the time.  I’m not convinced that we will be getting the 2018 version.  I think there will be too many times when he implodes over the course of the season.

Trevor May as the first free-agent signing under the new regime brings with him high expectations.  He’s a power arm that will strike out a bunch but will give up runs at the most inappropriate time.  Until Lugo returns we can only hope that May can adequately fill the role as primary setup.

Aaron Loop starts of the year as the only lefty in the pen.  The expectation is that he can neutralize the Harpers and Freemans in the NL East.  He appears to be a solid option to fulfill that role.

Jeurys Familia has been around for a long time and is probably the guy Mets fans love to hate.  The reality is that he has terrific stuff that he sometimes has trouble harnessing.  He will walk too many but will find a way to get out of trouble.  I’m glad he’s on my team.  Reminds me a bit of Doug Sisk who had a tendency of walking the park only to induce a DP grounder to get out of the inning.

Miguel Castro is another power arm with lots of potential.  I don’t have lot of high expectations for Castro but he could prove me wrong.

Jacob Barnes could turn out to be the sleeper.  The early results in spring training are encouraging.  Hopefully, he continues his newly found success into the regular season.

Dellin Bettances has suddenly morphed from a power arm to relying on guile.  I’d be surprised if he is still on the team once the trio of pitchers on the DL return.

Robert Gsellman is truly the 13^th man on the staff.  He should be the first to go when Lug0 returns.  I’m surprised he made the cut.

As you can see I am not optimistic that our current roster of 8 relievers will get us to the 93 wins I projected.  On the other hand I think nearly every team faces the same dilemma of not having enough adequate relief pitching.  The old mantra of “let’s get into the second line of pitching” will continue to hold.

 

Ray