Steve Cohen left his checkbook lying around, with a note saying you (yes, you) can use it to build your ultimate bullpen for 2022.
You're Billy Eppler's newly appointed bullpen builder. He asks just one thing from you: make it the best.
What does your 2022 Mets pen shape up to be?
12 comments:
Unfortunately, two free agent names that I would have liked to add, Kendall Graveman and Kirby Yates, have come off the board, along with Aaron Loup.
I suppose Andrew Chafin would be a good fall-back, although it doesn't excite me much.
This one is hard.
The usual suspects will be back.
I hope to see Drew Smith dominate here.
I'm sure our new GM call pull at least one new rabbit out of his hat
And maybe if the rotation is healthy. We could see guys like Carrasco, Oller, or Yamamoto here.
I would like to get Josh Hader myself. I am not sure what it would take to pry him loose. If the Mets had signed Rocker, they could have traded him.
With him and Edwin, we'd have the Yankees' version of Chapman and Miller from a few years back - and if one got hurt, we'd still have an elite closer.
Loup - a guy hits the jackpot and wants to go where he wants to go - I just wonder if we could have done more to keep him.
I'm almost sad we had him last year, for 2 reasons: 1) if we didn't have him, we wouldn't miss him 2) without him, the Mets would have stunk worse, resulting in a better draft pick.
Finding a second closer is not a bad idea at all. Edwin Diaz is approaching the big money years and his up and down performance makes me wonder if he is the solution long term or if they should parlay him into filling other needs. If you got a legit closer like Kenley Jansen then you not only have insurance but open up interesting trades featuring Diaz. I'd also look about some quality also-ran arms to back up the closer like Alex Colome.
Here comes the best:
Kenley Jansen
Edwin Diaz
Seth Lugo
Miguel Castro
Tylor Megill - Righty Long Man
David Peterson - Lefty Long Man
Drew Smith
Trevor May
Andrew Chafin
Before anyone wants the long men in the minors,
Your AAA starters are Oller, Williams, Butto, Reid-Foley, Yamamoto, Walker, plus plus
Gus, I wonder if a few AA arms could mount the triple A pitching mound:
Andrew Mitchell, Connor Grey, and Cole Gordon, to name three.
Maybe Ginn astounds all of us and rockets thru AA and AAA in 2022 like Megill did in 2021, too.
You also left out the Szaper - Tom Szapucki.
I DO LIKE JANSEN.
Is Brad Hand in anyone's mix for Mets' bullpen for 2022?
Looks good to me.
The grass is NOT greener on the west coast. I don't want Jansen - he is Armando Benitez in a different uniform. Big, imposing, hard-throwing closer that has had a lot of mileage on that arm over the last 3 years. Now with a little less velocity and a little less movement, hitters are starting to catch up to him. Ask the LA fans.
Hader is another guy that has been someone's star for a long time - but has been overused because of that ability, so if you take him now you will wonder what happened and blame Hefner.
I liked the bullpen we had last year until it got overused because Rojas couldn't bring himself to leave a starter in for more than 5 innings.
We need a crafty lefty to replace Loup and a long man in the Corey Oswalt genre to shore things up - this will come from the ranks of the AAA starters. Lugo will replace Diaz as closer by mid-2022 and Drew Smith will take on Lugo's role.
Paul, good points. But the pen ERA overall was I think 9th in baseball. I'd like to push that down into the top 5 if possible.
Good topic and good comments. I was with Paul's most of the way until I got to the "Lugo will replace Diaz as closer by mid-2022".
So because of injury, or because Diaz will forget how to pitch?
My call on the bullpen is that Lugo's best days are behind him. He scared me this past year with some of his blow-ups.
I do like Drew Smith and see him as a key cog in that wheel.
I would bring back Brad Hand on a team-friendly contract. I don't know what his market might be out there, but while he had a down year in 2021, he has been an established reliever in the past and he is still only 31.
The lefty cupboard is pretty bare, both in house and on the free agent market. One guy that pitched decently in New York and then quite well in Pittsburgh is Chasen Shreve. Worth a flyer for a reunion there.
And just to rile up the rest of you a bit, I would not have any issue brining back Jeurys Familia on a year to year basis. He actually threw pretty well in 2021.
The key to this and any bullpen, is to not wear them out, but use them as much as they need to be used by having a manager and pitching coach manage them well.
The second key is to stretch the starters out. It is a killer for starters to be throwing 4 2/3 innings back to back.
Also, I'd really like to see at least two, maybe three guys that can go 3 or 4 innings a couple times a week - every third day to really mop up some innings. I got so frustrated by starters making it maybe 5 innings and then taking at least 4 pitchers to finish the game.
BTW. my (funny) money is on Diaz to get better and better in a NY uniform.
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