There's a really good piece in The Athletic (subscription required) about New York Mets relief pitchers Colin Holderman and Stephen Nogosek using the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown to reinvent themselves as pitchers. It's paying off for the Mets this year, as both young men have contributed to the Mets bullpen this season.
Although both suffered hiccups in the Mets' awful series against the Padres, Holderman and Nogosek still possess decent stat lines. In 10 games, Holderman has a 3.18 ERA, 11.1 IP, 10 H, 14 K, 4 BB, and 0 HR. Nogosek has a 3.55 ERA in 7 games, 12.2 IP, 10 H, 8 K, 2 BB, and 2 HR. Developing talented arms into MLB relievers is something that I hope to see a lot more of from the Mets going forward. As I've discussed multiple times, it's an area where they didn't do very well under the previous owners.
Interestingly, neither pitcher was rated high enough to earn some hands-on work at the Mets' alternate site in Brooklyn during the pandemic season of 2020. The progress they made was in remote work with the Mets development staff.
Colin Holderman was a 9th-round pick by the Mets in 2016. Holderman had pitched a season for the Southern Illinois Salukis in 2015, appearing in 12 games, including 4 starts. He wasn't particularly effective there, with a 7.68 ERA in 38.2 IP. Holderman allowed 39 H, 21 BB, 16 K, and 3 HR. The Mets clearly weren't scouting the stat line when they drafted him.
Holderman wasn't a star in the Mets system. It didn't help that he missed the 2018 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. In 2019, Holderman pitched at 3 levels of A ball in St. Lucie, Columbia, and Brooklyn, making 15 starts and 1 relief appearance. He wasn't terrible, but he walked 29 batters in 66.1 IP, striking out 49. At 24 years old in 2020, Holderman looked more like an organizational pitcher than a future major leaguer.
Steven Nogosek was also a 2016 draft pick, a 6th-round pick of the Red Sox. He came to the Mets with Gerson Bautista and Jamie Callahan in return for reliever Addison Reed in July 2017. Bautista was subsequently included in the Robinson Canó deal with the Mariners, while Callahan was released by the Mets in 2018. Nogosek pitched well in AA and AAA for the Mets in 2019, even earning 7 appearances with the Mets that season. Still, as with Holderman, he wasn't regarded highly enough to get time at the alternate site in 2020.
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