Paul Articulates – The specialty lefties have left

There was a day when the left-handed reliever who was very effective against a left-handed batter was a prized member of the bullpen.  Remember when Jerry Blevins would come in to confound Bryce Harper with his sweeping slider and then leave after one batter? Or how about Pedro Feliciano’s run from 2008-2010?  It was so much fun to watch, but I believe that this tactic has become obsolete with the three-batter rule.

Until the end of the 2019, MLB rules 5.10(f) and 5.10(g) allowed a relief pitcher to pitch to only one batter.  Beginning with the 2020 season, MLB modified the rule to require relief pitchers to pitch to a minimum of three batters in an attempt to limit the number of pitching changes and reduce the length of games.  Of course, both versions of the rule allowed exceptions for injuries and illnesses.

Today’s managers are wise to construct lineups that have a mix of right and left handed batters to force opposing pitchers to face some batters from either side of the plate and turn the advantage back to the offense.  With this tactic and the 2020 rule change, a lefty reliever that has great splits against lefties but poor splits against righties is no longer as valuable.

As I think back to all of the comments heading into the trade deadline where people (like me) were advocating for Billy Eppler to “go get a lefty reliever” as a top priority, I realize that it was a much more difficult search.  Lefty relievers provide balance to a bullpen, but unless they have good splits against righties, they have limited usefulness.  I suspect that was the case back in July when the Mets non-tendered Chasen Shreve who suddenly couldn’t get lefties out either.

Currently the only lefty reliever in the bullpen (excluding part time starter, part time reliever David Peterson) is Joely Rodriguez.  Joely can be very effective against righties when his change-up is working as witnessed during the series against Atlanta at Citi Field when he threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Jacob deGrom.  He has the lowest batting average against (.183) against left handed batters of all Mets relievers except Diaz.  Rodriguez has a .262 average against facing right handed batters, which is middle of the pack.  

Given the recent events where the Mets lost starting pitchers to injury, it looks like the most effective bullpen balances enough short relief to cover consecutive save situations with enough long relief to get through injuries and spot starts.  Guys like David Peterson, Trevor Williams, and Stephen Nogosek were recently shouldering that load, but we are hopeful to soon get Tylor Megill back.