Reese Kaplan -- Throwing Over 100 MPH But Erratically

Word came down to Mets fans that the big minor league pitcher by the name of Bryce Montes de Oca was coming to New York to replace injured-once-again injured reliever Trevor May.  The loss of May was a bit of a mystery as the club did not announce the cause.  Pattern-wise that has previously meant a COVID situation, but right now it's a matter of guessing.  May had been finally putting together three straight good games prior to this second trip off the active roster.  

Montes de Oca made his major league debut on Saturday night during the embarrassing victory with the horrific 9th inning by the Washington Nationals, but it was a scoreless debut for the 6'7" righthander despite giving up both a walk and a hit before squirming out of his 2/3 of an inning in the majors for the very first time.

Our own Tom Brennan has been a Montes de Oca one-man cheering squad as he has been a strikeout machine when not walking home the park.  He has recently done just that as he moved up from Binghamton to Syracuse.  In 30 Syracuse innings, he racked up 48 strikeouts which followed 17.1 Binghamton innings in which he fanned 24.  

His arm is as Buck Showalter called it "live" and they hope he can deliver at this level.  Bryce has been on the big league pitching radar as he was previously drafted by the White Sox and Nationals before finally inking his professional deal with the Mets.  

Now on the down side, Montes de Oca has always struggled with his control.  In 2021 he was primarily with Brooklyn with a brief glimpse of Binghamton, pitching 34 innings but walking 27.  Those kind of numbers would not bode well for his major league future if they continued.  

Who here remembers Jack Leathersich and his insane strikeout numbers before hitting the majors?  Just getting people to swing and miss alone isn't enough to guaranteed health and success as you move up the ladder.   

Come 2022 he started off the year in Binghamton and moved up to Syracuse before his recent promotion.  For this minor league season he's pitched an aggregate of 47.1 innings but given up 35 free passes.  

No matter how good you are at striking out batters facing you, it's difficult to maintain a competitive edge when you constantly dig yourself into a hole.  His WHIP approaches 1.50 and his ERA for his professional career has been a very hard earned 3.98.

The issue for the now 26 year old Montes de Oca is still learning how to harness his strikeout ability while making it difficult for hitters to get around and drive the ball against him.  Again, poring over the numbers you can see he's limited batters to just 55 hits over 89.1 innings pitched while fanning 119, but the 62 walks are his Achilles heel.  You really can't maintain a strikeout to walk ratio of less than 2:1 and succeed.  

Maybe Jeremy Hefner and his bullpen coaches can get him to cut down on his all-or-nothing approach to pitching which might reduce the number of hitters he fans in exchange for learning how better to master his control.  He's not alone in being a fireballer who isn't sure where his pitch is headed.  

One of the reasons the Mets made their ill-fated trade of Nolan Ryan was a similar struggle to start off his career.  No one realistically expects Montes de Oca to be the second coming of a Hall of Famer, but it's always exciting to see this kind of work-in-progress as he continues his development.