PIITB By JD- Pitcher Grades for the 2023 Season
We covered the Mets Offensive players a couple of weeks ago and graded their performances. Here are the pitchers…
Kodai Senga: Let's start with a fun one. Senga blew everyone away in his rookie season. He started out walking a lot of batters but improved as the season went on. A 2.98 era, over 200ks, and 166IP are numbers I would sign up for every year. I would like for him to adjust closer to a 5 man rotation schedule, but Senga was fantastic. Final grade: A
Tylor Megill: Tylor had an up and down season for the Mets. He started 25 games this year and pitched to a 4.70 era. He could not pitch past the 5th inning very often and as a result only threw 126 innings. Final Grade: C-
David Peterson: David Peterson was not very good this year. He struggled to a 5.03 era over 111 innings. He got 21 opportunities to start and could not get himself in a groove. His command faltered and home run rate was high. Final Grade: D+
Max Scherzer*- Max obviously did not finish the year with the Mets, but I wanted to grade the first half. He pitched to a 4 era and could not beat a good team. Max struggled for the most part and was not Max Scherzer, but his leadership was a big pro. Final Grade: C
Justin Verlander*: Verlander did not finish the year with the Mets either, but he deserves a grade. Verlander was mostly very good for the Mets this year. He missed a month to start the year so he took a bit to get going, but did not disappoint. He pitched to a 3.15 era in 16 starts. Final Grade: B+
Carlos Carrasco: Carrasco was not a serviceable starter this year. He made 20 starts in just 90 innings and pitched to a 6.80 era. The Mets ended up letting him go late in the season. I wish him all the best. Final Grade: F
Jose Quintana: Quintana was hurt for the first half of the season. He only made 13 starts, but was a solid arm in those appearances. He pitched to a 3.57 era over 75 innings. Hopefully, he is healthy next season. Final grade: B
Adam Ottavino: Otto was solid for the Mets this year. He was not clutch in high leverage, but he got outs in low leverage innings. He pitched to a 3.21 era in 66 appearances. Final Grade: B-
Drew Smith: Man did I want Drew Smtih to succeed. I have always been a big Drew Smith support but Drew did not pitch well this year. A 4.15 era in 63 appearances is not enough. He struggled with command of all his pitches over the season. Final Grade: C-
Brooks Raley: Brooks had a good year for the Mets. He pitched to a 2.80 era in 66 appearances. He was not used as much in high leverage as he could have been. I believe Brooks was mismanaged a lot this year. Final grade: B+
Joey Lucchesi: Lucchesi did not pitch much this year while he was rehabbing from TJ surgery. He got 9 starts and had a 2.59 era. I hope he gets more chances as the 6-7 starer next year. He was good when called upon. Final Grade: A-
David Robertson: Robertson was traded as well, but man was he good. He replaced Diaz and passed with flying colors. A 2.05 era in 40 appearances. Enough said. Final Grade: A
Jose Butto: Butto looked much better this year than he has in past call ups. A 3.65 era in 7 starts is solid and he will look to get a shot in spring training. Final Grade: B
Jeff Brigham: Jeff started out hot this year and looked promising, but that did not last long. A 5.26 era in 37 outings is not going to cut it. Final Grade: D
Grant Hartwig: Hartwig had an up-and-down year. He was elite at times and earned some high-leverage innings. Most of his innings were lower leverage and he struggled. Overall, not great. A 4.84 era in 28 appearances is not enough. Final Grade: D
Dominic Leone: Billy Eppler somehow got something decent for Leone. He pitched to a 4.40 era in 35 innings. Thank you Billy for getting prospects for him. Final Grade: D
Trevor Gott: Gott pitched 29 innings for the Mets this year and had a 4.34 era. It feels like all these relievers have 4+ eras. Gott was not what the Mets expected. Final Grade: D
Stephen Nogosek: Nogosek's numbers were worse than how he pitched. He was forced into high-leverage spots out of necessity and he was not ready for his. He had a 5.61 era over 25 innings. Final Grade: D+
Phil Bickford: Bickford got himself a save this year. A 4.62 era is not good, but he gave the Mets 25 innings.
Tommy Hunter: Tommy Hunter was a clubhouse favorite as always and fun to watch pitch. He did not pitch well with a 6.85 era but he was cool. Final Grade: D
The remaining pitchers you may remember (John Curtis, Denyi Reyes, Dennis Santana etc.) did not exceed 20 innings. Let me know what you think of the grades below!
7 comments:
Morning.
I feel that Verlander and Quintana were graded too high because of time lost. Had both not been hurt, especially Quintana missing more than half the season, most likely we're in the playoffs.
I think some Ds for relievers were a little too harsh, even though they did not pitch like guys you'd want on a contending team. I still think Drew Smith, warts and all, was slightly better than a C-1 in 2023.
We simply need much better relievers. Some of these guys belonged in Oakland. Or Syracuse, where most of the lower end guys spent part of their season.
Of course, Absent Edwin gets an F- after his A+ the prior year. May he return to A+ in 2024.
Fair grades
It will be interesting to see who is added this off season here and where Butto and Lucchese fit in
BP ideas,forget Triple A guys with options,forget stashing #6,7,8 starters in Syracuse,use them in the BP.
Good article and pretty much spot on with the grades. While bottom line is that this is a results-oriented business, I also think the bullpen was a victim of four things:
(1) Poor make-up - who were the true long-guys? - the Trevor Williams types that could throw three or four innings at a time
(2) Poor starting pitching - for a starting rotation as expensive as the Mets, they have to average 6+ innings per start. Too many times the starters could not get out of the 4th or 5th inning, or in the case of Carrasco, the game was seemingly lost in the first.
(3) Misuse - this kinda goes back to #1 above, but it seems like every time a starter went 4 innings, it would take at least 5 more pitchers to get through the other 5 innings. I don't have the facts, but it seems to me like they were yanked around a bit.
(4) Poor offense - it must be disillusioning to pitch in a games when there doesn't seem to be any way that the offense is going to be able to claw back into it. Or that the offense can't make up for small blips.
Bottom line is this can't be what we would expect for the highest payroll in Baseball. The Met road is littered with terrible FO decisions its like Yogi once said: if you come to the fork in the road take! wait what! you get what I mean our FO has seemed like it has no idea and it's winging it that has to stop Steve. How about good old Tommy Pham as player/manager?
It’s mind boggling how the Mets couldn’t use their best arms in the pen but rather went with lesser options in order to keep starting pitchers stretched out. And then, the usage… don’t get me started. What the hell sport had I been following for almost 50 years and all of a sudden guys can’t pitch in back to back days? Man Fred wants to limit pitchers on rosters to 12. Go Rob!!
I really, really, really like this comment…
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