MACK - Poche, Senga, Wenninger, Chain Position Analysis - Relief Pitching (1 OF 3) - other Mets news

 

Thomas Nestico                 @TJStats

Fangraphs Projected Standings

The Mets signed LHRP Colin Poche and assigned him to AAA-Syracuse.

31/years old    LHRP    6-3    225    14^th round 2014 Arizona – Dallas Baptist

2019-24 – Tampa Bay… 2023: 2.23-ERA, 66-apps

2025 – Washington… struggled with control. DFAd May 9, 2025

2025 -  -0.6-WAR, 1-2, 11.42

Career ERA – 3.94

Known for his deceptive fastball and effective slider

Fastball only averages 91.2

Mets hoping stint with Nats was an outlier

Fastball-slider combo. Slider out pitch

Out of options

Thomas Nestico                 @TJStats

Jack Wenninger (NYM) has been on a tear this season with a 34.7 K% and his changeup is a huge reason why.

Its site sits in the mid 80s and its late diving action and vertical separation from his fastball push it to plus-plus territory. It has over 50.0 Whiff% this season!

            Mack – No graph here… just good works from Thomas. All this was written before Wenninger pitched on Thursday. He then went out and pitched a lemon. Oh well.

 

Pitch Profiler                      @pitchprofiler

Kodai Senga was effectively wild today! 6 shutout innings with 5 walks and just 2 hits as he kept Arizona off balance with a six-pitch mix.

 

The ghost fork was the weapon once again—40% whiff rate and 111 proStuff+—helping him navigate traffic without giving up a run.

            Mack – So, this is what a wild Senga looks like… this was all forkball with a 40% whiff rate, no barrels, and high proStuff rating of 111. It also doesn’t hurt if the Mets bats produce. Mets coaches would have liked another inning out of Kodai, but a 2hit outing is a 2hit outing.

 

SNY Mets                             @SNY_Mets

Kodai Senga sits among the qualified league leaders in ERA

We move on to the pen.

I have never seen this many quality relief arms in all the 20 years I’ve been doing this. And this doesn’t even include many others with a current ERA under 3.00, or guys like Chandler Marsh that has dominated at one level, but is off to a bad beginning at the next one. No, this is exciting if you are a Mets fan, Very exciting, especially the current crew in Brooklyn. When was the last time you saw seven relievers dominating at that level?

I’m featuring 17 guys here and I’m breaking them down into two posts of four prospects each and the third at five

The first four are:

 

Hoss Brewer – A

24/years old   RHRP    6-4    205   

Brewer was an undrafted free agent in the 2024 draft, signed by the Mets, out of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.

Was primarily a starter in school and exclusively in 2024, where he started 15 games, going 5-5, 3.95, 1.37, 84.1-IP, 36-BB, 101-K. Great K/9 but horrible BB/9.I’m sure the Mets put a cot in the lab for this guy when he arrived to sleep in and work on control.

The results so far?

In 2024, he pitched in one relief appearance… 2-IP, 0-BB, 1-K

This season, again for St, Lucie, so far…       14.1-IP, 6-BB, 18-K , 0.63, 0.84

Last outing -  5/7  -  2-IP, 0-H, 0-R. 1-BB, 3-K

Being used this season as a closer. Has three saves so far.

Repertoire – undocumented

Was a workhorse in college as a starter, with decent control. Decent strikeout pitcher, but not elite. His age alone will probably push him to Brooklyn before others in the Lucy pen. Trust me. You easily could have signed worse undrafted free agents than Hoss.

 

Saul Garcia – A+

21/years old    RHRP    6-0    180    IFA signed by the Mets in June 2021

MLB Pipeline has him ranked as the 29^th Mets prospect

Converted to the pen (multi-inning) this season, similar to what has happed to Brewer,

Mets Director of Player Development, Andrew Christie, said that Garcia’s fastball/slider combo was “Major League average”. (Thanks loads Andrew)

Fastball now up to 96. Gets above barrels.

Low-80s sweeping slider.

Developing changeup.

Needs to improve his command this season, which has always been an issue for him.

2025 –

Through eight appearances…

     7.2-IP    1-0    0.00    1.30    16-K

The increase of his fastball this season (lab?) has really excited the evaluators on this team. Mets view him as promising, but raw. He must lower his BB/9 ratio to still be a future factor for this team. First cousin is Wilmer Flores.

 

Alfred Vega – A+

24/years old    RHRP    6-1    170    IFA 2017 NYY

Mets history –

    2024 – A+/A:   10-APPS, 0-1, 9.58, 1.65, 10.1-IP, 3-BB, 15-K

    2025 – A+/AAA:   5-APPS, 1-2, 2.45, 7.1-IP, 1-BB, 10-K

    2025 Brooklyn -   6-APPS, 1-2, 2.89, 0.86, 9.1-IP, 11-K

Last two outings

 - past Friday  -  2-IP, 2-H, 1-ER, 1-BB, 1-K

 - past Thursday -  2-IP, 2-H, 1-ER, 1-BB. 1-K

No specific information can be found on his repertoire.

Off the top of my head, Vega seems to be a low level International free agent that simply failed with the Yankees. He moved on to Baltimore for one season and then the Mets signed him as a free agent.

It sure looks like he has become a lab rat since becoming a Met.

 

Anthony Nunez – A+

23/years old    RHRP 

Drafted by San Diego in the 29^th round of the 2019 draft, out of Miami Zsprings HS (FL)

Began career as a positional player, primarily at third and first. Hit .222 at the rookie level in 2019 and .208 in 2021.

Went back to school after the 2020 COVID season at the University of Tampa. Transitioned to pitching there.

Signed a minor league contract with the Mets in 2024 ($125k salary)

2024 A/RK:     0-0, 2.70, 1.00, 9-APPS, 1-ST, 10-IP, 5-BB, 12-K

       Opponents only batted .029 against him

2025 A+:          10-APPS, 1-1, 0.63, 0.56, 14.1-IP, 24-K

Absolutely the find of the century so far this season. Projected as a back-end reliever. Probably will finish 2025 with Binghamton

ETA – All-star break 2026

Guardians prospect, pitching through cancer treatment

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6322079/2025/05/07/nic-enright-guardians-cancer-majors/

Every muggy morning was the same: Nic Enright trudged to a back field at the Miami Marlins’ complex in Jupiter, Fla., and tossed 40 pitches to Jose Iglesias, a late-spring signee who thwacked every fastball from the aspiring big-league pitcher.

At the end of each session in March 2023, Enright was drenched in sweat and demoralized. Every radar gun reading of a meager 88 mph had him question why he was pushing through the exhaustion.

“What am I doing?” he remembers thinking.

Enright had nothing more to give, thanks to debilitating rounds of cancer treatment. But he felt he had to give everything, to capitalize on a fleeting chance for a late-blooming reliever to reach the majors.

If he were a top prospect or a first-round pick with a hefty signing bonus, he could step away for a year or two to focus on his Hodgkin lymphoma. Or if he were in A-ball, a few leaps from the majors, perhaps the decision would be easier.

Instead, Miami had plucked him from Cleveland’s roster in the Rule 5 Draft, which placed him in the waiting room for the big leagues and teased a life-changing salary and chartered flights with ample leg room for his 6-foot-3 frame. He couldn’t abandon baseball now, even though his pitches lacked zip and it took months to fully recover from treatments.

A month earlier, a drained Enright lay awake in bed at his home in Rocky Mount, Va. His heart rate and skin temperature spiked as his body worked overtime to cope with a customary Thursday

treatment.

On those wretched Thursdays, he would rise at 6 a.m., commute two and a half hours to the University of Virginia Cancer Center, slump in a waiting room chair, donate a vial of blood — which almost always caused him to faint — and then endure a three-and-a-half-hour immunotherapy session. The first couple rounds left him covered in hives, so doctors attached ice pouches to his arms.

 

The future of the Mets offense is at Coney Island

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6340622/2025/05/08/mets-prospects-brooklyn-cyclones-2/

Brooklyn’s three-run second inning starts with a sharp single to center from cleanup man Jacob Reimer. Reimer, unlike anyone else in the Cyclones’ starting lineup, was supposed to start last year in Brooklyn and be up in the Eastern League or even beyond by now. But 2024 and 2025 already feel worlds apart.

“It was the hardest year of my life, by far,” the 21-year-old third baseman said of a 2024 season derailed by an early hamstring injury. “I was constantly reinjuring it during the rehab. Once I was back, it was really hard to get back to the mindset of being able to play and trusting my body fully without thinking, ‘Is my hamstring going to give out?’ This offseason of putting in the work and trusting that has let me go on the field and just play baseball.”

The results have been eye-opening. Last week, Reimer became the first Cyclone in two decades to hit three home runs in a game. He’s currently riding a 10-game hitting streak during which he’s batting better than .350. For the season, he’s hitting .333 with an OPS above 1.000. He has 18 extra-base hits in just over 100 at-bats.

In many ways, Reimer is Exhibit A for the Mets’ evolved approach to hitting development. A fourth-round pick out of high school in 2022, he was not the kind of can’t-miss prospect his teammate Carson Benge is. But he’s the type of talent that good organizations develop into a major-league contributor or important trade piece. And few players at this level have embraced New York’s hitting lab as enthusiastically as Reimer.

“I’ve learned just about everything you can about my swing so far,” he said. “If you go back and look at side angles of my swing from last year to now, you’d laugh. It didn’t look too much like a pro swing.”

What’s changed?

“I learned about my posture,” he said. “I was facing toward left field, too much opened up last year. Something as simple as that, no one’s thinking about it. The hitting lab showed that. I closed off a little more, everything cleaned up, I worked on some drills the lab gave me in the offseason, and now I’m rotating faster and am more efficient.”

Reimer is the exception to that dynamic Albert mentioned earlier. This is his fourth year in the organization, so he’s better positioned to understand and appreciate the Mets’ changes to their minor-league infrastructure.

“Our hitting director, coordinators and coaches are all top-notch now. I trust every one of the hitting guys at any level,” Reimer said. “It’s realizing that they’re not trying to mess with you as much as they’re there when you need them. They like you to do you. It’s not just one core belief. They have a set of beliefs, obviously, but they want you to find your own special way to do that, and I love that. That’s baseball.”

MLB Power Rankings

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6334426/2025/05/06/mlb-power-rankings-tigers-mets/

2. New York Mets (2.0)

Record: 23-13

Last Power Ranking: 1 

Most impactful in-season move: Optioning Brett Baty to Triple A

Baty wasn’t off to a great start — 65 wRC+ but still a positive fWAR — but his demotion was more significant for what it meant for Luisangel Acuña, who went from splitting time at second base to taking over the position as a true everyday player. He has the fourth-highest WAR in the lineup behind only Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto. The Mets have overperformed expectations, in part, by taking uncertainty and making it stable. That’s most obvious in the rotation, where opening the season with Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas on the IL has opened the door to Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning helping to form one of the best rotations in baseball.

LuisAngel Acuna

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6336179/2025/05/06/mets-luisangel-acuna-prospects/

Question - Do you think Acuña will be the second baseman for the rest of the season? — Jbeningo1

Tim Britton: No, I don’t. That’s the short answer.

The longer answer is that Carlos Mendoza and the Mets already have a blueprint for how this could work as a time-share from last season, when Jeff McNeil and José Iglesias split time at the keystone. McNeil and Iglesias shared second over a 69-game stretch last season. It started in mid-June, by which point Iglesias had shown he was off to an excellent start offensively. And it continued until McNeil’s regular-season-ending injury in early September.

In that stretch, McNeil made 36 starts to Iglesias’ 33 at second base. Their versatility, though, permitted them to be in the lineup elsewhere: McNeil made 17 outfield starts and Iglesias 10 at third base.

We’re already seeing this play out now with McNeil and Acuña. In 11 games since McNeil’s return, Acuña has made seven starts and McNeil four at second base. Acuña has also played third once, and McNeil the outfield four times. The injury to Jesse Winker does suggest more outfield time for McNeil is coming, but I don’t think Acuña will be the everyday second baseman that entire time.

 

Brandon Sproat

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6336179/2025/05/06/mets-luisangel-acuna-prospects/

Why hasn’t Brandon Sproat gotten any of the depth starter spot starts? — Sam G.

Will Sammon: There are a few reasons. The pitchers chosen ahead of him outperformed him. The opening in the rotation didn’t correspond well with his next start date. And he’s been inconsistent. While Sproat has dominated previous levels, he has struggled in Triple A at times. He has a 5.48 ERA (23 innings). Unlike Blade Tidwell, who also had a high ERA but strong walk and strikeout rates, Sproat has 12 walks and 17 strikeouts. The stuff remains exciting. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Sproat switch up his usage and lean more on his secondary pitches.

Jim Koenigsberger             @Jimfrombaseball

"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?"

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