Paul Articulates – We need some relief

The Mets have continued to show some mettle, as they battled the red-hot Astros in a three game series with two very close games.  Unfortunately, they also showed their greatest weakness, which cost them the chance to take the series.  Of course I am talking about the bullpen.

The Mets have had some success this year with their bullpen, but recently it has been much harder to find bright spots.  The loss of Brooks Raley to season-ending injury earlier this year hurt.  Certainly the lack of a great closer in all but a few games has been most painful.  The recent news that Drew Smith was gone to surgery as well was another gut punch to the pen.  

I still believe that the biggest issue has been the inability of the starters to go deep into games.  Tylor Megill’s 5.1 inning start on Saturday followed an inexcusable 93 pitch four inning start by Jose Quintana.  Those two starts forced another overuse of the bullpen and left Carlos Mendoza with very few cards in his hand as the Mets’ Sunday comeback pushed the game into extra innings.  So in the 11th inning of a winnable game, Mendoza had to turn to a first time Major Leaguer to hold down a very hot Houston team.

Matt Festa was a reasonable call-up when the Mets needed bullpen help.  He had pitched to a 0.91 WHIP with a .204 average against in 11 games at the AAA level.  This is the kind of guy you want to use in the 7th inning of a not-so-close game to see how his stuff translates at the next level.  

Instead, he was thrust into a role where he had to open the inning with a man on second and needed a shut-down inning.  Festa pitched reasonably well, getting several two strike counts, but just didn’t have a put-away pitch so the major league hitters on the Astros treated him to an unfriendly welcome party by scoring five runs.

The Mets’ pen is not totally bad – though they are worn out.  Adrian Houser was a pleasant surprise when his duty moved from back end starter to bull pen long man.  Raley, Smith, and Sean Reid-Foley all performed pretty well when they were fully healthy.  

Dedniel Nunez and Danny Young have produced some good innings and even Jorge Lopez looked good early in the season before he lost his glove as well as his job.  But how many times can you go to the well to find more arms to replace injured, suspended, or just plain tired pitchers?  

The Mets just need relief, and they are going to have to look for it in the mid-season trades.  Whether we wanted it or not, the Mets will not be sellers at the deadline.  Accepting that, the front office has to turn their attention to who might be available and how much it will cost.  That is not an easy target, because most teams in contention are always looking to strengthen their pen for the stretch run.  

There certainly will not be a Josh Hader out there to acquire, so the target will more likely be someone in middle relief that can take the pressure off Nunez, Ottavino, Diekman, Garrett, and eventually Diaz.

I still wonder why that middle relief has not come in the form of a Tylor Megill or David Peterson, who like Houser have not turned in many quality starts this year, but are still capable of getting outs against MLB teams.  Kodai Senga has still not returned, but there are guys like Jose Butto, Christian Scott, and maybe even Joey Lucchesi that can offer starts if Megill and/or Peterson gets moved to the pen.  

It has not happened yet, so I believe there must be some tangible reason that the Mets are reluctant to make that move.   Maybe it has to do with the fact that some of the front line pitching prospects like Mike Vasil, Dom Hamel, and Blade Tidwell have not progressed as fast in AAA as expected.

That is why, especially at this time of year that we look to the trade market.  It is just a difficult time to do so with so many teams competing for so many wild card spots and very few teams going into full sell mode.  

It will be very interesting to see how the month of July plays out.  What kind of internal moves are going to be made before the deadline, and what will the fall-out be after the deadline?  

The results will become a telling sign on the effectiveness of all the moves made in the front office and player development areas in recent years.  This is when they earn their keep.