Alex Rubinson - World Baseball Classic Standout is Electric News for Mets Bullpen

The World Baseball Classic took the sports world by storm over the last couple of weeks. The drama and attention reached new heights with baseball gaining tons of momentum heading into the 2026 season next week. Fans of all 30 clubs tuned in to watch Venezuela take down the United States with just about every team being represented among the 20 teams in the tournament. As we flip the switch to the MLB season, the same questions persist for every organization: will they have enough pitching? Although that might start in the rotation, it trickles down to the relief corps. The New York Mets completely overhauled its bullpen, signing Luke Weaver and Devin Williams to anchor its backend, as Edwin Diaz joined the defending back-to-back World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Despite the last couple of innings looking a lot different for the team from Queens, one of the key contributors will be a returning member. 

Last season, Huascar Brazobán pitched to a very solid 3.57 ERA across 63 innings. He showed he had a lively arm, as his fastball velocity averaged nearly 96.5 MPH. According to Baseball Savant, that was good to be in the 84th percentile in fastball run value. What was strange about Brazobán ’s sequencing last season is that he threw his changeup 38% of the time, the most of any single pitch. Granted, the other 62% was his hard stuff, but his offspeed value was in the 12th percentile and was a negative four run value. Despite his poor offspeed output, the right-hander finished the year in the 90th percentile with a hard hit rate under 35%. He also finished in the 87th percentile in ground ball rate. This lines up with how he only surrendered six long balls over the course of the year. Although he certainly was not a household name across the MLB landscape and maybe even took a backseat in the minds of Met fans, he has shown the world the talent he possesses in his right arm. 

The 36-year-old may have only tossed four innings in the World Baseball Classic, but he looked about as dominant as one could have in that short stint. Of the 12 outs recorded, seven came via the strikeout. More encouragingly, he only issued one walk and did not surrender a single hit. The Dominican reliever made his presence felt in the Dominican Republic’s epic battle against the United States. After forcing a red-hot Gunnar Henderson to ground out, Brazoman mowed down all three hitters he faced in the sixth frame. He struck out Will Smith swinging before freezing Roman Anthony, who had homered earlier in the contest. Brazobán finished his outing by making quick work of Brice Turang, who struck out swinging on three pitches. Turang whiffed on two of the three strikes, yet both of those pitches were in the zone. When one can make MLB All Star caliber players swing and miss on pitches in the zone, one knows they have nasty stuff. 

The four innings of work is definitely something that should excite Mets fans, but there is reason to pump the breaks as well. This past offseason, Brazobán played in the Dominican Winter League. He did struggle with giving up free passes, as he recorded a walks-per-nine of over five. He put up a strikeout-to-walk ratio of just 1.25. Walking that many hitters is a non-negotiable and will get one sent down to the minor leagues. Of course, that was only over the course of seven frames, so like the WBC, a lot of it can be attributed to small sample size. 

Brazobán has the potential to be a rock solid option in the back of Carlos of Mendoza’s bullpen. Although Brazobán’s walk rate per nine innings usually doesn’t come anywhere close to what he averaged in the Dominican Winter League, he was in the 17th percentile with a walk rate of over 10 percent. He also just finished in the 38th percentile in whiff rate and 44th percentile in strikeout rate. Maybe Brazobán was pumped up on adrenaline when he toed the rubber at LoanDepot Park, but those numbers do not back up the eye test when he took the mound in Miami. Given how well Brazobán pitched to contact last year, he can take his game to new heights if he manages to punch out more hitters. 

For a lot of relievers, it is the strikeouts that come naturally but struggle to pitch to contact. In 2025, the opposite was true for the Mets relief pitcher. It will be fascinating to look at his pitch usage in the early months of the season to see if he peels back on his changeup more and focuses more on the higher velocity pitches. He has a four-seam fastball, cutter and sinker, so it’s not like he only has one type of fastball. 

By leaning even more heavily on his harder pitch mix, that can also help out his changeup and make it so it resembles more of a league average pitch. If his offspeed value can creep up to league average to go with fastball run of value of nine, he could see a massive jump in the traditional statistics. 

It remains to be seen what Brazobán’s role will be throughout the 2026 season. Weaver and Williams will be patrolling the end of games while Brooks Raley figures to be the lefty specialist. With the Mets getting ready to square against the Pittsburgh Pirates a week from today, the roles in the bullpen are still in flux. 

It’s crazy to say based on how Brazobán looked on the national stage on Sunday, but if he can prove that his strikeouts are not just a flash in the pan, he can be turned into a real weapon for his organization and be used in a multitude of ways. He just needs to cut down on his free passes, and if he does that, we still may have not seen the best from the 36-year-old Dominican hurler.