The Mets will have an assortment of left handed relievers in camp to compete for the second lefty reliever spot. However, all of them signed minor league deals and none are guaranteed to make the team.
At a recent press conference, Minaya said he would still focus on the bullpen, specifically a left-handed reliever.
He may have found that player in former Braves reliever, Will Ohman.
Team sources have confirmed that Minaya contacted Ohman’s agent on Wednesday to discuss a potential contract. ESPN first broke the story on Thursday.
Ohman, 31, was 4-1 with a 3.68 ERA in 58 innings with the Braves last season after spending his first five seasons with the Cubs. He owns a 4.16 career ERA.
Yesterday I wrote that the Mets needed to add one last left handed reliever to complete what could be one of the most formidable bullpens in the league. I believe that Ohman would be a huge addition if Minaya can seal the deal with him.
2009 Bullpen
Closer – Rodriguez
Setup – Putz
7th Inning – Sanchez
RH Relievers - Stokes, Green
LH Relievers - Feliciano, Ohman*
That bullpen looks lethal.
*Mets Merized Online Needs Your Help*
And what about Redding? If Garcia makes the rotation, as I hope he does, then Redding strengthens the pen as the Mets’ long man, a role I believe he would thrive in. I think that role is far more important than a second lefty that’s only needed every now and again. I think they are better off with one of those lefties that’s a capable major league reliever, but can stay in the minors until called upon. Otherwise, a guy like Ohman just takes up a spot better used for someone else. Part of the Mets’ problem the past few years is that they’ve had too many specialists and not enough crossover guys. As I see it, Freddy Garcia makes the rotation, and if he can stay healthy and show durability, ie, make his starts and go more than 5 innings a start, then he can be one of the best #5s in the league, and could actually win 12 games… “if”. Therefore, the bullpen is such:
9th- K-Rod
8th- Putz
7th- Sanchez (hope he’s back- he could be the key to this whole team, one of them anyway)
MR- Stokes, Green
LOOGY- Feliciano
LM- Redding
I’d sure love Juan Cruz though, but that just ain’t happening. But if we do have a chance at making the playoffs down the stretch run, hopefully our other lefty just happens to be a top 10 closer… like others, I’m also salivating over the prospect of a Wagner to Putz to K-Rod endgame. And that’s all the more reason not to get a lefty specialist.
The long man position on the 12 man pitching staff does not exist. Look at the box scores this season. Very seldom does a reliever go over 2 innings. With 7 men in the bullpen why would a manager let a marginal pitcher pitch a second time to a lineup.
I recently did an overview of the Mets relievers and bullpen here…
http://the1constant.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/02/mets_news_state_of_the_organiz_1.html
I hope Freddy Garcia wins the 5th starter’s job and Tim Redding becomes the long-man/swingman. There are still plenty of times you can use a pitcher for at least 2 innings for example when John Maine and Oliver Perez are nearing 100 pitches in the 4th or early 5th inning or a blow out for either side. A pitcher like Redding can take some of the workload off of the rest of the pen as you cannot pitch the same guys day in and day out or the bullpen could resemble 2008’s version at some point due to being overworked.
Outside of Johan Santana none of the other starters are guaranteed to go deep into games. While Mike Pelfrey made big strides last year no one knows how he will react to the workload and at this point he is still maturing, developing, and a work in progress.
Neil – Thank you, you are absolutely correct in everything you said.
Oldtimer – The long man role is still used. Whenever a starter goes less then 5 innings the long man will carry the team to the 6th or 7th.
Don’t count out guys like Rocky Cherry (rule V draft and dominant vs lefties holding them to a .167 career average) or Connor Robertson.
Im not sold on Sanchez returning to form, I hope he does because then we would definately have a lethal bullpen. Just watching Sanchez last year he looked out of shape and his ball was slow and straight. I hope Im wrong
Wow, Rocky Cherry is dominant against lefties? Well, let’s put the rose-colored glasses down and look at the stats for a second. Last season in MLB, Cherry pitched 7 innings against lefties, gave up 6 runs (5 earned) and walked 12 batters. That doesn’t sound even remotely close to dominant to me, but if it helps you sleep at night, I’m sure you can also convince yourself Elmer Dessens will win 12 games with a 3.85 ERA. Thanks!
Not sure where you getting your information Delroy but see I only go with the facts. Here are the facts, lefties are hitting .167 career against Cherry. Compared to a career .288 vs righties. See little man, I don’t sugar coat thing, I only speak the truth.
Give me Beimel over Ohman any day of the week. I’d have no problem with Omar bring a few more lefties to Spring on minor league deals to decide the last spot, but the addition of Beimel would make this bullpen lights out.
christian: delroy is 100% correct, if you go to mets.com and click on rocky cherry’s splits stats, you should see what he did against lefties which was 7 innings against lefties, gave up 6 runs (5 earned) and walked 12 batters…so i have no idea why in the world you think rocky cherry is effective against lefties just because he held them to .167 ba. get your facts straight.
Delroy and Christian,
You’re really gonna judge a guy’s ability to get out lefties/righties based on one season worth of data? Or in Christian’s case, 48 IP for his career?
Any way you guys could look at his minor league splits as well, as 48 innings is not enough to judge a guy on.
I’d rather have the lefty over him, but it’d be awesome to have someone on the Mets named Rocky Cherry.
Btw, what will happen with Darren O’Day when the season starts? He’ll be on the DL I assume?