24
2012
Mejia To The Mets Bullpen? Not So Fast…
An article by 
Mejia was a dominating force in Bisons rotation, but has flopped since move to bullpen.
Our own Connor O’Brien posted an nice piece on his site Up Along First in which he reviews the Jenrry Mejia to the bullpen experiment – version 2.0.
“Since moving to the ‘pen, Mejia has been dreadful”, Connor writes. .”He has allowed runs in three of his five appearances, including last night’s game in which he was charged with four runs (three earned) on three hits and a walk. He was pulled after recording just one out. He has now allowed a total of seven runs in six innings as a relief pitcher.”
The front office is hoping to use Mejia as a reliever later this season, but if he keeps struggling like this in Buffalo, that’s not going to happen.
So far, Mejia’s performance with Buffalo between the bullpen and the rotation have been rather stark;
Tiny sample sizes to be sure, but that’s all we have and data is data. Plus if you caught any of Mejia’s starts and his bullpen performances which I have, your eyes tell you all you need to know.
Plus, with the Mets front office leaking that they expected Mejia to work out of the pen for two weeks before a callup to the Mets, small sample sizes or not, this seems a little disconcerting to me.
As we’ve been saying for over a month on MMO, the Mets may want to consider promoting Justin Hampson for now until this latest Mejia experiment begins to bear some fruit.
Check out Connor’s complete Mejia article here.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
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Pitchers are creatures of routine! Their entire effort is dependent on routine and repetition.
You can’t have a guy going from the normal slow get ready proccess of a starter to the Hurry Up and get ready proccess of a Reliever!
You basically throw them off thier routine!
This should have been expected when they decided to put him in the pen!
And truth is some guy are just NOT SUITED for that hurry up and get ready routine no matter how used to doing it they are!
What the concern might be is if Mejia is unhappy about being made a reliever and not doing well in hopes they put him back as a starter…It’s happened with guys before! But they don’t realize that all they accompish there is being taken out of consideration for the MLB altogether…
Lets hope thats not the case here…
He will probably need a month to get into the reliever timeline, and truth is beato is probably the best first choice to come up anyway since what we need the most is middle relief (6th, 7th and 8th). Beato is probably better for that role.
I will point out that Beato exhibited some of the same problems I pointed out above when he was up here…
Some days he was on and others you could see he was off from the very first pitch.
Being able to prepare quickly is one of the hardest things a reliever must face and be able to do to be effective.
Which could explain why the guys we have been using so far seem to be better when they start an inning as opposed to having to get up quick and face runners on because the Starter got pulled quickly as opposed to having a half an inning of warnups while we are at the plate.
More time to prepare better performance when it comes time to pitch!
Moving Mejia to the bullpen was unbelievably shortsighted. I get that the MLB team is what matters most. I get that the MLB bullpen has been terrible. However, when you have other guys who already are relievers with MLB experience, doesn’t make more sense to run them out there to pitch the 6th and 7th innings. I just don’t get why you’d take this kid off a SP workload when he infinitely has more value as an SP.
Also, I don’t buy the well Texas did it so can we. Please Ogando has been yo-yoed and he’s injured. Feliz is a stud, but he’s been yo-yoed and is now on the injury bug. I thought the yo-yoing was supposed to stop. Promote Hampson (he’s earned it), or Beato (is he starting to get bored down there), or Cabrera, or any of the other RELIEVERS who’ve earned it. Develop your starting pitching, don’t sacrifice it to come and save the 6th inning.
I sort of understand why they did it and it was not as short sighted as you might think…
Think ahead to next year’s starting rotation is there any scenario aside from major loss to injury where Mejia is put into the rotation?
2013 projected starters are:
Santana
Dickey
Niese
Harvey
Gee or Pelfrey (if they give him Arbitration)
Add to that the possibility that Wheeler will be an option mid season and quite possibly Familia if he ever gets his crap and control together…
I agree somewhat that he has more value in trade as a starter than a reliever but considering how little Bullpen we have, How little good Bullpen is going to be avaliable and how little you might get in return on any trade for Mejia himself it makes sense that they are looking ahead to thier 2013 possibilities and preparing Mejia for a usefull role then where if the pitching improves even more than it is today will place us in a very dominating position next season.
I hear you. I do. But…
1. No team makes it through a full season with only 5 starters.
2. Dickey’s phenomenal and I hope he keeps this up. he’s the surest thing.
3. Another year older and that shoulder worry me when it comes to Santana.
4. Gee and Niese are showing signs of growth and improvement, I hope it continues. But there’s no guarantee it will, or that someone else can’t pass them.
5. My point is I would’ve exhausted all possibilities in June-August, so Mejia gets SP innings and development time. To me, I’d trot out Hampson, Beato, heck even Acosta. I’d look at Edgin and maybe Cabrera too. All…before looking to Mejia in the pen.
6. I get that MLB wins matter and that 2013 rotation looks crowded, but no one ever has enough SP. The Braves are the perfect example. Coming into this year many believed they had 8-10 MLB options in the rotation. Injury, ineffectiveness, and baseball…has proved most of us wrong.
We need another LH pitcher up here, Hampton or Hepner or whomever, look at Yanks and the LH pitchers they had; we always seem to come up short in BP while also having the worst one also so maybe RA goes 9 cause FF is hurt.
With a guy like Mejia, I frankly do not buy into AAA performance being a sign of things to come.
I think he’s seen the big leagues and you can see players like him just get bored with the minors. I think if he was called up today to be in the pen, you’d see a different pitcher out of the Mets pen than what Bison fans are seeing.
The kiss of death to poor mejia….If jessup tells us something his track is 100%….WRONG!!!!
Everyone around the game (Mets organization, Baseball America etc.) has said for some time that Mejia’s eventual role is going to be in the bullpen. I refuse to judge his transition to the bullpen after 4 innings. People have this Joba Chamberlain image stuck into their head
The Mets currently have two young starts in Dillon Gee (26) and Jon Niese (25) locked up and both are on pace for 200+ IP and 200+ SO. You then have RA Dickey who is not going anywhere and Johan Santana for this year and next. In the minor leagues you have Zach Wheeler and Matt Harvey that are considered better prospects and will both be in the NY Mets rotation, barring injury, 15 months from now.
The Mets made a decision based on their current situation that Mejia would be better suited to be groomed as their future setup man/closer (where the scouts believe he will wind up anyway) instead of a mid rotation starter…
Even if he is a future reliever the best place for his development is the rotation.
how so?
Would much rather see him transition now, take what he learned for the last few months of this season into the offseason where by ST, he should be all set.
Why give up on him as a starter? You can always trade for a relieved. You’re better off giving up someone else for a veteran than risk ruining this huh.
there is a reason why everyone in the industry seems to think he is destined for the bullpen. I can’t say for certain what it is, but his lack of an “out pitch” has been apparent.
As a reliever he will be able to throw harder which will give him the strikeouts he wont see as a starter. He will need to adjust to the new role and after a few months in AAA with a cameo in September and a full offseason, he should be ready to become the closer in waiting in NY…
I’m not quite understanding what you’re saying…
but as a starter he will get a better opportunity to work on his off-speed stuff.
I cant believe the Mets are giving up on him as a starter. First Minaya, now Alderson. Dumb move!!!.
They have said they’re not giving up on him for the rotation. This is their way of limiting his innings. It’s just not the right way to do it.
I can’t get bent out of shape on this decision right now.
Mejia is just back from TJ surgery. If they want to limit his innings this year and hopefully bring some stability to our BP up here, I’ve got no problem with this move.
Lots of good ML SPs started their career in a ML BP when first called up. It may be that Mejia eventually winds up in the BP but I’d like to see them give him every opportunity to make it as a starter first.