You can’t clinch anything in April, but you most certainly lose everything. It looked like that was starting to happen when the New York Mets started the season 0-5. However, as the calendar flips to May 1, the Mets enter play Wednesday night with an over .500 record.
While many players have contributed to the turnaround, the main catalyst for the bounce back has to be the relievers. Out of the 15 wins the team recorded, the bullpen has 11 of them (second in baseball), and you can make the case that this group of relievers, which has already lost Brooks Raley and Drew Smith to the IL, was one of the best in baseball to begin the year.
In April, the Mets had the most strikeouts of any bullpen in baseball (141), the lowest batting average against (.183), allowed the second-fewest hits (74), and had the sixth-lowest ERA (2.85). So, who have been the main heroes of this resurgence?
It starts with Reed Garrett, who got the seventh inning on Tuesday after a scoreless sixth inning from Sean Reid-Foley. The 31-year-old right-hander has gone from a player who would get mopup duty to save the bullpen to one that is getting the chance to get big outs in big spots.
Garrett worked out of a leadoff walk for a scoreless inning (striking out Pete Crow-Armstrong). In his nine outings in April, Garrett did not allow a run in eight of them, and he had 5 of the 11 wins recorded by the bullpen.
Photo by Roberto Carlo
Adam Ottavino got the eighth inning on Tuesday and only needed nine pitches to throw a 1-2-3 frame. He ended April with a 1.69 ERA and he has now gone eight straight outings without a run dating back to the Riley Greene solo home run he allowed on April 4. According to Brooks Baseball, teams are hitting .105 against his sinker this year with 11 strikeouts and .177 against his slider.
With Edwin Díaz unavailable to close last night, the Mets have the luxury of having another reliever to turn to with closer experience in Jorge López. He did allow a run in the ninth, but he limited the damage to that and threw 14 of his 21 pitches for strikes. That run he allowed snapped a streak of seven consecutive scoreless outings he had going into the game.
Díaz is 4-for-4 on saves so far and throwing the ball well, but the fact that he hasn’t been the only pitcher contributing shows the improvement in depth the Mets have in the bullpen compared to last year.
When the bullpen was being put together a year ago, there were more pitchers who had options left, so the team had flexibility in terms of sending people up and down to Syracuse for fresh arms.
This time around, David Stearns added more experience and veterans to the bullpen, and it has paid early dividends, especially when the corps of pitchers have to get 12 outs on a nightly basis. In the month of April, Mets starters threw the fifth-fewest innings (150.1) of any team in the National League, so it was usually a quick call to the bullpen.
Yes, bullpens can fluctuate throughout the year in terms of being really good or really poor. At least, for right now, this pen is keeping the Mets in games on a nightly basis, and Carlos Mendoza has plenty of options to turn to.
