With the New York Mets recent surge to get over .500 after an 0-5 start, the bullpen has been one of the main reasons why. They have logged the most strikeouts in the National League (87), allowed the second lowest batting average (.209), thrown the fifth most innings (69.2 innings). 

True, the Mets have Edwin Díaz as their closer, but the reliever who has had the best start to the year is someone no one would have expected, and that is...Reed Garrett. 

Garrett has been dominant in his first four outings of the year. The 31-year-old journeyman reliever has not allowed a run, only surrendered four hits, and has 17 strikeouts to three walks in 8.2 innings of work. His 17 strikeouts are the most of any reliever in baseball. 

Since the Mets starters don’t go too deep in games (84.1 innings—fourth-fewest in NL), they need a reliever like Garrett who can go multiple innings and keep the team in the game. On Wednesday against the Pirates, he did just that, throwing two scoreless innings, allowing one hit, walking a batter, and striking out six of the eight hitters he faced (21 of 31 pitches for strikes) in the win. 

When you look at Garrett’s numbers from last night (courtesy of Baseball Savant), he was mixing his pitches well by throwing ten splitters and nine sliders. Out of those 19 pitches, he got 10 swings and six whiffs. In addition, he was throwing his slider into the zone 89% of the time.

After the game, Garrett told the media how having many veteran relievers on the team has helped him improve his pitches. “Having a great group of guys around you to really show you what your stuff is and what you can do is special,” Garrett said. 

This year, Garrett has used more of his breaking pitches than he did all of last season when he was with the Baltimore Orioles in addition to the Mets. According to Brooks Baseball, Garrett has thrown his breaking pitches 52% of the time. His high in any given month last year was 44.4% in July. As for his fastball, he has only thrown it 26.4% of the time this month (52% last September).

In this day and age of baseball, teams need the “firemen” reliever who can go more than one inning and stabilize the game. Remember, it was Garrett, on April 4 against the Tigers, who threw three scoreless innings in Game 2 of the doubleheader, keeping the Mets in a position to get their first win of the season. 

It is never too late to revive a career. Yes, it is only April, and it may only be a short-lived success. However, the Mets have been able to right their ship and not lose the season in April, and Garrett is probably a top-three reason why that is the case.