2019 Mets Report Card: Justin Wilson, LHP

Justin Wilson, LHP

Player Data: Age: 32, B/T: L/L
Primary Stats: 45 games, 39.0 innings, 4-2 record, 2.54 ERA, four saves, 44 K, 1.333 WHIP, 10.2 K/9
Advanced Stats: 1.3 rWAR, 0.3 fWAR, 161 ERA+, 3.91 FIP, 2.99 BABIP, 86.8% LOB, 3.95 xFIP
Free Agent: 2021
2019 Salary: $5 million

Grade: B

2019 Review

During the 2018-19 offseason, then new general manager Brodie Van Wagenen was tasked with bringing in a plethora of external pieces in order to get the Mets back into contention.

One area Van Wagenen honed in on was bolstering the bullpen, bringing in Edwin Diaz via trade and Jeurys Familia and Justin Wilson via free agency.

Unfortunately for the Mets, the only one of the three that had any impact was Wilson.

Inking a two-year, $10 million deal, Wilson held the opposition to a .200/.333/.400 triple slash through the Mets first month of the season, but was then sidelined for all of May and June and had two stints on the injured list with elbow soreness.

However, once the southpaw returned for good, he became one of the more reliable arms out of the pen for New York.

With Diaz and Familia struggling, especially down the stretch, Wilson and Seth Lugo became the guys then manager Mickey Callaway turned to in high leverage situations.

A big knock on Wilson over the last couple seasons was his walk rate. In 2017 and 2018, the left-hander had a 13.8 and 14.0 walk rate respectively. He was able to get that down to 11.4 percent in 2019.

The California native was also able to reduce his barrel rate and exit velocity this past season as well, with the former being at five percent while the latter was a career low 83.8 mph. The launch angle on balls hit against him was also a career low 6.1 percent.

Much of Wilson’s success can be attributed to his fastball, which spin ranked in the 83rd percentile in 2019, according to Baseball Savant.

Overall, it looked as though Wilson’s signing was going to be questionable initially, but the southpaw really buckled down after his injury and pitched to an ERA under 2.00 for the second half of the season.