David Stearns has remade the New York Mets’ roster since joining at the start of the offseason, especially the bullpen. The Mets’ bullpen was a disaster last season and had a lot of players who had similar arms. Stearns remade the pen by signing a diversity of throwing styles and a high number of players on a combination of major-league and minor-league deals. Cam Robinson falls into the latter category.
Robinson was signed by the Mets in mid-December after spending his career with the Brewers organization–clearly, he’s one of the pitchers that David Stearns believes in. MLB Trade Rumors wrote a good, quick profile of Robinson after he signed. He has a low-mid 90s fastball, a curveball with spin, and a slider. Over his career, he has posted a strong K/9 rate at 10.7 over six seasons but control has been a problem (5.7 BB/9).
Robinson struggled in Rookie ball between 2017-2019 posting a 7.81 ERA over 83 innings. He was walking 6.4 batters per nine innings and had his worst K/9 rate at 9.9. After the pandemic though, he was a different pitcher.
Cam Robinson. Photo by Evan Moesta
In 2021, he had a 3.08 ERA over 49 2/3 innings mostly between different minor leagues. Then, in 2022, he had a 2.49 ERA going from High-A to Triple-A, pitching a total of 65 innings. The big change for Robinson in 2021 and 2022 was he kept the ball in the park. He gave up exactly one home run each season leading to a 0.2 HR/9 and 0.1 HR/9, respectively.
That stopped last year. Hitters had six homers off Robinson and he also saw his walks skyrocket from 4.2 BB/9 in 2022 to 6.9, a career-high, in 2023. His strikeouts fell from 11.6 to 10.3 K/9. He is still getting batters to miss his pitches, but batters are getting more patient, getting on base more (H/9 also jumped from 6.2 to 10.3), and driving more power against Robinson.
Robinson was drafted by the Brewers out of high school. The other pitchers we covered from the Mets system so far have pitched three seasons in the minor leagues and are the same age or older than Robinson, who turned 24 back in September. If he can return to his 2021-22 self, the Mets will be elated. He’s on the shortlist to fill in for the bullpen during those stretches of the year when the bullpen gets worn down because of team control and options.
This spring, the Mets will surely be looking for Robinson to return to his 2021-2022 form. If hitters are swinging and missing, he’s going to rise up the depth chart.
