In his New York Mets debut, lefty reliever Alex Torres was unimpressive. Torres walked two batters, and he only recorded one out. Both runners Torres allowed on base eventually scored after he was pulled by manager Terry Collins.
After the game, Collins said that he believes that rust was a factor in Torres’ poor performance (Mike Puma).
“When we got him in the deal, he hadn’t pitched in seven days, and he had only pitched twice since,” Collins said after the Mets beat the Nationals, 6-3.
“So I think we have to be a little patient and try to get him in some games where he gets a little rhythm and a little confidence.”
Collins also explained that he used Familia in a non save situation yesterday to get him comfortable pitching the ninth inning.
“[Familia] has got to get used to being out there in the ninth inning, and I said, ‘I don’t care what the score is, he’s got to pitch the ninth,’ ” Collins said
Thoughts:
Rust could have certainly contributed to Torres’ performance, but control has been an area of concern for the Mets’ newly acquired reliever.
Torres walked 33 batters in 54 innings last year, and his BB/9 for his career is 4.5
When the Mets added Torres along with Blevins right before opening day, it immediately addressed the Mets need for a lefty reliever.
However, it cost them two potentially useful players in Cory Mazzoni and Mat den Dekker.
I would have preferred the Mets hold onto to these young players since non-elite relief pitchers can often be volatile and untrustworthy. This is a lesson the Mets learned the hard way back in 2012 when Sandy Alderson acquired Frank Francisco and Ramon Ramirez.
Free agency may have been the better way to address this need as pitchers like Phil Coke and Joe Thatcher were solid and inexpensive options. Both pitchers have good career numbers against lefties, and would not have cost the Mets any young talent.
