According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the San Francisco Giants — currently 8-14 and dwelling in the basement of the National League West — are “willing to talk about some of their veteran relievers right now” and could be looking to unload a few of their bigger arms as the season grinds on.
“[San Francisco] believes they have the arms at Triple-A who could perform at roughly the same level,” Rosenthal tweeted.” [Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith would be] more likely to move closer to [the] July 31 [trade deadline].”
Big if true. San Francisco’s relief corps currently ranks third in baseball with their 1.2 wins above replacement (FanGraphs), and their 2.33 earned-run average, 2.80 fielding independent pitching rating, and 2.45 walks per nine innings are all good for best in Major League Baseball.
A group consisting of the aforementioned Smith, right-handers Mark Melancon, 34, and Sam Dyson, 30, as well as southpaw Tony Watson, 33, provides plenty of cherries for Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen to pick from.
Though, I’d be curious to see what the asking price on a guy like 26-year-old righty Reyes Moronta (3.12 ERA, 2.17 FIP, 15.58 SO/9, 3.12 BB/9 over 8.2 innings this year) would be, or even take a chance on 32-year-old right-hander Nick Vincent (2.03 ERA, 2.72 FIP, 83.3% left-on-base rate over 13.1 innings), who’s looked terrific this season.
If and when 29-year-old lefty Will Smith (one run, three hits, seven strikeouts, two walks over 6.2 innings) becomes available, the Mets would have no reason not to explore that possibility either.
And to an even stronger extent, they should be inquiring about Giants left-handed starter Madison Bumgarner, as well. But that’s another conversation altogether.
The Mets’ bullpen currently owns the fourth-highest ERA in MLB with a grotesque 5.91 mark. They’ve allowed 4.64 bases-on-balls per nine innings, tenth-most in baseball (Cubs, 5.74 BB/9). In a tight division like the NL East, simply waiting on an uptick from this current group may prove to be unwise.
Robert Gsellman (3.27 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 10.64 SO/9, 1.64 BB/9 in 11 innings) has been outstanding, newly-acquired right-handed closer Edwin Diaz has been as lights-out as advertised (1.17 ERA, 1.92 FIP, 16.43 SO/9, 2.35 BB/9 over 7.2 innings) and the general consensus on Jeurys Familia is that the flamethrowing righty will get back to using his repertoire to its full potential in short order — or at least we hope.
A potentially rewarding risk taken on Luis Avilan appears to have tanked (11.25 ERA over eight innings pitched). The Mets’ young group of not-ready-for-primetime players, Drew Gagnon, Jacob Rhame, Tim Peterson, and Paul Sewald have shown encouraging flashes, but putting valuable wins in the hands of inexperienced relievers could come back to bite this team.
Seth Lugo‘s dominant form out of the bullpen last season is beginning to take form again, and that’s a great thing, but adding another solid option in relief would be the prudent move for the Mets to make.
