Just a few days ago, I was complaining about why the New York Mets’ perceived mindset with regard to their 2020 bullpen was so frustrating. That was especially the case when seeing they were reportedly in and out of the Dellin Betances sweepstakes within a 12-hour span and the New York Yankees continued to hunt for significant bullpen upgrades themselves.

I just needed to be a little more patient with the process, I guess. It was nice to have the Betances signing be an early Christmas gift.

Despite injuries limiting the 31-year-old right-hander to only 0.2 innings in 2019, his track record since his first full big-league season speaks for itself. The former Yankee has been to four All-Star Games, finished third in the 2014 American League Rookie of the Year voting, and even finished within the top 15 of AL Cy Young voting the following year. However, the most eye-catching part of Betances’ resume is his ability to rack up strikeouts.

News of him signing with the Mets brought out a bunch of interesting stats on Twitter, with the following two catching my eye in particular:

And to give Jim Passon the trifecta with tweets that have gotten me even more excited to watch Betances pitch in Queens, here’s one more for good measure:

With his ability to strike out opposing hitters jumping off the page as a positive part of his game, it reminded me of something I wrote last year once the acquisition of Edwin Diaz was official. When looking at Betances’ total big-league tenure — which spans 381.2 innings — his career strikeout rate sits at 40.1% with an equally impressive 13.9% swinging-strike rate. Among qualified relievers since 2014, that strikeout rate ranks third in baseball, while his swinging-strike rate settled within the top 40.

That type of production already distinguishes him against just about any other reliever in baseball when he’s healthy, but especially within the Mets’ bullpen. If we take a look at reliever seasons in Queens since 2000, there haven’t been any pitchers to post a single-season strikeout rate higher than Betances’ career average. Only five have finished with a higher swinging-strike rate.

Upon looking further into the strikeout rate portion of the leaderboards, there have only been four seasons with a rate in this category above 30.0% among Mets relievers. Two of those occurrences happened in 2019, courtesy of Diaz and Seth Lugo. In fact, despite how horrific Diaz’s first season in New York ended up being on an overall basis, he actually posted the highest strikeout rate (39.0%) and swinging-strike rate (18.0%) of any Mets reliever so far this century. He did it by a considerable margin, too (the second-place marks were 34.9% and 15.9%, respectively).

This past season was the first time the Mets boasted two full-time relievers that posted a strikeout rate north of 30.0% in the same year since 2000. With Betances and Diaz in the same bullpen, there’s a chance for New York to have two relievers posting a strikeout rate above 40.0% if they’re both healthy and productive.

That occurrence didn’t happen at all in 2019, but it happened in 2018 with Aroldis Chapman and…yes, Betances (among qualified relievers).

The key to Betances’ dominance is the usage of his curveball. During his big-league career, opposing hitters have produced just a 10 wRC+ against that offering, and this pitch’s performance during 2018 was right on par with that:

Even with this addition, it wouldn’t be outrageous for the Mets to remain opportunistic throughout the remainder of winter when it comes to improving the bullpen, especially since there’s still a heavy reliance on Diaz and Jeurys Familia bouncing back. But this was the kind of acquisition the Mets desperately needed as the rest of the National League East continues to be aggressive in adding to their respective rosters.

Of course, this doesn’t come without questions since injuries sidelined Betances for the majority of this past year. He’ll reportedly be ready to go upon getting to Port St. Lucie, but his health will remain a question until he gets on the field and displays that he’s ready to roll. It’s not like he wasn’t used often prior to 2019, though — between 2014 and 2018, he never appeared in fewer than 66 games for the Yankees.

For a team like the Mets — who state they have championship aspirations — this is the type of gamble that has to be taken. If Betances stays healthy and both Diaz and Familia rebound, New York’s bullpen could be incredibly good. That’s a lot of “if’s”, which is a scary notion since it’s the Mets we’re talking about, but if you can’t be optimistic/hopeful in December, then when will you ever?