When we look back on the 2016 season, one player we won’t soon forget is right-handed reliever Addison Reed. Only just turning 28 three days ago, Reed was one of the top setup men in all of baseball last season and he delivered one of the best seasons for a reliever in Mets franchise history.
Reed’s 1.97 ERA ranked tenth in the majors for relievers and was the tenth best for a single season in Mets history. His 0.940 WHIP ranked even higher, finishing sixth in MLB and the best ever for a Mets reliever in a single season. His dominance doesn’t stop there, as Reed’s 2.6 WAR ranked sixth among MLB relievers and was second in team history for a reliever. Only Kenley Jansen, Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances produced a higher WAR in 2016.
[iframe]<div style=”width:100%;margin:10px 0;”><iframe src=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/axJGYsDpr2l” width=”600″ height=”549″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” style=”position:static;vertical-align:top;margin:0 auto;display:block;width:600px !important;max-width:100%;min-height:549px !important;max-height:none !important;border:none;overflow:hidden;”></iframe><div style=”text-align:center;font:14px/16px Helvetica,arial;color:#3d3d3d;”><a target=”_blank” href=”https://baseball-players.pointafter.com/l/13521/Addison-Reed” style=”color:#3d3d3d;”>PointAfter | Graphiq</a></div></div>[/iframe]
There were many doubters when Sandy Alderson offered Addison Reed salary arbitration after what was an overall mediocre season in 2015. However, Sandy made the right call and the team struck gold with a shutdown setup man who will now be asked to step in and close games in the absence of Jeurys Familia.
I’ll go one further and say that without Reed, the Mets don’t even sniff the postseason last season and that he was more valuable than our closer, Familia himself.
Right-handers hit .208 against him, but if the opposing manager sent up a left-handed pinch hitter, they hit just .203 against him. Reed did not give up an earned run in May or July. Before the All Star break he pitched to a 2.16 ERA, and remarkably he improved on that, pitching to a 1.75 ERA after the break.
A big part of Reed’s success came from his career high groundball percentage (57.4%), but he also found success in pounding the strike zone this year with the third highest strike percentage (71.8%) of any pitcher that threw at least 40 innings. That helped to produce a 10.5 strikeout rate and a 7.0 K/BB rate – both career highs and top five in the majors for relievers.
Could Reed maintain this level of excellence in 2017? I don’t see why not although a little return to the mean wouldn’t diminish his value to the team one bit. Reed is expected to earn about $10.2 million in arbitration next season, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he and the Mets were to work out a 2-3 year deal despite Sandy Alderson’s aversion to multiyear deals for relievers.
