Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized
When the Mets signed David Robertson to a one-year, $10 million contract in December, he was assumed to be a part of the bridge to Edwin Díaz in the ninth inning. With Díaz now likely out for the entirety of the 2023 season, Robertson is taking on a much larger role and has stepped up in a big way over the season’s first 13 games.
Robertson appears to be Buck Showalter‘s go-to reliever out of the pen through the first two weeks of the season. While he and Adam Ottavino are expected to do a bulk of the heavy lifting for the bullpen, it was Robertson who picked up the Mets’ first two saves of the season, including Opening Day. The series with the Padres however showed Showalter’s willingness to use Robertson in whichever inning he sees necessary.
In the Mets’ 5-0 victory on Monday over San Diego, the Mets had that five-run lead entering the eighth inning with Trent Grisham, Manny Machado and Juan Soto due up in the inning. With the Padres’ sending up two left-handed hitters and two of their most dangerous hitters in the inning, Showalter turned to Robertson an inning early. He retired all three hitters and struck out both Grisham and Soto to get the ball to Ottavino in the ninth with the five-run lead intact.
Two days later, Showalter went to Robertson even earlier. With two outs in the seventh inning and the Mets holding on to a 4-2 lead, Soto came to the plate with the tying runs on base. Soto had already hit a mammoth home run to drive in the Padres’ two runs and laced a double to the gap of left-hander Brooks Raley. Robertson, who has had reverse splits throughout his career, retired Soto again before pitching a scoreless eighth inning in the Mets’ 5-2 victory.
Overall, Robertson his pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowed just three hits, no runs, no walks and struck out eight batters. He has two saves, but his hold on Wednesday may have been his biggest outing of the young season.
“He’s like a utility pitcher,” Showalter said of Robertson’s versatility following the Mets’ win.
Robertson began his career with the Yankees, where Mariano Rivera had an unbreakable hold on the closing job. Following a freak knee injury to Rivera in 2012, Robertson got a taste of closing in a role very similar to the one he is in now with the Mets. He became the closer when Rivera retired after the 2013 season then signed with the White Sox to be the closer on the Southside of Chicago after the 2014 season. Since 2017 when he was traded back to the Yankees, he has become accustomed to the role of being ready in any situation.
“I’ve adapted to it over the last probably five or six years,” Robertson said. “I just look at the game as that’s how my role is now, is to pitch whenever I’m called on.”
On top of Robertson’s versatility for when he can enter a game, his aforementioned reverse splits give Showalter another different way he can deploy Robertson. While he has proven he is more than capable of getting right-handed hitters out in his career, he has had more success facing left-handers. Right-handed batters have hit .219/.303/.366 against Robertson over his career, but left-handers have hit just .187/.270/.276 against the right-handed pitcher. With Raley being the only left-hander in the bullpen, Robertson’s ability to get left-handed hitters out will surely be a huge boost for the Mets as it was on Wednesday.
It is no secret that the Mets will miss having baseball’s best closer this season. The dominance Díaz showed in 2022 is not something that can be easily replaced, but in Robertson, the Mets may have signed the perfect reliever for the job.
