The New York Mets reunited with a familiar face Saturday evening, reportedly signing relief pitcher Adam Ottavino to a one-year deal worth $4.5 million. Ottavino, who spent the last two seasons with New York, declined a $6.75 million player option with the club earlier in the offseason. Regardless, the Mets make a much-needed addition to their bullpen.

Ottavino was stellar in 2022, posting a 2.06 ERA across 65 2/3 innings striking out 79. He struck out batters at a rate close to his career-high and posted a walk rate close to a career-low. It all culminated in terrific underlying metrics; 97th percentile xERA, 92nd percentile xBA, 99th percentile average exit velocity, and 97th percentile hard-hit rate. Ottavino arguably had his best season of his career in his age-36 season.

Unfortunately, the right-handed reliever was unable to repeat his 2022 success in 2023, but still had a strong year. He tossed 61 2/3 innings posting a still respectable 3.21 ERA. A large number of his underlying metrics also regressed, but he still tallied an xERA in the league’s 77th percentile and xBA in the league’s 85th percentile. His patent slider/sweeper was also still as good as ever, as evident by an xBA of .159 on that pitch, a figure a shade lower than his electric 2022 season.

Adam Ottavino. Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports

Reasons for Ottavino’s regression to just an above-average reliever from the elite one he was in 2022 related to his decrease in strikeout rate, increase in walk rate, and allowing harder contact. Ottavino’s strikeout rate decreased from a figure over 3% higher than his career number to a number 4% less. A major issue, compounded greatly by his inability to hold runners on base, was a walk rate that ranked in the league’s 15th percentile. He also saw drops in average exit velocity and hard hit rate, but those figures were still manageable enough, placing him around league average.

Another potential explanation for his regression in 2023 was the need for Ottavino to serve a much-higher leverage role than 2022. The Edwin Díaz injury, then followed by the trade of David Robertson, had Ottavino serving an even higher-leverage role than slated for him before the season began. Granted, in 2024, Ottavino likely projects into a pretty high-leverage role again, but the addition of a healthy Díaz should help Ottavino a tad.

The No. 1 goal during the 2024 season for Ottavino has to be getting his walk issues in control. If he can even improve his 2023 numbers slightly in 2024, there is a legit path for Ottavino to creep back to his 2022 form. Following that theme, less runners on base, the fewer opportunities for opposing baserunners to take advantage of his inability to control the run game. With that being said, he is still expected to have his signature/elite sweeper/slider and as a ground ball pitcher (92nd percentile in the league in 2023) with a much-better Mets defense behind him, it should help tremendously.

As for the bullpen as a whole, the group is starting to take form. The eight projected bullpen arms as of now are Díaz, Brooks Raley, Ottavino, Drew Smith, Michael Tonkin, Jorge López, Sean Reid-Foley, and Austin Adams. Other depth options consist of Phil Bickford, Grant Hartwig, Josh Walker, Cole Sulser, Nate Lavender, and Paul Gervase, among others. It is certainly much-improved from the beginning of the offseason and how things ended last year. Despite this, another external addition would benefit the Mets greatly.