Joely Rodríguez Excelling, While Chasen Shreve Faltering

Before the season, the New York Mets had to answer the question of who would be their left-handed arm out of the bullpen. The question got so large New York decided to make a trade with the New York Yankees to bring in Joely Rodríguez. The team also signed former Met, Chasen Shreve, to a minor league contract. After a strong spring training, Shreve made the Mets’ roster.

Shreve started the season strong, but has faltered recently. Meanwhile, after a rough start to the year, mainly marred by bad luck, Rodríguez has emerged as one of the Mets more steady arms out of the bullpen. Coincidently enough, last night was a specific display of such. Shreve allowed two runs in a disastrous sixth inning, while Rodríguez pitched a scoreless eighth inning.

Joely Rodríguez

The 30-year-old’s ERA was as high as 15.43 and was in the 5.00 range just a few weeks ago. However, since April 16th, Rodríguez has only allowed one earned run across 10 1/3rd innings pitched. Across this time, he has only allowed four hits and has struck out 12. Rodríguez has settled in extremely well. So much so, that his ERA, which is still misleading (xERA of 2.54 and FIP of 2.95), has been brought down all the way to 3.95.

A simple look at his Baseball Savant page shows just how effective he has been. Rodríguez’s analytics paint that of one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball. The Dominican Republic native is everything the Mets were looking for when they acquired him before the season began.

Note, you can read about the bad luck Rodríguez experienced to begin the season here.

Chasen Shreve

As mentioned above, Shreve’s season has gone the complete opposite of Rodríguez’s. Unfortunately, the main difference is that Shreve’s bad results are somewhat deserved.

Shreve’s season began with allowing only two earned runs across 10 appearances. His ERA entering May 14th’s game against Seattle was 1.54. Up to that date, he threw 11 2/3rd innings while only allowing five hits and striking out 17. It was a tremendous start to the season.

However, in each of his last three appearances he has allowed a run(s). To be exact, five earned runs over his last 2 1/3rd innings pitched featuring six hits allowed. His ERA has ballooned from 1.54 to 4.50 in just three appearances.

A deeper dive into Shreve’s season analytics show this stretch may not exactly be a blimp. His season xERA now stands at 4.60. Shreve has also not been able to limit hard contact (13th percentile Hard Hit%), which is something that made him so successful last season. When hitters are making contact, they are doing so with great success.

Now, this does not mean Shreve won’t be able to figure it out. He is on pace to post his highest career xERA since the 2018 season (only pitched two innings in 2019), so he is expected to experience some positive regression. Nonetheless, it appears Shreve should be regarded more as a back of the bullpen type rather than a solid, reliable cog which he seemed to have been just a couple weeks ago.