Joely Rodríguez Has Settled In Tremendously With The Mets

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Back on April 3rd a trade was made between the two New York teams as they swapped relievers. It certainly caught many off guard as the Mets acquired left-hander Joely Rodríguez in exchange for right-handed, hard-thrower Miguel Castro. The Mets evidently didn’t see Chasen Shreve as enough to fulfill the left-handed reliever role that was vacated after Aaron Loup signed with the Angels. So, the team made the move for Rodríguez and after some early turbulence he has settled in very well for the Mets.

Well, as mentioned above, it was not all sunshine and roses. After a scoreless debut against Washington, Rodríguez went on to allow a run in three straight appearances. He gave up two runs against Philadelphia in consecutive outings two days apart and then a single run against Arizona three days later.

Through his first four appearances as a Met Rodríguez allowed five runs across 3 1/3rd innings resulting in a 15.43 ERA. His performances left a lot to be desired and had many confused as to why the Mets made the move in the first place. Well, luckily for New York he has settled in beautifully.

Over his last eight appearances Rodríguez has not allowed a run. He has pitched 6 2/3rd innings striking out seven and walking only three. He has his ERA down to 4.50 which is a quick turnaround from his 15.43 rating just three weeks ago.

Taking a look at his season numbers as a whole paint a picture of one of the top left-handed relievers in the league. He owns an impressive xERA and FIP of 2.77 and 3.30 respectively. Rodríguez has done a terrific job of limiting hard contact. Batters are on average hitting the ball only 82.5 MPH off Rodríguez which is in the league’s 99th percentile. Meanwhile, hitters are only striking the ball hard 23.8% of the time. This ranks in the league’s 97th percentile.

In addition to the soft contact, Rodríguez is generating several swings-and-misses and causing opposing hitters to go outside the strike zone. Each have also attributed to Rodríguez’s success. He induces swings-and-misses at a rate that is good for the 89th percentile in the league. Meanwhile, hitters are chasing Rodríguez’s pitches out of the strike zone at a rate that ranks in the league’s 81st percentile.

Both the soft contact and poor induced swings are resulting in a career-high strikeout rate of 33.3%. As mentioned above, everything is culminating in a terrific xERA and FIP. However, given those three poor consecutive early appearances, his actual numbers are a bit inflated. Nonetheless, Rodríguez has been superb in all but three of his outings this season (75%) and has the metrics that paint him as one of the top left-handed relievers in the league so far this season.

For those who are curious, the Yankees have gotten good returns from Castro on the surface. He has a 1.59 ERA over 11 1/3rd innings pitched. However, his FIP of 3.63 and xERA of 3.38 show he’s been a beneficiary of some good luck. The complete opposite of Rodríguez. So, one would expect that Castro’s actual results to regress to more what his expected statistics indicate (below).

At the end of the day, this is not a competition. The Mets got what they were looking for: a very nice left-handed reliever that can get left-handed hitters out. Against Rodríguez, left-handed batters have a .177 average against Rodríguez this season. He has struck out eight of the 20 left-handed hitters he has faced, which is a very high number. The left-hander further showcased his abilities to get left-handed hitters out on Tuesday night as he induced a one-pitch pop up out of Juan Soto.

It’ll be interesting to see if Rodríguez can continue this strong stretch of play, as he is currently setting a career-high in several different categories. Nonetheless, so far, so good. General manager Billy Eppler and the team should certainly be content.

Note, all percentile statistics are courtesy of Baseball Savant.