Seth Lugo was an effective — if not elite — weapon out of the New York Mets’ bullpen in 2018, owning a 2.30 earned-run average with 1.01 WHIP, 76 strikeouts, and 22 walks over 78.1 innings as a reliever.
Despite his well-known desire to return to starting games, the 29-year-old right-hander has thrived in his new surroundings.
Robert Gsellman also transitioned from a career-long starter into a bullpen cog at the request of the Mets prior to the 2018 season and performed adequately, despite having trouble finding consistency.
Over 68 appearances last year (80 innings, all in relief), the 25-year-old right-hander pitched to a 4.28 ERA, 3.95 FIP, with 1.30 WHIP, with 7.9 strikeouts and 3.2 walks per nine. Respectable enough, but certainly room for improvement.
Coming into the 2019 season, Mets brass placed a heavy load on the shoulders of Lugo and Gsellman to anchor this relief corps from the middle-out.
New additions in Edwin Diaz, Justin Wilson and (almost-new) Jeurys Familia provided the major-league caliber depth this group sorely missed in years past, but Lugo and Gsellman were supposed to be the meat-and-potatoes (and safety net) of the Mets’ ‘pen.
The combination of Lugo and/or Gsellman to hypothetically take the sixth and seventh innings when, say, a Jason Vargas had to leave after five was — in a perfect world — supposed to shore up a deficiency for this team. Long-men extraordinaire.
Over the first three weeks of the 2019 season, amidst a flurry of injuries and manager Mickey Callaway‘s need to gain a feel for the correct usage of his revamped relief corps, things got off to a mediocre start.
Gsellman pitched well enough, registering a 3.27 ERA with 13 strikeouts and two walks over his first 10 appearances (11 innings), despite owning a .298/.340/.532 slash line against.
Lugo, on the other hand, appeared to struggle at the start of the year. Over his first nine outings (12.2 innings; Opening Day to April 19), the Louisiana native pitched to a 5.68 ERA with 16 strikeouts, four walks, and 1.56 WHIP.
On April 19, Lugo allowed two earned runs to the Cardinals in a 5-4 Mets win. Since then, Lugo’s pitched 11.1 scoreless innings, allowing three hits, two walks, and striking out 13. Batters are slashing .079/.125/.079 against him over that span and he’s got his season ERA down to 3.00.
Gsellman’s also continued to impress, holding hitters to a .196/.255/.275 slash line with 14 strikeouts, four walks, and a 2.57 ERA over his last seven appearances (14 innings; April 21 through current).
Things are looking up for these two, and they’ve quietly begun to creep up the relief pitching leaderboards, as well.
Gsellman (0.6 wins above replacement, as per FanGraphs) and Lugo (0.5 fWAR), currently rank 15th and 24th among qualified MLB relievers, respectively.
These two are transforming into the dynamic duo some had envisioned they would. That bodes well for the long-term and immediate success of this New York Mets ballclub.
Win now and win later, right Brodie?
