Robert Gsellman Enjoying Solid Under-the-Radar Performance

After making the full transition to the bullpen in 2018, pitcher Robert Gsellman went on to serve as a quality multi-inning reliever over the next two seasons for the New York Mets, however, his career hit a major bump in the road last season and he’s been working tirelessly to rebound from his disappointing performance in 2021.

Coming off back-to-back productive seasons in 2018-2019, Gsellman entered last spring with the hope of serving as a reliable reliever for a third straight campaign and was also aiming to take a positive step forward with his craft as well. Unfortunately, neither of those aspirations came to fruition as the 27-year-old experienced the worst statistical performance of his career.

Bouncing back and forth between the Mets’ bullpen and starting rotation out of necessity, the right-hander made four starts and six total appearances, producing an alarming 9.64 ERA, 8.76 xERA, 7.55 FIP, 6.45 xFIP, .355 AVG, .367 BABIP, 12.7% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate and a -0.3 fWAR rating over 14.0 innings in 2020.

If dealing with an inconsistent role wasn’t difficult enough, Gsellman was also forced to participate in two separate versions of spring training last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which undoubtedly had a negative impact on him. Making matters worse, the former starter also spent two different stints on the injured list, as he experienced some triceps tightness and also suffered a season-ending rib injury.

Taking into account all of these factors, it’s probably safe to say the 6-foot-4 hurler went through an extremely chaotic 60-game season and was very excited to turn the page on his troubling performance. Having said that, the veteran righty was able to utilize all of those struggles as motivation to come back strong this past spring, where he was forced to compete for a roster spot.

Facing a difficult roster crunch, the Mets needed to choose between a handful of arms for the final spot on the team, including Jerry Blevins, Arodys Vizcaino, Stephen Tarpley, Mike Montgomery and Gsellman. While awarding that last job to the former 13th-round pick wasn’t an obvious decision, it’s currently paying off in a massive way and has been very rewarding to the coaching staff for showing some faith in the veteran reliever.

Overcoming his woes from the 2020 campaign, Gsellman has looked like a completely different pitcher through the first two months of this season, allowing him to revitalize his reputation and it’s also resulted in one of the best showings of his entire career.

Coming into Tuesday’s 10-3 loss to the Orioles, in his role as a full-time reliever, the Westchester HS product had compiled 22 1/3 innings, recording a 2.42 ERA, 3.59 xERA, 3.41 FIP, 4.15 xFIP, .214 AVG, .246 BABIP, 15.4% strikeout rate, 6.6% walk rate and a 0.2 fWAR rating. While he had a rough go of it on Tuesday, giving up four runs in 2 1/3 innings, his overall stats on the season are still much improved over his ugly 2020.

Unlike last season, Gsellman has been much more effective with his command this time around, particularly early on in counts. After posting a career-worst 37.5% zone percentage and a 52.1% first-pitch strike percentage in 2020, he’s improved both of those metrics this season, as his zone percentage has climbed to 42.5% and his first-pitch strike percentage has risen to 62.7%.

Benefiting from this newfound accuracy, the former top prospect has been able to induce significantly more swings and misses, which is something he struggled mightily with throughout the shortened campaign. Though generating high amounts of strikeouts still isn’t a critical aspect of his game, locating dramatically more pitches in the strike zone has helped him improve off his shortcomings from the 2020 season.

Along with his 14.7% strikeout rate, Gsellman has also produced a 21.0% whiff rate, 27.2% chase rate and a 34.0% chase whiff rate in 2021. In comparison, the hard-throwing righty created career lows in all four of those categories last season, resulting in a 12.7% strikeout rate, 16.4% whiff rate, 25.9% chase rate and a 24.4% chase whiff rate.

While the California native doesn’t solely rely on recording strikeouts, which may seem somewhat unusual for this era of pitchers, he’s excelled at inducing weakly hit ground balls throughout the majority of his career and got away from that a season ago. As a result of his inconsistent command, the bulk-innings reliever surrendered an increased amount of hard contact and fly balls, preventing him from keeping balls in the yard.

Failing to locate his pitches at the bottom half of the zone, Gsellman witnessed his impressive 44.3% GB rate from 2019 decrease to 41.5% in 2020 and his hard-hit rate also increased by 18.2% (49.1% in ’20). In turn, his FB rate jumped to 35.8% (34.1% in ’19) and he also allowed four home runs, earning him a career-worst 21.1% HR/FB rate.

But thanks to his improved command, particularly with his mid-90s sinker, “G-Man” has reverted back to his previous form and has been inducing significantly more ground balls, as he owns a 50.6% GB rate. Additionally, he’s also only surrendered two home runs (the second of which came in his worst appearance of the year on Tuesday) and has generated a career-best 28.2% hard-hit rate, 26.0% FB rate and a 10.0% HR/FB rate.

Considering Gsellman was viewed as a liability throughout his fifth season with the Mets, his year-to-year progression from those struggles has been remarkable and his stellar performance is one of the biggest reasons why this club’s bullpen has dominated up to this point. Even though he hasn’t been utilized in any high-leverage situations, the right-hander has still played a key role as an effective innings-eater whenever his name has been called.

While his days as a starter are likely gone, and rightly so, the soon-to-be 28-year-old is currently proving that last season’s woes can probably be deemed as an anomaly and should be taken as a grain of salt. Based on his current pace, there’s a very good chance he could conclude this season with career highs all across the board, which could bode very well for him this winter.

Since Gsellman will be entering his final year of arbitration and is slated to become a free agent after next season, this bounce-back performance could potentially earn him a contract extension this offseason, that is, if he maintains these current results moving forward.