In today’s New York Post, Mike Puma reports that Jerry Manuel is desperate for another arm in his bullpen and that he plans to address the matter with GM Omar Minaya.
“Manager Jerry Manuel planned to speak with team brass last night about the possibility of adding a seventh reliever, after the Mets emptied their bullpen yesterday in a 9-5 victory over the Nationals.”
Whether you think Jerry Manuel has done a poor job of handling the bullpen or not, the bottom line should always be winning and doing what is best for the team.
It’s kind of hard to distribute work evenly when the game is on the line and there are few options that you really trust.
There’s been several complaints of late about how Manuel may have burned out guys like Fernando Nieve, Raul Valdes, etc. But we’re talking about a couple of waiver wire rejects who could have been simply been pitching over their heads for three weeks. I don’t see any star quality relievers that have been physically overused to their ultimate demise.
Puma suggest that Manny Acosta could be an option to be called up from Triple-A Buffalo, and of course they recently signed former Yankees reliever Brian Bruney before the weekend.
I don’t know why Pat Misch isn’t ever brought up in the conversation as he is having a solid season at Buffalo and he could replace Hisanori Takahashi in the rotation and Tak would give Manuel a reliable, quality innings eater in the back of the bullpen.
Misch is currently 8-3 with a 3.40 ERA and 1.21 WHIP in 103 innings pitched, and has a 58/18 K/BB ratio.
