The Mets have been riding their relievers hard here in the beginning of 2016, as their starters have not been able to consistently go seven or more innings. On Saturday, Addison Reed pitched in his third straight game and Sunday it was Jeurys Familia’s turn to pitch three in a row. But Monday night Bartolo Colon gave the team seven innings and with a big lead, Terry Collins felt secure to use guys besides his late inning men.
For his third straight appearance, Collins called on Jerry Blevins to pitch a full inning. Now, it should be pointed out that three of the first four hitters due up for the Nationals were lefties, but Collins had to expect the Nats to pinch hit for Ben Revere. So, the first two hitters ended up being RHB and the next two were Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy. Blevins gave up a hit to the second batter but escaped the inning without any damage.
Overall, Blevins has limited righties to a .154 AVG this year, as they have just two hits in 13 ABs this year.
It’s encouraging to see Collins going a full inning with Blevins but it should be pointed out that each of his last three games have been blowouts. Would Collins have had the guts to use Blevins for a full inning if the lead was, say, 4-1 instead of 7-1? We probably know the answer to that one.
The Mets’ relievers have been fantastic this year and hopefully the starters will start performing up to preseason expectations so that the pen won’t be needed for 20 or more innings each week. But those times when Collins leans on the pen heavily, he can’t be so dogmatic about roles. Guys beside Reed need to be trusted to pitch in the 8th inning of tight games and Blevins needs to be allowed to face righties.
Sunday, we saw Jim Henderson pitch after having three days off. We also saw his fastball top out at 96.8 with an average of 94.4 mph. If you were running the pen, would it make more sense to you to make sure Reed pitched in the eighth or that Blevins primarily faced lefties or that Henderson got consistent days off?
To me, this is a no-brainer. The guy in the pen who should be micro-managed is Henderson, not Blevins. When Henderson has been used in back-to-back days, the second day has resulted in a (-0.26) WPA. Ideally, Henderson has two days off between appearances and if need be, he can be used with only a day off. When he’s had two days off between games, he has a +0.27 WPA this year. This type of usage would result in two, sometimes three, appearances per week, hopefully with an end result of 60 high-leverage, high-quality innings.
And sure, you can look to hold Blevins for a guy like Harper. But how many teams have a guy like that? When the Mets are playing the Phillies or the Marlins or a host of other squads, it doesn’t make sense to hold Blevins for one particular batter. He’s not a disaster against righties – lifetime .726 OPS – and we shouldn’t treat him like one, either.
My pen would have consistent rest for Henderson, more full innings for Blevins, more multi-inning appearances for Hansel Robles and Logan Verrett and the use of pitchers besides Reed for the eighth inning, to avoid using him three games in a row. The hope is that this would result in better performance in the long run, as no one can argue with the short-term results Collins has gotten from the pen this year.
Of course, seven strong innings from Matt Harvey tonight would be good, too.
In a game like last night when they have a fairly comfortable lead after 7, why not let Verrett pitch the last two?
TC’s answer would be because three of the first four batters due up were lefties and he was guaranteed to face Bryce Harper.
They both hadn’t pitched in three days so to me it was defensible using two pitchers there. I could see holding off on Verrett because of the possibility of needing a long man if Harvey imploded again. But Blevins wasn’t going two innings, so they were going to use two pitchers even if Verrett didn’t pitch.