The 2014 New York Mets had an outstanding bullpen at times and was overall a strength of the team. It didn’t start that way and it certainly didn’t look that way at times during the season. There are a few pitchers that made the bullpen so questionable early on.
As we continue our look into the worst players of the 2014 New York Mets season, we examine that bullpen and those few pitchers. There were a total of 17 players that threw a pitch in a relief role this season. Among them, three players stand out above all else: John Lannon, Scott Rice and Jose Valverde.
First up is John Lannon. He arrived as an offseason veteran signing that was supposed to compete for the back end of the rotation or, at the least, be a spot starter and long reliever. He did none of the above. Despite struggling throughout spring training he was still given a chance on the roster. Unfortunately, he gave up seven runs on seven hits, three home runs and struck out two in a total of four innings. That’s not a typo, four innings.
He performed so miserably, that the team sent him down to AAA in hopes that he would regain his form or at the least help provide a veteran presence for the kids on the farm. He was little use there also. Between A+ St Lucie and AAA Las Vegas, he posted a 6.75 ERA, a 3-5 record in 14 appearances and 30 strikeouts in 56 total innings. The worst part of this all is that he was paid $1.5 M for his dismal efforts.
Next is Scott Rice. After a breakout campaign in 2013 that saw him post a 3.71 ERA in 51 Innings, 2014 wasn’t as successful. Rice struggled to maintain that level of success. He posted a 5.93 ERA in 13.2 Innings.
His walk ratio went up (27 in 51 IP in 2013 compared to 12 in 13 IP in 2014), he couldn’t finish hitters as easily (13 strikeouts in 13 IP in 2014 compared to 41 in 51 IP last season) and he uncorked nearly twice as many wild pitches (five in 13 IP this season compared to three in 51 IP last season) this short season as he did all of last year.
These struggles led to his demotion in the hopes that he could regain his form. He never did. In July, he underwent season ending elbow surgery. Could he have bounced back had he not injured his elbow? We’ll never know. He is on this short list for that abysmal 13.2 innings however.
Finally, on the list is Jose Valverde. Valverde was brought in as a cheap replacement for the injured Bobby Parnell and was never really looked at as a long term answer to the back end woes the Mets experienced in recent years, but he was an experienced closer, nonetheless.
As a member of the 2014 New York Mets, he pitched in 21 games and finishing 13 of them, while only tallying two saves. He posted ten walks, four home runs, 24 hits, 16 runs and a 5.66 ERA. Absolutely dreadful numbers for any pitcher, let alone a de-facto closer. He was paid a sum of $1M to pitch that poorly. In other words, the Mets paid him $500K per save.
He was so bad, in fact, that there was no grace period or second chances by demoting him to the minors to try to figure things out. He was outright released at the end of May. Two months into the season.
With all of these pitchers performances, salary, desired team role and length of season stint considered, the Least Valuable Award Nominee from the 2014 New York Mets bullpen would have to be Jose Valverde.
Although John Lannon was disgusting, the Mets had depth at the Major League level and in the Minors to overcome his discrepancies on the roster. He was viewed more as a pitcher to take a chance on rather than a real solution. No major loss when he was demoted.
Scott Rice had become a lefty specialist and was also a little easier to replace in the bullpen. Manager Terry Collins just used Josh Edgin, among others, to eventually fill that role. Also, the fact that he didn’t have the full opportunity to bounce back from a poor start has to be factored into why he wasn’t the worst reliever the team had.
Overall, given expectation and his eventual miserable, failed attempt to solidify the back end of the bullpen and how much it cost the team to learn that not only was he not the answer, but that they had more viable solutions already in the system, Jose Valverde was the biggest failure the bullpen saw this past season.
Will that make him the Overall Least Valuable Player in a few weeks? Time will tell. That will be announced in two weeks at the conclusion of this series after we look at the bench next Thursday.
For this week, Jose “Papa Grande” Valverde wasn’t so grand.
If the Mets as you say had viable options already in place why did management wait so long to pull the trigger and dump these rejects? Between Lannon, Valverde, Farnswoth and Chris Young that’s almost 10 million dollars wasted this year in not only non-productive roles but counter productive as well. Can you imagine if Sandy Alderson had faith in the abilities of his young stars where the Mets could of finished this season? My vote is for Lannon for humbly pitching his way through the Mets farm system, I hope he got the bonus miles for his travels.
That’s the million dollar question isn’t it Pete? The team invests all this time and money into grooming players like Mejia, Familia and Montero since the time they’re literally still children, yet don’t show any faith in them when the time comes to test them out.
They may be showing us how much faith they really have in their system as a whole. At least how much faith they have in their evaluation skills. I agree entirely with you about the point of imagine how we would’ve finished had their youth had the chance from the gate. Excellent points Pete.
So Lannon and Valverde combined cost the Mets $2.5m?
LaTroy Hawkins signed with the Rockies for $2.5m.
wait a minute, I am scratching my head now.
Are you sure? No really, is that true?
Problem I have with Alderson is he spends so much tine keeps trying to find the next super discount player he sometimes forgets that what he has may just be better than what he hopes to find next off season. He’s like a compulsive shopper. Maybe he feels safety in numbers?
Metsense you also forgot to add Farnsworth and his salary to the equation. Just think SA got 3 for the price of i!
small correction pete…
SA got 0 for the price of 3!!!
2014 41 Colorado Rockies $2,250,000
Lannan signed the advanced consent waiver before the season which meant the Mets could demote him within the first 45 days and only have to pay him a prorated portion of his contract.
Since he was only on the team for 2 weeks, the Mets only paid around 10% or 150k.
While the stability of Hawkins would have been nice, would we have seen the emergence of Familia and Mejia?
And in hindsight, this year showed why you shouldn’t pay big money for relievers (or complain if you let one leave) as the Mets were (luckily) able to scrounge up 75 decent innings from Carlyle, Eveland, and Farnsworth while paying them nothing.
But Name! That’s exactly the point that Alderson has failed to understand! If as you say that it’s not a good idea to invest huge sums of money for a bull pen, then why does SA keep repeating the same mistake year in and year out? Lannan, Farnswoth and Valverde cost the team not only millions of dollars but how many loses? The team needed to get off to good start and build some confidence. When was Alderson going to give the kids a chance to perform at the big league level? To me it seemed like a last resort because there was nothing left in the reject pile to draw from. If you’re a young reliever working your way up to get to Queens what does it say when the team prefers to sign players past their prime as opposed to allowing the kids an opportunity to excel? not exactly a vote of confidence.
My two cents:
Who’s fault is it that after waiting until the end of the offseason to make a move, they swing and miss on Balfour? So, when Parnell does in fact go down with injury as was suspected, they only have Valverde to turn to. A pitcher that was cut in mid-2013 by the Tigers when they needed relievers and I one picked him up all year. Like Brandon Lyons the year before, taking a guy that no one else wants and expecting him to play a major role. Alderson is egotistically insane: Doing these things over and over and expecting different results.
Rice’s strikeout percentage actually went up from 2013 to 2014
His K/9 went up from 7.24 to 8.56. His BB/9 went up as well from 4.76 to a staggering 7.90. One jump was not enough to justify the other.