This season the development of Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia in the back end of the Mets bullpen got a lot of attention, but flying more under the radar was the season that Carlos Torres put together in middle relief.
Torres solidified himself as one of Terry Collins’ favorite arms with his stellar performance, striking out nearly a batter an inning over 97.0 innings pitched over 73 appearances. His RA9-WAR (1.0) was the second-highest in the pen, behind only Familia.
For Torres, who signed as a free agent after the 2012 season, the 2014 season built off of a trend of steady improvement. Since his first significant action in the bigs in 2012 with the Colorado Rockies, Torres’ ERA has dropped (to a career low of 3.06 in ’14) and his strikeouts have increased.
His season wasn’t perfect, though, he was touched up for four runs in an inning against Milwaukee on June 12th, and had a stretch of four straight appearances in the beginning of August where he surrendered runs, but both times he bounced back with strong appearances. Rather than have his confidence shaken, he didn’t allow the blips on the radar to shake him.
Having an option in the bullpen like Torres – a reliever who can effectively pitch more than one inning is a huge luxury. With Bobby Parnell, Mejia, Familia and Vic Black likely to get a majority of the late-inning work for the Mets, being able to throw a Torres out in earlier stages of the game only serves to shorten the game further.
It is even nicer that the Mets bullpen depth is such that there is no need to bring in a Kyle Farnsworth or Jose Valverde to form a patchwork pen in 2015, which has been the status quo since Duaner Sanchez decided to get in a taxi at 2 am in 2006. And that is thanks to having relievers like Torres.
With a lot of breaking news today, I don’t want to overlook this. I’m in complete agreement Joe. Despite heavy and irresponsible misuse by Collins, he really did a solid job.
Torres was great in 2014. The key will be to see if he can continue next year and beyond. If he doesn’t show any affects from the use (a big if) then the Mets will have a great incentive to develop some other excess arms — Mazzoni? Pill? Verrett? — for this type of role in the future.
If you had two guys like Torres, you could conceivably go back to a six-man pen, even with a LOOGY.
Wow. Torres finished with 97 innings. 92 of which were as a reliever.
Since 2010, only 4 other pitchers achieved that mark. Going back to 2000, 32 other pitchers achieved that mark.
It’s a shame someone like him doesn’t get more love from fWAR. These type of pitchers pitch in “low-leverage” situations, but in baseball you have to play 9 innings and these guys save the arms of the other guys in the pen. Any normal fan could see he was a tremendous asset for the Mets.
Is it fair to say that there was
*significant*
regression in following years for those relievers, Name? (No idea on my part, just a guess.)
I would think this is a perfect time to “sell-high” on Torres, and I’ve been a big fan for some time.
Tiny sample size, but yes, these types of guys do regress.
The 4 other names were Swarzak(2013), Aceves(2011), Belisle(2010), and Collmenter(2013)
Swarzak went from a 2.91 to 4.60 ERA
Aceves went from 2.61 to 5.36 ERA
Belisle actually regressed gracefully : 2.93 to 3.25 to 3.71 to 4.32 and finally 4.87 ERA
Collmenter went back to being a starter.
I’d be surprised if the regression rate of a long reliever was that much different from shorter relievers though .
Also, I don’t think middle relievers ever have much value to begin with, so you’re not gonna get much premium for “selling high”. For example, Vin Mazzaro, who had a fine season last year, made it through waivers this year not once, but twice. So there is no reason to go out and trade this guy, because no one would give up anything for him and because he’s still dirt cheap.
Three astute points from three astute baseball fans above. I couldn’t have said it better, Chris F, Brian and Name. Your article and observations were right on, Joe.
I couldn’t agree more. I had Carlos Torres as the MVP of this team the first two months of the season. I can’t remember how many times he came up big late in games as well as bailing us out when Colon/Gee threw a stinker or Wheeler couldn’t get out of the 5th.
Winning teams have dominant bullpens. That includes those guys that eat up innings in the middle for you. The Mets have a gem in Torres. Outstanding article!!
The Mets have a stocked bullpen to start 2015
Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia, Bobby Parnell, Vic Black, Jack Leathersich and the aforementioned Carlos Torres who might be as important as any of the others.
Match Wheeler and Torres on same days. Let him get his innings in chunks, rather than having him warm up everyday. Plus it would stretch him out for spot-starts if needed.
Patrick, your idea stirred vague memories of it being done, perhaps by Casey back in the ’50’s with the Yankees. I’m sorry that my memory has failed. The idea may not be new, very few “new” strategies in baseball really are, but it still has merit. Perhaps it’s too radical for the Mets manager, whatever his name is.
NormE is right, it was Casey. I forget who the combination was.
Good call, both.