The New York Mets brought back a familiar face to their bullpen. They brought back righty Adam Ottavino on a one-year, $4.5 million deal.
Ottavino will help the bullpen, which struggled mightily last season. Even though he too was up and down in 2023, he is still one of their more reliable relievers and had a great 2022 season.
Even with Ottavino’s return and closer Edwin Diaz coming back after missing all of last season with injury, the Mets still can use more relief help.
The front end of the Mets bullpen appears set with Diaz returning as closer, and Ottavino and lefty Brooks Raley sharing setup duties. After that, there’s some uncertainties and not so sure fill-ins.
Drew Smith will be back and will also pitch in some important innings late in games. But Smith has been inconsistent all throughout his career, including last season. The Mets signed Jorge Lopez this offseason. Lopez was an All Star closer for the Baltimore Orioles in 2022, but he regressed last season. The team can also bring back Grant Hartwig, Jose Butto and Phil Bickford. All three of them had some fine moments in 2022, but not consistently.
The saying always holds true. You can never have enough pitching. And certainly, you can never have enough relief. A deep bullpen with many options always helps especially in the playoffs. The Mets have some sure arms that can fill in late in games, but they still need more consistent options before that, to bridge the gap to Raley, Ottavino and Diaz.
According to Andy Martino, the Mets still had $10 million to spend before the Ottavino spending. It’s down to $5.5 million after retaining Ottavino. The Mets are still looking for relief help, hoping to acquire another one within their price range.
The Mets should sign Phil Maton (2023 FIP of 3.74) and/or Scott Alexander (3.26). You might get both for $10 million. Yes, more than the loose number of bucks left, according to Martino, but still reasonable.
Hartwig is a big no, with his 2023 FIP of 4.44, a WHIP of 1.387 and mediocre stuff. I’m also not wild about Bickford, with his FIP of 4.46, WHIP of 1.455, but higher K/9 than Hartwig.
According to Will Sammon the mets are close to signing a deal with Jake Bierman (lhp) who had a 2.18 era with the Ray’s last season after being traded from the white Sox. Good move.
There is potential in this pen especially if Lopez can regain his form and with Drew Smith in lower leverage situations.
Diaz
Otto
Raley
Diekman
Lopez
Smith
Bickford/tomkin/kranich/Reid Foley etc.
Hopefully the Rays unlocked something with Diekman, because he’s been pretty uninspiring in 2021-22 and the beginning of 2023 with the White Sox. But the Rays have been known to do that, so I’ll give this move a thumbs up.
I like that he throws 98 and is a bit wild. Lots of soft contact.
What do we know about Peyton Battenfield? Any upside in the pen for this arm?
Tough to be optimistic about any player with a K rate as poor as Battenfield’s.
I really like the Diekman signing. Overall, I think Stearns added some good value signings and added a lot of depth, something that we did really not have over the last few years. And if a couple of the relievers do well in AAA, we can bring them up.
Championship teams need depth.