Once again, New York Mets reliever Drew Smith will be one of the key relievers in the bullpen.
With Edwin Diaz back, Smith will be expected to fill in once again in the seventh inning and at times in the eighth inning as well.
Smith is currently the longest tenured Met in their bullpen. He was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in the Lucas Duda trade back in the 2017 midseason.
During his major league career, Smith has had an up and down tenure, with some injuries, and some highs and lows on the mound.
Smith made his major league debut in 2018 and had a respectable 3.54 ERA in 27 games. He then had Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2019 season. He made limited appearances in 2020 in recovery, but was back at full strength in 2021, going 3-1 with a 2.40 ERA.
Smith got off to a blazing start in 2022, not allowing an unearned run in April. But he struggled with some inconsistency from then on and finished 2022 with a 3.33 ERA.
Smith continued his inconsistent stretches in 2023 and his ERA went up last year at 4.15 while going 4-6.
Smith was a highly recruited pitching prospect, when the Mets acquired him for Duda. He threw his fastball in the mid-90s and threw a sharp curveball as well. He also developed a changeup during his time in the majors.
Smith has had many fine outings in which he showcased his potential and made the Mets believe that he can perhaps be a future closer. But he also has had ineffective outings, which left the Mets brass shaking their heads.
When he’s on, Smith has strikeout stuff. In 2021, he had 41 Ks in 41 innings pitched. In 2022, he had 53 Ks in 46 IP; and in 2023, he had 60 Ks in 56 IP.
When he’s not on, Smith has control issues and is prone to the home run ball. Especially last season, when Smith walked 29 batters and his K/BB ration dropped to 2.1 compared to 3.5 in 2022. Smith also gave up 7 home runs in 2021, 9 homers in 2022, and 7 last season. Some of the homers last year came in big spots, giving the opposing team the lead late in games.
So, Smith at times, has been a source of frustration for many Mets fans with his inconsistency despite his good stuff. He will be one of the important pieces again in the Mets bullpen this season, as he will help bridge the gap to Diaz in the 9th inning, as will Adam Ottavino and Brooks Raley do as well.
Smith will enter his final year of team control. If he continues his inconsistent stretch, the Mets could possibly move on from him after this season.
We have seen Smith at his best and why the Mets traded power hitting Duda for him. But he must do it more consistently and this could be his last chance to prove that.
Think Smith will be gone by June. There is a surplus of relievers and if he doesn’t perform they will replace him.
Smith is a free agent at the end of the year. As such, this isn’t his last chance at all. He’s basically out of chances with the Mets – he’s simply not the type of player that teams make an effort to keep. But someone, somewhere will give him some sort of chance. Second-to-worst case scenario is that he gets a minor league deal with a spring training invite.
Obviously, 40-man roster, options and salary all figure into things for who makes the Opening Day bullpen. But if we cold ignore those things, my pen would be:
Diaz
Raley
Ottavino
Diekman
Reid-Foley
Yohan Ramirez
Reed Garrett (but it could be any of a half dozen guys)
For the eighth spot, I’d pick one of the depth starters. One replaces Senga in the rotation, one goes to the pen and one goes to AAA
The depth starter, Reid-Foley and Garrett all can go multiple innings.
Meanwhile, in reality Smith will be in the pen on Opening Day. May he pitch a full season with a good ERA supported by his peripherals.
It’d be nice if we had those choices. But like you said, salary and options will figure in: Smith has two options, but his five years (and 34 days) service time gives him the right to reject any minor league assignment and become a free agent. Had they optioned him down a few times last year, as his pitching warranted, he might not have reached that five year plateau and they would have more flexibility now. As it stands now, even if they option everyone who can be optioned (including Fujinami), there will still be two relievers who will need to be DFA’d due to being out of options.
He’s basically like most of the bullpen: here for one year. He hasn’t been good in a year and a half, and he had a golden opportunity last year when Diaz went down and then again when Robertson was traded, and he fell flat both times.
I’d rather they give the shot to Reid-Foley or Ramirez (or even Lavender), but I see him on the roster come OD.
Last year, he had 62 appearances of one or less innings and in 19 of the appearances he gave up at least one run. That is a Relief Reliability of 69%. With those results he isn’t a 7th or 8th relief pitcher. He is a slightly above average reliever that can easily be replaced.
When you say he “gave up at least one run”, does that account for all the runs he let in? Or only the ones for which he was charged? How many times did he allow runners to score that were charged to the previous pitcher.
Just the earned runs he allowed.
He is what he is; a 5th or 6th inning pitcher and not to reliable.
Not a fan of him at all.
I don’t get to watch every game but it seemed like whenever I saw him pitch, he would throw his curve right into someone’s wheelhouse and it would end up in the seats.
I would love to see him packaged up in a trade to get some value for him as IMHO, he’s not ever going to be as good as his potential. Time to get some value out of him before he has another crappy year.