Mets and Astros rained out, and a look at the Mets bullpen race
The Mets have two bullpen spots available with a long list of candidates
What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
The Mets and Astros were rained out on Wednesday in West Palm Beach
Mets pitching prospect Dominic Hamel told David Stearns he wants to be called up to the majors as soon as possible (New York Post)
Shintaro Fujinami - who recently left camp for Japan to deal with a visa issue - will make his spring debut this week
Michael Tonkin could have the inside track on one of the two available bullpen spots (New York Post)
Injury Updates 🏥
Kodai Senga (right capsule strain) is feeling good but will not resume throwing until at least March 15
Edwin Díaz (2023 knee surgery) felt fine following his appearance in an intrasquad game earlier this week. He is expected to make his Grapefruit League debut next week
Today’s Game 🗓️
Match-up: Mets (5-5) vs. Nationals (6-4)
Where: Clover Park - Port St. Lucie, Florida
Starters: LHP José Quintana (0-1, 10.80 ERA) vs. RHP Jake Irvin (0-1, 17.18 ERA)
When: 6:10 PM EST
Where To Watch: SNY
What’s going on with the Mets bullpen race? ✍️
We are at about the half way juncture of spring training as a whole with three weeks or so to go before Opening Day. So, it’s time to take a look at how the Mets bullpen could stack up heading into the Mets’ opening day dance against the Brewers at Citi Field on March 28.
Out of the gate, this is who we know has a spot down there:
Edwin Díaz
Adam Ottavino
Brooks Raley
Jake Diekman
Drew Smith
Jorge López
We can argue how inspiring or not those five are another day. In the end, this seems to be the list of guarantees going north in the Mets bullpen for March 28.
That leaves two spots open to a lot of candidates: Phil Bickford, Michael Tonkin, Shintaro Fujinami, Sean Reid-Foley, Grant Hartwig, Reed Garrett, José Buttó, Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi, Austin Adams, Nate Lavender, Yohan Ramirez, Yacksel Rios, Cole Slusser, Chad Smith and Josh Walker.
I’d expect with Kodai Senga likely starting the season on the injured list, Buttó, Megill and Lucchesi are not really in a race for a bullpen spot and instead vying for the vacancy in the rotation. The winner goes in the rotation, the losers go to Triple-A Syracuse to start and right now, it’s hard to argue against Megill being in the rotation given his 13 strikeouts over eight innings so far this spring. But we will see what the next 2 1/2 weeks bring in that race.
That leaves 13 pitchers for two spots in the bullpen. Realistically, most of those 13 probably are already on the outside looking in considering their roster status and experience levels, including Lavender who has had a nice camp so far for the Mets, for instance. In his case, it’s hard to see the Mets carry three left-handed relievers out of the gate and his roster status may help seal the deal on that, unfortunately for him.
Mark Sánchez in the New York Post suggests Tonkin might be leading the race for one of the spots considering he is on the 40-man roster already, had a pretty good year out of the bullpen for the Braves in 2023 and was particularly stifling against righties last year, holding them to a .613 OPS.
The ideal bullpen brand to me should include two left-handed relievers, a shutdown swing-and-miss short reliever, and a closer. The Mets actually checked the boxes from the left side of the bullpen this winter with Raley returning and securing Diekman, which I am actually pretty satisfied with. Outside of that, among the arms with guaranteed spots (barring injury), they don’t have that shutdown reliever in front of Díaz. Sure, Ottavino is an excellent reliever, López and Smith come with some upside but I think all three would admit they’re not exactly today’s version of the ideal eighth inning swing-and-miss reliever.
I do like Phil Bickford’s upside and he’s been working on a new changeup to help make him more versatile and valuable out of the bullpen. But he has had a bumpy ride since his strong showing for the Dodgers in 2021, producing just an 87 ERA+ and a 4.84 ERA in 121 appearances since. He does induce a decent swing and miss rate but his fastball velocity doesn’t play in the long game for a shutdown reliever, so I’d guess he’s probably behind in this race due to all of that and his most recent track record.
Then of course there is Reid-Foley who made it all the way back from Tommy John Surgery in early 2022 to make eight pretty good appearances for the Mets down the stretch last year. He has never really been able to get a solid footing on his big league career but he’s still just 27 and showed off an excellent fastball in that small sample for the Mets last season. Is it enough for the Mets to award a roster spot to Reid-Foley and roll the dice?
I don’t know about that. But this is where Fujinami comes into play for me.
There’s no question he’s a total wild card given the 45 walks and seven hit batsmen in 79 innings last year. That’s the reason he produced a -2.1 bWAR and 7.18 ERA in his rookie campaign.
But imagine if those walks were just cut in half? And let’s just say 25 percent of those walks that are cut out could convert to strikeouts, which is probably being too conservative? There’s the swing-and-miss reliever the Mets need.
Now, it’s not that simple, of course. One of the reasons the Mets signed Fujinami was because they can send him to the minors with the option he has, but they’re also like me, imagining the upside with the right coach and voice in his ear. With a fastball that averages 98.5 mph, that’s hard to resist if he’s showing even the slightest improvement in his control.
Like I said, the Mets can always send Fujinami to the minors out of the gate or over the course of the season if it’s not working out. Given the state of affairs with the Mets, my gut says that unless Fujinami is a total dumpster fire in his camp games or he’s hurt, they’re going to give him the roster spot on opening day because of that upside and because of the need to miss bats late in games.
Again, with the right birdie on his shoulder, he could be a game changer for the Mets bullpen.
Around the League 🚩
Mike Trout hit his first spring homer in the Angels 6-5 loss to the Cubs
Carlos Rodón allowed two homers in three innings as the Rays topped the Yankees 4-3
Brayan Bello is in talks with the Red Sox on a contract extension
Mike Zunino announced his retirement (Instagram)
Eddie Rosario signed a minor league deal with the Nationals (New York Post)