The pitching staff has greatly improved over the last week.
With three of their four moves at the MLB Trade Deadline, the Mets bolstered their bullpen. This was a necessary strategy for the team, as the bullpen, which had been so good for the first two months of the season (2.88 ERA) had fallen into a miasma of injuries and ineffectiveness over the past two (4.42 ERA).
This problem has been compounded by the Mets’ starters not going particularly deep into ballgames. This requires the bullpen to throw more innings than would be ideal, and also means that you’re burning through a fair number of pitchers every game. And even with the Mets entering a period where they’ll have three off days in the next 18, the beleaguered relief corps needed some…well, relief.
Not to mention that the Mets have been shuffling players up and down to Triple-A Syracuse, designating players without options for assignment, and generally winging it day by day to ensure that fresh arms are available. But the downside of that is that for many of those players, the results just weren’t there. Some of them, perhaps, weren’t given the opportunity to get accustomed to their role before being shipped out again. Some of them may just not be big leaguers.
Since July 1st, these are the pitchers who were either called up, sent down, put on the IL, or DFA’d from the Mets: Colin Poche, Austin Warren, Rico Garcia, Justin Hagenman, Dedniel Nuñez, Paul Balckburn, Chris Devenski, José Buttó, Zach Pop, Tyler Zuber, Alex Carrillo, Richard Lovelady, Kevin Herget, Justin Garza, Brandon Waddell, José Castillo, Huascar Brazobán.
Of all of those, the last name is one worth noting: Brazobán was a victim of the roster crunch and the fact that he has minor league options more than a performance issue.
But the Mets had a core of players in their bullpen that were effective, starting with closer Edwin Díaz and including Reed Garrett and the recently returned from the Injured List Brooks Raley. Ryan Stanek has been up and down throughout his Mets’ tenure, but has been on an effective streak since blowing a save against the Orioles on July 10th. Recently, Rico Garcia seems to have entered that circle of trust as well, giving up runs in only two of his seven appearances and currently rocking a hilarious and gaudy 469 ERA+.
The prevailing thought entering in to the deadline was that the Mets needed at least one, if not two, but ideally three arms to bolster the bullpen. David Stearns did exactly that, bringing in a trio of interesting arms: Gregory Soto, Tyler Rogers, and Ryan Helsley. With the Phillies adding Jhoan Durán, their bullpen looks improved as well, but the Mets did more extensive work with their relief corps. We’ve written extensively about all three additions so far, but more than extol their individual virtues here, let’s look at how they shape the way the bullpen is used.
For this exercise, let’s begin with the hypothetical that Clay Holmes is starting a game for the Mets and, as is his wont to do, goes five innings and is out. Let’s also presume that this is a close game, and Holmes leaves when the Mets have a 3-2 lead. The bullpen has to get 12 outs to secure the win.
With Díaz locked into to the closer’s role, we can presume that the ninth inning is his. New addition Helsley was closing games for the Cardinals for the past few seasons, and has already saved 21 games this year, and so it seems likely that he will be the eighth inning man for the Mets in a close game that means something, standings wise. It wouldn’t be wise to always pitch Díaz and Helsley back to back, but that will be the move in the playoffs and in other must-win games.
Presuming rest and health, the Mets have six options to get six outs. They’ve got two lefties in Soto and Raley and so one of them could be used in the more traditional neutralizer role for a big bat without worrying about wasting your left-handed reliever too early in the game. Raley is more effective against righties than Soto is, so you’ll likely see Soto brought in to face your Schwarbers or Ohtanis, with Raley starting more innings.
Stanek and Garrett both saved games not too long ago and both have been used effectively in high leverage situations. They can still be used in the odd high leverage scenario, but more importantly for this team, these guys may become your sixth inning pitchers.
Rogers is one of the more fascinating players in baseball, with an unusual delivery, an ERA under two and some of the lowest hard-hit contact in the sport. He can be utilized in so many places, even if he’s not necessarily going to strike out many. Ideally, you’d like to see Rogers start innings against the big boppers in a lineup. He’s got almost no platoon splits, aside from lefties having a little better power against him (.306 slugging versus .283 slugging for righties), so you don’t have to worry too much about what part of the lineup he’s coming in to face.
The only role that seems missing from the club is a bulk guy. Garcia can go two innings, as can most of the guys who would be recalled to replace him if he falters (Brazobán, Devinski, etc), but the long reliever doesn’t really exist in this bullpen right now.
Someone who may occupy that role in a few weeks is Tylor Megill, who is eligible to come off the IL in mid-August, though reports about his recovery have been sparse. Megill may also factor in as a sixth starter, which would allow more rest for the rotation but one less spot in the bullpen. However, any of the starters could fill a bulk role on their throwing day should the Mets need some additional help due to an injury or ineffectiveness.
This new bullpen also means that, if Díaz is used two days in a row, you’ve still got a lights out closer in Helsley that can fill in if need be. In fact, there’s no role that there isn’t some redundancy with, and when all of the pieces are effective, that’s a fantastic thing.
Not only that, Helsley and Rogers have about as different arm angles as you can have. Rogers has easily the lowest release point in all of baseball, and Helsley delivers the ball almost completely over the top. The amount of different looks that the Mets will have, arm-slot wise, coming out of the bullpen is going to keep batters off balance.
Come the playoffs, if Holmes is still struggling to go deep in games, the Mets may also ask him to return to the bullpen, making an already elite bullpen even stronger. I am not advocating for the Mets to throw bullpen games in the playoffs ala the 2025 Dodgers, but I would feel a hell of a lot better about their bullpen going into those games now than I would at any point in the past ten years at least.
With all of these options, it is clear that this is a bullpen that can weather a few bad performances, an injury, or overuse. The last one is the most important one, because that is the story of most bullpens come August, but especially when starters aren’t going too deep. If the Mets, for now, keep that Rico Garcia spot available for the occasional swap out, they can make a move to give their regular guys a little break now and then.
With all due respect to José Buttó and the 15 other pitchers who pitched for the Mets in July but will most likely not in August, this collection of pitchers has shifted the Mets’ bullpen from a liability to a strength. The confidence that Met fans feel with this relief corps today is so vastly different than it was a week ago. The three additions to the bullpen have completely changed the conversation about the Mets’ pitching staff.
Would it have been nice to add a starter? Absolutely, but the price was not necessarily matching the quality they would get back. So instead, Stearns went shopping for relievers and, as our Thomas Henderson has pointed out, managed to snag these players without doing much irreparable damage to the farm in the process. With the hope of Nolan McLean not far down the road, the Mets may already have a new starting pitcher in August in house, especially for the team’s 16 games without an off-day that begins on August 19th.
With a lineup that includes Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, and Pete Alonso in their primes, a rotation that features a healthy Kodai Senga, David Peterson, and Sean Manaea, and the newly bolstered bullpen, the 2025 Mets are looking seriously dangerous down the stretch.