FanPost

An Impact Reliever

An Impact Reliever

If there is something that Mets fans hate is losing a game through bad relief pitching. New York has had its share of bad late inning relief from the disaster that was Jose Valverde and the job that K Rod did a few years ago. Now we have Jeurys Famila, a formidable closer that makes bats miss likes its nobody's business. Although he has had some mishaps in recent relief efforts he is the main stable in this bullpen and on the Mets team. But what else needs to happen here? Who else needs to become a life line and a go to person in this bullpen? Here are a few options as to whom that may be.

I am going to separate this bullpen by lefties and righties as to look at both sides of the spectrum:

Lefty:

Antonio Bastardo:

The newly acquired southpaw has not looked to good in spring training and New York hopes he can turn it around once the season starts. His spring training started with a 6.30 era and a small strike out rate. Granted its only spring training but he needs to be the shutdown guy the Mets paid for. He also has to be the counterpart of Jeruys Famila and might become the answer to lefties (other than Steven Matz) that the Mets have been looking for.

Sleeper: Watch out for Sean Gilmartin, even though he is with the 51s he can still contribute at another time. He looked sharp in his spring training games and looked pristine in his spot start giving up the games only run over 3 innings striking out three against the Cardinals. Even though he has an ERA was slightly over, 4 the training staff likes his strike out rate and his rate of efficiently. Gilmatin can become another relief man as well as a long relief man as we saw in spring training. And has the potential to be called up pretty quickly in the majors. If Bastardo cannot get the job done the Mets hope that Gilmartin can fill the role.

If you want a lefty reliever at the major league level pick Jerry Blevins who is on the comeback trail and hungry to contribute.

Right: Besides Jeurys Famila in the bullpen the Mets need another right handed pitcher to stabilize and become another workhorse in late innings. And I think that person has to be Addison Reed both now and in the long run. If he can return to the all star closer he once was then he has potential to even pass Familia. Having him as a shutdown set up man and Familia as the primary closer will make this team unstoppable. He looked good in Spring training sporting a 2.79 ERA to this day. He is coming together in spring and hopefully it can transfer to the Regular season. Reed has the stuff to be great again possession an overpowering fastball and movement pitches, patience and time is needed both on his part and our part.

Sleeper: Someone I would look out for is newly acquired Jim Henderson. He is a former closer that has grown on the Mets as a formidable reliever. He has an overpowering fastball and has a great slider. Who knows if this may turn into another Kyle Farnsworth situation but Henderson has some potential and some good stuff to do it with.

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