Josh Edgin not a lock to play a role with 2017 Mets

Josh Edgin’s major league career has been one of relatively-small-sample single seasons at the major league level. In the four years that he has spent time with the Mets, his high water mark for innings pitched is just 28.2, which he did back in 2013.

A left-handed pitcher, Edgin is now 30 years old, and he’s out of options. It’s not entirely clear what the Mets will do with the last spot or two in their bullpen, but it seems likely that Edgin won’t make the Opening Day roster. If that turns out to be the case, the Mets would have to put him through waivers to send him to Las Vegas, and there’s a non-zero chance that another team would pick him up.

As for his performance in his major league career, Edgin has a 3.42 ERA and 3.81 FIP in 92.0 innings. He only threw 10.1 of those innings last year, but he struggled mightily in them with a 5.23 ERA and 4.02 FIP. Walks were a major issue in his time with the Mets, as they were in the 33.1 innings he spent with the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s.

Edgin’s biggest supporters will point to his performance in 2014, the season in which he had a 1.32 ERA and 2.69 FIP in 27.1 innings. It’s no coincidence that his walk rate that year—1.98 per nine innings—was by far the best single-season mark of his career. It’s just hard to imagine that he could return to that level of success, especially after his velocity dipped after his return from the Tommy John surgery that put him on the shelf for all of 2015. Having averaged 93-94 miles per hour on his fastball between 2012 and 2014, per Brooks Baseball, Edgin threw his fastball at an average of 91.38 miles per hour last year.

It’s not impossible for Edgin to have success in the big leagues this year, but given the Mets’ options and how he performed in his brief stint last year, it’s understandable that he might not get that shot.