Mets activate Anthony Swarzak, Todd Frazier

The New York Mets activated relief pitcher Anthony Swarzak and third baseman Todd Frazier from the DL following the completion of their rehab assignments. Reliever Gerson Bautista was optioned back to Triple-A Las Vegas and reliever Buddy Baumann was designated for assignment to make room on the roster.

Swarzak will be available for the Mets out of the bullpen tonight, and Frazier is starting at third and batting cleanup in his first appearance back.

Swarzak, the lone reliever the Mets signed in the offseason, appeared in just two games for the Mets before going down with a sore left oblique. His last appearance was all the way back on March 31, when he through 1.1 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals. Swarzak didn’t look too hot in his two rehab appearances in Las Vegas, giving up three runs on four hits over 2.2 innings. He walked two, struck out three, and, most troublingly, had three wild pitches in the same inning.

The Mets hope Swarzak will bolster a bullpen that has repeatedly cost them games this season. The fact that it allows the Mets to send down Bautista—whose 12.46 ERA and the walk-off homer for the Atlanta Braves’ Johan Camargo sum up his majors tenure accurately—should theoretically help a bullpen that owns the fifth-worst ERA and sixth-worst FIP in baseball.

Frazier, who was placed on the DL with a left hamstring strain on May 9, should hopefully provide a boost to a lagging offense that has seen too much of Luis Guillorme and Jose Reyes lately. Frazier was the Mets’ “splashy” offensive free agent signing—discounting the return of Jay Bruce and scrap-heap-signing Adrian Gonzalez—and was living up to his billing, and not just for the Salt and Pepper celebration. While he was hitting just .237 when he went on the DL, his .357 OBP is third on the Mets for players with a minimum 100 plate appearances. And in the way that the addition-by-subtraction of sending down Bautista should help the bullpen, being able to play an honest-to-goodness third baseman every day should help the Mets defensively as well.

Baumann, called up as part of the host of bullpen-bolstering roster moves last week, did not do well in either of his two appearances since his most recent call up. He and Bautista were the two pitchers responsible for the Chicago Cubs’ six-run 14th inning back on June 2.