David Stearns Active in the Free Agent Market to Bolster the Mets’ Bullpen
Ten days before the trade deadline, Mets’ president of baseball operations David Stearns announced his intention to be “active” in the market. His main focus will be to strengthen the team’s bullpen.The Mets’ need to improve their bullpen is evident.I think providing our group with some bullpen reinforcements would be great. Generally, relievers are traded at the deadline. I’m sure there will be some this year as well, and we’ll be involved in that.
David Stearns
Several relievers have suffered season-ending injuries, including A.J. Minter, Dedniel Núñez, Danny Young, and Max Kranick. These absences, along with injuries to the starters and short outings from the rotation, have put a lot of pressure on the bullpen, which has had modest results in recent weeks. The Mets had the fourth-worst bullpen ERA in the majors and have pitched the fifth-most innings since June 1.
Stearns also mentioned that, if he fails to reinforce the bullpen through trades, he would consider calling up promising prospects to pitch from the bullpen. Among these prospects are Triple-A starters Blade Tidwell, Brandon Sproat, and Nolan McLean. Tidwell already debuted in the Major Leagues this season, while Sproat and McLean have not yet done so.In addition to minor league prospects, the Mets are willing to negotiate with the surplus of young infielders seeking consistent playing time to improve their roster in other areas, according to sources close to the situation. This group includes Mark Vientos, Luisangel Acuña, Bretty Baty, and Ronny Mauricio, all under 25 years old. Stearns highlighted center field as “the only position where we haven’t gotten the level of production we probably anticipated at the start of the year.” Although the Mets will seek an improvement, he indicated that the chances of acquiring a player better than the combination of Tyrone Taylor’s elite defense and Jeff McNeil’s offensive production are slim in this market.The challenge of doing that during the season is that, once you do it, you can’t revert in the same season. We can certainly revert during the offseason, but once we shorten someone to give them the opportunity to be a member of our bullpen, it’s really difficult to rebuild them if you need them as a starter. Therefore, we want to be very cautious if we are going to consider that.
David Stearns
Regarding the rotation of starting pitchers, the Mets lack the prototypical top-tier ace that championship contenders usually have, but Stearns expressed “confidence” and “comfort” with the team’s options. The group received a significant boost with the return of Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea, the team’s two projected starters at the beginning of the season, who returned from the injured list just before the All-Star break. David Peterson, Clay Holmes, and Frankie Montas complete the club’s current rotation, with Griffin Canning (Achilles) out for the season and Tylor Megill (elbow) and Paul Blackburn (shoulder) on the injured list.I think, for me, at least the barrier to improving center field has probably increased in the last, let’s say, two weeks. Due to Jeff’s comfort level a little further along, and also continuously recognizing the secondary skills that Tyrone can provide.
David Stearns
We need to keep those guys healthy. But I think from a talent perspective, we have guys on our team right now that can take us to a postseason series.
David Stearns
