Another Bullpen Meltdown: Mets Lead MLB With 13 Blown Saves

Frustrating, maddening and demoralizing are three words that best describe how I felt last night, after watching yet another agonizing meltdown by the New York Mets bullpen.

I do not want to hear Mets broadcasters utter another word about how awful the Nationals bullpen is. Wake up and smell the awful. With 13 blown saves, the New York Mets bullpen is officially the worst in major league baseball, two more than the Washington Nationals and seven more than the last place Miami Marlins.

When Edwin Diaz surrendered four runs and two home runs in the gut-wrenching 9-8 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, it underscored just how abysmal the Mets bullpen has been this season.

When Brodie Van Wagenen traded the Mets’ top two prospects Justin Dunn and Jarred Kelenic to acquire an aging Robinson Cano and last season’s AL Reliever of the Year, Diaz was billed as the one reliever who would help restore MLB’s worst bullpen to a level of respectability at the very least. Diaz was the prize of the deal and assuming $100 million of the remaining $120 million on Cano’s contract only added to the incredible cost for Diaz.

But despite his 57 saves, 0.791 WHIP and 1.96 ERA in 2018, his tour of duty with the Mets thus far, has been anything resembling the dominant numbers we’ve come to expect from the 25-year old Diaz.

Don’t get me wrong. A 3.04 ERA and 1.23 WHIP are not entirely bad for a major league closer, and in fact those numbers are pretty good. However, the Mets didn’t shell out an embarrassment of prospect riches for “pretty good,” they paid handsomely for “filthy good.”

Diaz has three losses and two blown saves in the team’s first 58 games, and the five home runs he’s allowed so far this season is what he allowed all of last season. His strikeouts are down, his walks are up and most concerning is how much more contact batters are making. In fact, he has a 8.4 hits per 9 this season compared to a 5.0 H/9 in 2018.  And that’s just the tip of the team’s bullpen issues.

When Van Wagenen went out and brought Jeurys Familia back in the offseason, to the tune of three years and $30 million dollars, I’m not gonna lie, I thought it was a great move and that it would finally give us the setup reliever this team has lacked in recent years.  Sadly, I was wrong as evidenced by Familia’s unsightly numbers that include a 5.59 ERA, 1.81 WHIP, a career-high 6.6 walk rate, and a career-low 5.5 strikeout rate.

I wish I could stop there, but alas I cannot.

Before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow, lefty reliever Justin Wilson, was no less worse than Familia. After a solid season in 2018 that helped him land a two-year deal with the Mets, Wilson was on his way to an abysmal season headlined by a 4.82 ERA, 5.93 FIP and a 1.393 WHIP. With a strikeout rate that averaged 12.2 over the previous for seasons, Wilson’s strikeout rate plummeted to 8.7 since joining the Mets.

We can talk about Mickey Callaway‘s appalling bullpen management all day long, and believe me, it’s been ridiculously awful and frequently head-scratching at times.

But in the end, the hitters need to hit and the pitchers need to pitch, and quite obviously, Mets relievers have been underwhelming at best and the three signature offseason additions have pitched well below expectations and in two cases, as bad as you can get.

This is why the Mets have the worst bullpen in the major leagues. Sorry, Brodie, but you get a big fat “F” on your offseason report card, and to be perfectly honest – you should shoulder most of the blame for yet another Mets bullpen debacle – not Mickey Callaway.