Mets’ Disappointing Bullpen Showing Signs of Life In 2nd Half

Perhaps the biggest downfall of the 2019 New York Mets in the first half of this season was the bullpen. Almost everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, with Edwin Diaz regressing massively, Jeurys Familia getting absolutely mashed, and Justin Wilson missing significant time. Overall, the Mets went into the All-Star break with a 5.57 ERA, the third worst mark in the majors.

However, six games into the second half, the bullpen has done a much more respectable job keeping the Mets in games. Collectively, they have a 2.16 ERA in 25 innings, the third best mark in the majors and the best in the National League.

In particular, Diaz, Familia, and Seth Lugo, who all struggled near the end of the first half in what was a historically awful stretch for the entire bullpen, have been much better as of late.

Lugo, who has been the Mets’ best reliever this year, has been utterly dominant in July, with a 0.00 ERA and 0.66 FIP in seven appearances. He also has a -0.61 FIP since the All-Star break. It’s safe to say that he has rebounded from his little rough spell.

Diaz has also been much better, with four consecutive scoreless outings since his blowup in Philadelphia on July 5. He still seems to be struggling with his command at times, but he is still slowly turning things around. As I wrote about last week, Diaz is primed for a much better second half as he looks to regain his outstanding 2018 form.

The improvement of the Mets bullpen was on full display Thursday night in the Mets’ epic 16-inning loss to the Giants. After Noah Syndergaard threw seven innings of one-run ball, Lugo, Luis Avilan, Diaz, Familia, Robert Gsellman, Wilson, and Chris Mazza combined to throw eight scoreless innings with the game on the line. Unfortunately, Mazza ran out of gas in the 16th as the Giants walked off on the Mets, but the bullpen showed plenty of fight and grit nonetheless.

Among the highlights of the night was a dominant inning from Familia, whose filthy 98 mph sinker was on full display. When Familia has that pitch right, he can be unhittable, as we saw from 2014 to 2016. The Mets were counting on Familia to be their setup man, so him figuring things out would be a huge help to this bullpen going forward.

Plus, the Mets have a couple of left-handed pitchers in Wilson and Avilan who dealt with injuries in the first half but are back in action now, healthy and pitching well. When those two are going well, they round out the bullpen really nicely.

And don’t forget about Gsellman, who probably looked the best of all the Mets relievers in Thursday night’s game, as he struck out three and didn’t allow a hit in his two innings of work. We’ve seen Gsellman succeed out of the bullpen at times in the past, so if he can keep that going, he would be a really nice fallback option behind Lugo.

The Mets bullpen dealt with a lot of issues in the first half, ranging from underperformance and injuries to misusage by Mickey Callaway, but now that everyone’s healthy and rebounding from their rough starts, it’s finally feeling like things are starting to click.

Despite Thursday night’s tough loss, if the bullpen keeps this going a magical run may not be quite out of the picture just yet.