The Mets’ most productive relief pitcher from 2021, Aaron Loup, left via free agency this past offseason, leaving big shoes to fill in the team’s bullpen.
Not only was New York losing one of its best relievers, but it was losing a great lefty on their pitching staff as well.
Shortly after the three-plus month league wide lockout ended in March, the Mets signed old friend and fellow lefty Chasen Shreve to a minor league deal.
Right before the season started, they then added another southpaw, acquiring Joely Rodriguez in a deal with the New York Yankees in exchange for right-hander Miguel Castro.
While the usage of lefties in current day MLB is different than it once was due to the three batter minimum rule, having productive southpaws in the bullpen is still important for matchup purposes.
Losing Loup was a big blow as he was relied on heavily in 2021 (65 appearances) while posting a historic 0.95 ERA, but thus far, both Shreve and Rodriguez have been more than solid replacements.
Shreve, 31, currently has 0.4 fWAR through 10 games (11.2 innings), which is already a career-high.
The Las Vegas native pitched for the Mets in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and put together a decent campaign, as he pitched to a 3.96 ERA, 3.99 FIP and 3.61 xFIP.
Shreve spent last season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but was ripe for the picking prior to this year and the Mets pounced.
While there are some flaws in his game (his hard hit percentage is in the 29th percentile according to Baseball Savant and his barrel rate is in the 12th), he has been successful in limiting walks (1.54 BB/9) and has the highest strikeout rate of his career so far (13.11 K/9). The nine-year veteran also has a sparkling 1.54 ERA, 0.67 FIP and 1.46 xFIP.
Getting Shreve on a minors deal looks like a shrewd signing by the Mets’ front office as he has asserted himself as a reliable arm, not just against other lefties, but against righties as well. Right-handed hitters are hitting just .105/.150/.158 against Shreve so far this season.
While Shreve has been solid throughout, Rodriguez’s Mets career came with some growing pains to start.
Rodríguez did have a scoreless Mets debut on April 9, but in his following three performances, he allowed five runs in just two innings pitched.
Since then, the lefty has thrown 7.1 scoreless innings across seven outings.
While Rodríguez’s ERA is still a bit inflated (4.66), his xERA is 2.93, to go along with a 3.28 FIP and 2.89 xFIP.
The 30-year-old won’t blow anyone away at the dish, but he has a deceptive delivery that leads to a high strikeout percentage. His ranks in the 90th percentile on Baseball Savant, which pairs nicely with a 89th percentile whiff rate and 81st percentile chase rate.
So far this season, Rodríguez overall has fared well against lefties and righties, though for his career, he has mostly pitched better against lefties, which is something that manager Buck Showalter likely keeps in his back pocket.
With the absence of Trevor May for the foreseeable future, having Shreve and Rodríguez performing in a positive manner bodes well for the state of the bullpen. From a lefty standpoint, they have also filled the shoes of Loup as good as anyone could have asked for throughout the first 30 games.
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