This is Dominic Leone’s 10th major league season, and his seventh ball club.
There have been highs and lows over that point like many relievers experience.
When Leone is on, however, he has proven he can be very effective, which is why the New York Mets took a chance on him last month when he opted out of his minor league deal with the Texas Rangers.
Since joining the Mets, it hasn’t been seamless, but now that the Connecticut native is settled in, he’s become one of the more reliable arms in Buck Showalter’s bullpen.
Overall, his season numbers are nothing to write home about: -0.1 fWAR, 4.00 ERA, 4.61 FIP and a 4.38 xFIP, but peeling back the onion, his recent performances have been promising.
In Leone’s last seven games, he has a 2.25 ERA and has struck out eight and yielded just one walk in eight innings.
Continuing to cut down on the walks would be huge for Leone, who has struggled with the free pass in his career, even during his best seasons.
The 31-year-old is only two seasons removed from being a key component of the 2021 San Francisco Giants team, who was one of the best in baseball.
That year, Leone had a 1.51 ERA, 3.08 FIP, 4.37 xFIP and 0.9 fWAR.
Going back a few years before that, and Leone also made his mark with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017 when he logged 1.5 fWAR and had a 2.56 ERA, 2.94 FIP and 3.68 xFIP.
Without Edwin Díaz in the bullpen for the Mets this year, everyone has had to move up a spot and shift into more important roles, and the rest of the pen has been pieced together and they’ve felt it. New York’s bullpen has been the fourth worst in terms of fWAR this year at 0.2.
If Leone can continue pitching like he has his last several outings, New York will have one less problem to worry about in the bullpen.
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