With starting pitching depleted, Mets bullpen arms at a premium

BALTIMORE — The biggest challenge for the Mets over the final months of a lost season will be getting through games without bullpen blowups. And the biggest challenge for manager Buck Showalter might be making sure his relief pitchers don’t destroy themselves.

The Mets have been shutting a lot of arms between the Major Leagues and Triple-A over the last few weeks and they’ll have to continue to do so as they work through some starting pitching issues.

Left-hander David Peterson is not stretched out enough to throw more than around 70 pitches. The Mets are unsure what they can get from right-hander Tylor Megill and right-hander Carlos Carrasco has not been able to work deep into games all season.

The club made two moves for pitching Saturday, calling up Megill to start against the Baltimore Orioles in the second game of a three-game series and selecting the contract of right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis. The club optioned right-handers Reed Garrett and John Curtiss in corresponding transactions.

Curtiss and Garrett were both roughed up Friday night in the Mets’ 10-3 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards. Demoting pitchers after bad outings is never ideal, and the Mets aren’t punishing the two. But they were the victims of a cruel sort of numbers game.

“I would have liked to have kept those guys,” said Showalter. “Guys know — especially at this time of year and in the situation we’re currently in — that there are moves coming after games.”

Curtiss knew he was going back to Triple-A before the manager even called him into his office. The 30-year-old made the team out of camp in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and pitched well early, but the Mets sent him to Triple-A in April. He’s been called up and optioned four times this season.

The time in the minor leagues has been beneficial for working on developing a changeup. Curtiss started fooling around with the pitch during his rehab from Tommy John surgery since he wasn’t allowed to throw breaking balls in the early stages of his progression. He used it in spring training and saw good results in the form of bad swings on it.

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But trying to work on a pitch in the Major Leagues isn’t easy. Curtiss has thrown five changeups this season, according to Statcast. The Mets are optimistic about how the pitch will change his profile and have reiterated the need for a third pitch. His fastball velocity has been sitting around 94 mph since returning from his second ulnar collateral reconstruction surgery.

“John, at one time, could pitch with two before that Tommy John and he was 95-97 (mph) and he had a little better spin, he could spin the ball a bit better,” Showalter said. “I think there’s a chance that you’ll see him kind of get back to that point next year.”

The Mets opted to keep right-handers Phil Bickford and Grant Hartwig, and left-hander Josh Walker. Bickford tied his career-worst mark Friday night when he allowed four earned runs after Walker threw a scoreless frame. The Mets are hoping to tap into whatever it was the Dodgers managed to tap into in 2021 when he had a 2.50 over 50 1/3 innings.

Hartwig has become one of the Mets’ more reliable arms since being called up in June and the Mets are slowly working him into higher-leverage spots. Walker has been with the Mets since they drafted him in the 37th round in 2017 out of the University of New Haven. They took a chance on the big lefty and he’s hoping to reward them for doing so.

The bullpen has been a weakness of the Mets all season and that isn’t about to get any better now that David Robertson and Dominic Leone have been traded. Showalter will have to manage a lot more than just matchups in the coming months.

“That’s hard,” Showalter said. “There are no secrets. Somebody knows that somebody’s gone, or somebody tells his agent or it’s out there, so they know when they get here. I try to do it quickly and as positive as I can.”

Outfielder Tim Locastro’s rehab assignment has been transferred to Low-A St. Lucie.