Mets bullpen upgrades David Stearns should consider

When it comes to the bullpen, the Mets have to shift their priorities next season.

Last year, the club made a flurry of waiver wire moves and some minor trades in November and December to stockpile a group of pitchers that could be sent up and down between Queens and Syracuse. Former general manager Billy Eppler wanted “optionable” arms in order to keep them fresh.

On paper, it sounded like it could work. They intended to keep rolling with a young reliever on a hot streak and switch him out for another when he goes cold. But it proved to be a flawed system.

Few could have foreseen the starting rotation falling apart the way it did, but it became apparent early on that the bullpen was going to have to pick up a lot of slack for the starters. Starters routinely failed to go seven innings and the Mets relied heavily on their veteran trio of left-hander Brooks Raley and right-handers David Robertson and Adam Ottavino.

Maybe it would have been different if closer Edwin Diaz had been around, but the Mets still didn’t have the middle relief to get to Diaz on most nights. Those “optionable” arms didn’t really get hot and in the case of guys like Jeff Brigham, the team hesitated to even utilize those options.

As it stands now, the Mets have a group of mostly fringe relievers on the 40-man roster in addition to Diaz and Raley. The club chose to tender a contract to right-hander Drew Smith even after a tough year. Smith might have more value in the middle innings than the late ones, which is fine considering the Mets need to add some depth to that area.

It’s going to take a lot of work to overhaul the bullpen, but here are some things the Mets could do.

FIND A LONG MAN

Trevor Williams proved to be more important than the Mets realized last year. The right-hander made nine starts for the Mets in 2022 and regularly pitched multiple innings out of the bullpen. The Mets tried to use Stephen Nogosek and then Tommy Hunter in long-relief roles last year, but they mostly had to mop up and they were both cut by July. The Mets never found that versatile long reliever who could start games, finish them and pitch several innings in between.

However, they already have two candidates for this role internally in left-hander Joey Lucchesi and right-hander Jose Butto. Lucchesi is comfortable working multiple innings in relief and has expressed a desire to take on the role should the Mets need him to. Butto has been primarily a starter but he’s pitched in relief at various levels, including at the major league level.

The Mets could go out and look for someone to play this role in free agency or through a trade, but it’s worth giving one of these two a look.

BRING IN A SETUP MAN

Ottavino declined his player option to become a free agent, but that doesn’t mean the door is closed on a return to Queens.

The Mets should prioritize pitchers with high-leverage experience, especially if they plan to use Raley how they did last year. This is where they can use free agency. They probably won’t try to add a marquee stopper like Josh Hader, but they could add guys like Ottavino, Matt Moore or Will Smith, who seems to be a good luck charm having been a part of the last three World Series-winning teams.

The Mets could and should add more than one pitcher of this caliber. Smith is hopeful that he can play a bigger role next season, and eventually homegrown right-hander Grant Hartwig might as well, but right now, they’re still unproven.

ADD DEPTH IN THE MIDDLE

This is where David Stearns and his group can make their mark. Stearns is great at finding depth pieces on waivers, through trades or through international signings. The Mets have already made some transactions when it comes to middle relief and they figure to be a lot more aggressive over the next month in this area. They claimed Penn Murfee off waivers and lost him. They signed Cole Sulser to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training.

Currently, the Mets have Smith, Hartwig and right-handers Phil Bickford, Sean Reid-Foley and Reed Garrett. Reid-Foley has some promise but at this point, we know what Bickford and Garrett are, and they’re also out of options. The Mets might have to get creative here, but there is certainly room for creativity.

ADD ANOTHER LEFT-HANDED OPTION

The three-batter minimum has eliminated the need for a true situational left-hander, but with teams in the NL East fielding some powerful left-handed hitters like Bryce Harper and Matt Olson, Raley was often called on to face them in key innings.

Raley is valuable because he can pitch in the seventh or the ninth. But if the Mets are going to use Raley to set up some, they might need another left-hander to handle left-handed power threats in the middle innings. Homegrown lefty Josh Walker could audition for this role if the Mets don’t bring in someone else this winter.