ATLANTA — The Mets thought they had found a solution to their lack of left-handed relief pitching with Adam Ottavino this season. But right now, the Mets are being exposed for every mistake they make and not carrying two left-handers in the bullpen might be one of those mistakes.
Situational left-handers have sort of gone by the wayside with the three-batter minimum rule, and there are right-handers that boast good splits against left-handed hitters. But there are times when the Mets could have used a lefty in big spots.
The only left-hander in the bullpen is Brooks Raley, and the Mets view him as a high-leverage reliever, which makes it tough to use him in middle-inning situations that might dictate the need for a lefty.
Raley came into Wednesday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves with two out and none on in the bottom of the seventh to face left-handed hitter Eddie Rosario then remained in the game for the bottom of the eighth to face switch-hitter Ozzie Albies and right-hander Marcell Ozuna. After a double by Ozuna, the Mets took him out and brought in Ottavino to face right-handed Orlando Arcia and left-handed Michael Harris II.
Coming into the season, Ottavino hadn’t previously had great splits against lefties. But this season, the veteran righty and Brooklyn native has held left-handers to a .200 average in part because of the cutter.
“I changed up my pitch mix a little bit and I’ve been just trying different things because it’s been a struggle over the years,” Ottavino recently told the Us.Mistertruth. “I’ve had stretches where I’ve been good against them, but nothing consistent, so I’m not just trying to stay the same, trying to mix it up as much as possible. I’ve been throwing more changeups, more cutters. It’s early still, but I feel like I’m on the right track.”
By now, you probably know what happened when Ottavino faced Harris: The outfielder homered off Ottavino and the Mets lost 7-5 in the second game of a three-game series. Ottavino left a cutter out over the plate. The pitch was good, but the location was off. Ottavino has given up four home runs this season, all to left-handed hitters.
“Learning lessons so far this year with it,” Ottavino said. “Throwing the cutter a lot more, given up three homers on it basically in the same location each time. Kind of being too much down in the zone. That pitch has got to be higher or more inside or below the zone, so I’ve got three options there. I just keep making that mistake and paying the price.”
Some wondered why Raley wasn’t given the leeway to finish the inning. You could’ve also made an argument for flipping Ottavino and Raley. The Braves have some dangerous left-handed bats and manager Brian Snitker does a good job of breaking them up in the batting order to force opposing managers to make tough bullpen decisions.
The Mets say they’re happy with where the bullpen stands, but the starters not going deep into games in April and much of May has created a domino effect. The relief group that helped the Mets pick up some key wins early in the season hasn’t been the same over the last few weeks. Of course, this is all a domino effect created by the loss of Edwin Diaz, to begin with.
“There are ebbs and flows to the bullpen,” manager Buck Showalter said Thursday at Truist Park. “You don’t always have eight guys operating on the same level, that’s why we have what you call the high and low-leverage guys. Sometimes those guys don’t follow what they did the last time out.”
In the past, Showalter has expressed a desire for more left-handed relief pitching. But the only left-handed reliever they could promote from Triple-A Syracuse is Zach Muckenhirn. The Mets could use Joey Lucchesi out of the bullpen but they need the starting depth. Nathan Lavender was recently promoted from Double-A Binghamton and the club isn’t eager to rush the development of a prized prospect.
For now, the Mets have to work with what they have to find answers for left-handed sluggers.
“I don’t think about what might appear,” Showalter said. “I’m happy with what we have.”