As the Mets look to rebuild their bullpen, the team is hoping to bring back veteran Adam Ottavino, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. Puma adds that Ottavino is thought to be seeking a multi-year deal, while the Mets are looking to keep it to a one-year guarantee.
Ottavino, 37, was a terrific setup man in Queens last year, tossing 65 2/3 innings of 2.06 ERA relief work. He halved his walk rate from a year earlier in Boston, dropping from 12.7% to post a 6.2% rate in 2023 while still maintaining a strong 30.6% strikeout rate. He also posted a 51.9% ground-ball rate, his best figure since 2016.
It was a bounce back year for the Brooklyn-native, who’d struggled in his previous two campaigns. Signed to a three-year, $27MM deal by the Yankees in 2019 after a number years of quality relief work in Colorado, Ottavino was dominant in his first season in the Bronx, pitching to a 1.90 ERA in 66 1/3 innings. He took a major step back a year later, winding up with a 5.89 ERA in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. That prompted the Yankees to flip him to the rival Red Sox, and while there was some improvement, his 4.21 ERA in 62 innings was still well short of his best.
That allowed the Mets to sign him to a modest $4MM guarantee for 2022, and he’ll surely be seeking a significant raise on that figure this winter. As Puma notes, the Mets believe Ottavino enjoys pitching in his hometown, but it’s unclear if that’d be enough for him to forgo a possible multi-year deal elsewhere if the Mets are only willing to offer him a one-year deal.
The Mets are rebuilding their bullpen after the departures of Ottavino, Seth Lugo, Trevor Williams, Mychal Givens, Trevor May and Joely Rodriguez to free agency. They’ve already re-signed Edwin Diaz to record-breaking contract, while they’ve claimed Stephen Ridings from the Yankees and acquired Jeff Brigham and Elieser Hernandez from the Marlins. There’s still work to do though, particularly in the high-leverage spots so the Mets have plenty of motivation to try and bring back Ottavino.
Just about any contending club could do with a bullpen arm like Ottavino, so the veteran should have plenty of interest. MLBTR predicted a two-year, $14MM guarantee, and the likes of the Brewers, Yankees, Phillies, Braves, Giants and Blue Jays could have interest among many others.
So I take it, Harris is more like the turtle than the hare…….let’s just hope he’s not a dxxn ostrich…… I feel like the little red hen who baked a cake……
Who’s Harris?
Tigers……lol…..I know that confuses Mets fans, sorry…there are actually other teams.than the Dodgers, Mets, Astros and Yankees….. if you can call them MLB teams…they certainly do not appear to want to operate on the same level…….
Dr. SUPERFIFE IN THE HOUSE!
You hear more Mets rumors because agents like those leaked. Doesn’t mean other teams aren’t interested.
The Tigers bullpen is stacked with young arms. A 37 year old reliever doesn’t do much for them. The Tigers may need to see if they can hit on a veteran starter or two since Mize is out for the season and Manning and Skubal may not be ready early
It’s also an article about the Mets and Ottavino.
Scott Harris is the 35 or 36 year old who recently became the Tigers PoBO after being the Giants GM
Why would will harris care. He didnt get to play last year due to injury and probably still recovering. i dont think he has much of a market anyway after getting blown up in 2021 and probably will need a minor league deal even if he does come back at his afe. So i would expect a turtle for this offseason for him.
I am pretty sure Ottavino is higher priority and probably will sign before him, Did you bring him up since harris got 3/24 and that is what ottavino should get? Otherwise i dont see the connection.
I apologize for confusing Met fans……let’s just say…he got injured…..
Perhaps it was confusing more so because it had zero to do with this post. We don’t really care about the Tigers because they haven’t been relevant in years. I hope you and Harris forgive us for just not really caring about ya all
@Superpipe: Who pissed in your cornflakes to make you so hostile? Or maybe you just have anger issues. Lose the attitude and chill.
Hmmm Harris played for the nationals and not the mets …
I guess i should apologize to Detroit fans for them not realizing other teams play in mlb and have players on their teams as it seems they are obsessed with the Dodgers, Mets, Astros and Yankees and what they are doing.
Also i should apoligize for them not realizing there are probably alot more people named harris (first and/or last name) out there than mlb teams and that the only harris they know in reference for anything baseball related is Scott Harris..
Lets go Lenny Harris, you were one of my favorite clutch hitters off the bench. sorry you stank when you had to play regularly though 🙁
He posted in response to the wrong post!!
None of that makes sense. Did you just auto fill a sentence together?
Ottavino is worth 2-year deal. Did really fine job for the Mets in 2022 and Mets need solid, proven bullpen arms who can pitch well in New York. Hometown guy who wants to return. Not going to sign him without 2-year deal. Just do it.
Would love for him to go back to Boston. He had a rough patch there that in part distorted his overall stats in 21. I’m recalling a specific game against FL that the umps had orders not to call. There were puddles in the infield and it was a miracle that no one was hurt. He couldn’t grip the ball and walked everyone. Overall he was better than his 21 stats suggest.
dewey – I completely agree, Bloom never should have let him go to begin with. Remember he had that ridiculously long homerless stretch. He was misused late in the season which contributed to his performance tailing off.
And somebody should tell the newbie that Ottavino didn’t pitch for the Mets last year, he pitched for them only this year. Sheesh …
Lol at the end of the post. He was a steal last year and $11m to $15m seems reasonable on a two year deal. Maybe $7.5m per with a second year team buyout of $3.5m after 23.
I’d take him back over the clowns we have now. Was mystified why we chose others in 2022 and did not ask him back.
To go along with those RP’s mentioned above I’m sure Megill will be in there, resign Ottavino and T.Will. Need lefties in there too Chafin and another one
We don’t know if Mets view Megill as starter or reliever. His 2022 was marred by multiple injuries, two long periods on IL. and didn’t perform well in pen when he returned from IL the final time. At his best he should be a weapon in the pen but he’s been rather inconsistent as big league pitcher.
He had a really good start at the beginning of the year atleast a number 3 on a starting rotation but that injury really destroyed him. Take out that game that he got injured from and he sub 4 for the year including bullpen without bullpen its under 3.5. Yes its cherry picking but not bad to atleast give him a shot again as a starter with that kind of upside. Worst case its easier to go from a potential starter to swing / bullpen.
He could be the long man/spot starter if they don’t re-sign Trevor Williams.
Not sure we know exactly what he is. He was bottom of the rotation in 2021, came out throwing 99 in his first game in 2022, and was out by early June. And when he came back, his stuff did not play up out of the bullpen which was surprising.
@Flyby Well put. Megill is also a case of a young pitcher being Metsed, really.
He looked great at the start of his rookie year, 2021, with 7 starts and an ERA of 2.43, but then had more bad starts than good. Still, he looked very promising. Among the problems was he had never gone more than 70 innings in any previous year, and primarily as a reliever, at that. But w the 2021 Mets desperate for pitching, he threw 130 ip after 0 ip in games in 2020, and his 2021 collapse began as of the 75 ip mark, minors + majors. No surprise, but what did the Mets do? Of course they did:
Another 11 starts w an ERA of 6.13
They kept sending him out there after he obviously had nothing and was probably hurt, the kind of thing they’ve pulled before—this time during a lost year, no less.
—I doubt he’ll do much other than surface with Tampa in 2026 as their opener, going 57 ip w and ERA of 2.02.
TY @jack, would you say a fair career comparison might be john maine when he was with the mets?
@flyby Really interesting comp, but I think the differences might be greater than the similarities. Maine was a big deal in college, so much so that he skipped his senior year and got picked in the… 5th or 6th round by the O’s? Yeah, probably had to be. Also good enough after his big K year in the minors that he made a top 100 MLB list or two. I remember this from looking him up when the Mets were trying to get rid of Kris Benson’s wife, and by extension Benson.
Megill on the other hand was a fairly unimpressive college reliever who had a terrible year trying to start, but who got noticed b/c he learned a strikeout pitch (can’t remember what it was).
Maine was thought to have a real chance of being a mid-rotation guy, and his lucky ERAs 2006-08 helped hide that he wasn’t. He didn’t have the durability they wanted those years, either—it looked like his 2007 ip total did him in. . Megill otoh came up out of the blue and looked for a month like the next good rotation hope.
People tend to forget Megill had all of 45 ip above A ball when he came up in 2021. I don’t think he was ever built up into an MLB starter, properly, and might now just go from injury to injury until he retires. He was thrown into the breach on the bad (and badly run) Mets team in 2021 for no good reason, and now his future’s very much in doubt. The lack of a 2020 season didn’t help him, though I think work in one of the milb camps helped him get on the MLB FO’s radar. Not sure that ultimately helped him though. On a pitching poor 2023 Mets they might find a role for him, but I thought after 2021 he and Peterson both might have been better sent to AAA to really learn to pitch.
What do you think?
This NYM front office doesn’t leak. Seems to be causing frustration for their beat writers – they have nothing to write about – and even more for their bipolar Long Island fan base.
Really? I find the opposite to be true. I feel like the Mets FO is an open book with every story being leaked.
Agents leak stories.
Yes. Particularly with the Mets because it implies big money.
Exactly. Every Agent will say the Mets/Yankees/Red Sox/Dodgers are in on player X to try to bump up offers from the teams they are actually negotiating with
@VPH im curious you thoughts on the agents this year no sarcasm what so ever on this as family and i were discussing how agents acted the other day.
Do you think since the mets are more tight lipped with this regime aboutfree agents, that agents will say mets instead of the infamous “mystery” team?
sorry @VPH you were saying they were open book my mistake.
Yes, but to be fair, I think agents want it to be known that the Mets are interested as it drives prices up.
He is ok, just realized his number is 0, Xd.
Oh yeah let’s get Olive Garden back in Queens. Good setup option for them. If the Mets don’t wanna do a multi-year deal perhaps they would if the second year were a vesting option.
What does Olive Garden reference mean?
There won’t be any signings during the OSU Michigan game as a sign of respect.
Even though nobody who didn’t attend either school cares.
Would love for Ottavino to come back, was their only other reliable arm besides Diaz
I’m cool with 2 years 14mil. Mets should do that
He’s been so up and down his whole career, I wouldn’t want to prioritize him, but if he’s willing to do a cheaper one year deal, fine. I’d like to see them go after chafin bc he fills a bigger need as a lefty.
Ma4170,
There’s plenty room for multiple proven relievers all of whom Mets need. They need at least 3 more and 4 if they don’t keep Nogosek who’s out of options.
Very true, I just have a bad feeling at his age he’s more likely to have one of his high BB high era years than not
Clearly you want to get this guy on a contract year. As a Braves fan, I hope they do sign him to a multi-year deal.
I think the Mets need to retain Ottavino and as much as they can of what was successful with the team last year, and then double down. The Mets are about 6 to 8 years behind where the Dodgers and Braves are, with their farms and building up from within.
They’re not 6-8 years behind which is a lifetime in MLB years. They’re half that, if not less if they stop trading away their better prospects in lower minors.
The Mets farm is ranks 6th and the Braves rank 28th.
NYMetsFanatic Sounds right. It takes real time for every team that doesn’t find an early 2000s Beane, or that doesn’t have a top executive who has already built a strong organization in its FO, to become as good an org as there is in the game.
Since the Mets don’t have that guy, and don’t seem about to get him, there’s going to be trial and error, conflicting opinions that end in the wrong kinds of compromise, and stumbling, If Buck was 15 years younger he would have been a good choice to graduate to GM this offseason, compared with what they have.
This offseason they’re paying big for the failure to get the previous two offseasons right, and for Cohen’s desperation for legitimacy. It’s not going to happen any time soon.