The Mets are calling up left-hander T.J. McFarland, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The southpaw wasn’t on the 40-man roster but the Mets already had vacancies in that regard. Fellow lefty Josh Walker will be optioned to open a spot on the active roster.
McFarland, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Mets this winter. He’s spent the year in Triple-A Syracuse, tossing 32 2/3 innings over 23 appearances. He has a 2.76 ERA in that time, striking out 25.9% of opponents while walking 11.9% of them and getting grounders on 62.8% of balls in play.
The lefty has plenty of big league experience as a ground ball specialist. He has a 4.13 career ERA in 472 1/3 innings, striking out just 13.5% of hitters at the big league level but keeping the ball on the ground at a 62.1% clip. He was released by the Cardinals in August of last year after posting a 6.61 ERA, though that figure was at 2.56 the year prior.
The Mets have operated with Brooks Raley as their primary left-hander this season, with pitchers like Walker and Zach Muckenhirn also getting into the mix. McFarland’s strong work in Triple-A this year will now get him a chance to play a role in the bullpen. Mets’ relievers have a combined 4.22 ERA, a mark that places them 22nd out of the 30 clubs in the league.
Watch idiot Showalter use him as high leverage reliever with other options available
Buck is getting rightfully criticized, but Robertson pitched nearly 2 innings the night before and he’s no spring chicken.
@Von
I almost always agree with you, but he only threw 13 pitches, and hadn’t pitched the 5 previous days. Gary Cohen was right, it was a horrific loss and it’s on Buck.
Your starter went 4 innings. Your bullpen is already overworked. It was the 8th inning on the road. Robertson would’ve been in the 9th. I don’t think it was super egregious.
The “fire” was in the 8th, so he should have been brought in to try to put it out. Was there a 9th inning? In a full 7 days, your best reliever has thrown a total of 13 pitches.
Normally I would agree, it’s not that big of a deal. If it was early in the season, or the Mets were in a good place in the standings. For all practical purposes, this is their post season. They couldn’t afford to lose any more winnable games.
I agree with the fire in the 8th statement. And the right move would have been Robertson, but given the state of the pen, I just don’t think it was as terrible as the media makes it out to be. Keep in mind, Baty made a huge error to.
On top of being overworked the bullpen is also made up almost entirely of absolute garbage.
It’s definitely on Eppler. He’s built a bullpen of garbage and hangs the season on 4a players with no experience being in critical bullpen roles. He never has a good bullpen or any semblance of depth. The offense and rotation is hard to pin on him but the bullpen is on him.
Yeah, obviously a lot went wrong, and the bullpen and the team in general is a mess. It’s just a crime that their best reliever, during desperate times, is actually underworked.
And as someone who’s seen Robertson on the Phillies twice, I’m shocked at how good he’s been for the Mets. I love the guy, but he was never the reliable go-to-arm on the Phils. He’s been one of the best in baseball this year. So as bad as the Mets bullpen has been, I’m surprised it’s not worse.
He’s been great. Meanwhile Robertson is pitching tonight in a game they are losing. I’m really not one to bash managers, but wtf?
Robertson will be great trade bait at the deadline, or before. The Mets are so far down the rabbit hole right now, and almost at the 50% mark of the season. But I would rather trade Ottavino if he had any value to other teams.
I think they should trade Robertson, Canha, Marte and Pham. They have a solid core and can compete next year. You may as well stack up on some prospects and/or bad contracts to build for next season.
Not true. He built a solid pen that lost its closer and has been brutally overworked. DR and AO as setups. BR and DS in the 7th with a likely plan to add another quality guy or two at the deadline. It’s not a bad plan on paper
@mookiesboy For that plan to work, your starters have to go 6. @VonPurpleHayes made an astutue comment yesterday. The loss of Bassitt and Walker hurt them tremendously. Replacing them with Carassco and Megill was a huge step down in quality. And lord knows what happened to Peterson. He’s turned into Matz 2.0, a version that is worse than the original.
Buck loves his guys, TJ was mopup P when Buck was w/O’s, Tommy Hunter was 1of Bucks guys, just keeps recycling em w/mixed results, he’s a players cch n stands up4 his tm, always has, needs 2blossom in2 trusting n playing new players, rmbr Ryan Flaherty would hit like .212 but Buck would parade em out there day after day “I like our guys”
Lol. Exactly what I was thinking. He loves his guys.
McFarland, Tommy Hunter, and Yacabonis this year. All former O’s that are about finished with their careers.
I think it’s good that the (lol)Mets keep Josh Walker. You probably know why I would like the (lol)Mets to keep Josh Walker around
The season is saved!
At this point, the Mets might want to give T.J. Juckson a shot in their bullpen.
Saw a sign ooutside Citifield,”Pitchers wanted. No experience necessary. Hiring on the spot,today! Ask for Buck”.
This is on the feet of Cohen and Eppler imo. Yea Buck messed that game up with the Phillies in a Buck type of way. The Braves won the 2021 World Series bc of their bullpen. So many Braves teams lost in the playoffs bc their bullpens were not good or didn’t have depth. The Mets spent all that money but didn’t spend for bullpen depth. Diaz getting hurt really hurt the Mets big time as well. It’s kind of comical that Cohen spent all this money and the bullpen has major holes. The bullpen can’t be neglected for a team wanting to make a World Series run. It’s not just about a closer and a couple set up guys.
Hope he fares better than Josh Walker did yesterday. What an awful performance, And it wasn’t Buck’s fault.
Spanky’s been picked up.
Can Alfafa be far behind?
Been waiting for this Callup. Hopefully the vet can hold down a spot.
Finally. He’s just two years removed from a 2.56 ERA season and, though he struggled last year, he will likely provide some veteran stability on this team. The Mets’ method seems to be to keep these fringe guys on their 25-man roster until they have a bad outing, then they send them down and try out the next guy. Hopefully McFarland sticks around a bit.
Sitting back eating my popcorn and drink lemonade as I watch Mets fans blame Buck for almost everything. It’s amazing that Buck went from savior to garbage in one year.
Not all of us are putting all the blame on Buck for this season. There is more than enough to go around between the coaching staff, front office, and Cohen.
That said, Buck seems to have major input into the players that Eppler picks up. The list of players with some past link to Buck is not a coincidence. Remember last year’s trade deadline reliever pickup? Mycheal Givens, another Buck guy.
To me, it starts and ends with the owner using the Mets as his own live version of MLB the Show that is set to no budget for his team and set to budget for almost everyone else.
That runway for Buck and Eppler is getting shorter by the game. For Eppler, just because you have money doesn’t mean you blow it all on the wrong players, and Buck needs to make better calls/decisions if he still wants to write out that lineup card. The Sunday game was tough to watch, and this evening didn’t help.
How is Eppler being blamed for the overspending on players? Last I checked, those big signings were done by the owner, with Eppler as the puppet on Cohen’s hand for those moves…until Cohen had to remove the puppet to sign the check.
Another guy the kid GM missed out on last winter.