The Mets announced today that right-hander Phil Maton has been added to the active roster after he was acquired from the Rays yesterday. They also recalled left-hander Danny Young. To open spots for those two, the club optioned righty Eric Orze and placed righty Reed Garrett on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation.
It’s unknown how severe Garrett’s elbow problem is, but more information will be forthcoming. Per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com on X, the righty complained of forearm tightness last night and is now slated for an MRI today. It’s possible that his elbow issue has led to a downturn in recent results, as DiComo points out that Garrett has had some poor results lately.
Prior to that recent slide, Garrett had been a godsend for a Mets bullpen that has been an issue all year. Through May 22, he had tossed 26 innings with just three earned runs allowed, leading to an ERA of 1.04. His 11.3% walk rate in that time was a tad high but he had a massive 40.3% strikeout rate and a solid 42% ground ball rate. For a 31-year-old that the Mets claimed off waivers from the Orioles last summer, he seemed like a tremendous find.
He has a 7.88 ERA in 16 innings since then, which is a small sample but his rate stats have also changed. His 25.6% strikeout rate in that time is still strong but a big drop from where he was before and his walk rate also ticked up to 12.8%. His velocity didn’t seem to suffer, as it’s actually ticked up as the season has gone along. His fastball averaged 95.8 miles per hour in April and ramped up each month to land at 98.3 so far in July.
Despite the recent struggles, the Mets don’t want more challenges in assembling their bullpen. The team’s relievers have a combined 4.24 ERA that’s 20th in the majors and they have been weakened as the season has gone along. Drew Smith and Brooks Raley have already gone down to season-ending surgeries while Sean Reid-Foley and Shintaro Fujinami are each on the IL with shoulder injuries.
The Mets are 45-45 and just 1.5 games back of a playoff spot. Upgrading the bullpen has reportedly been a target area for them and, as mentioned, they already acquired Maton in an attempt to bolster the group. If Garrett needs to miss any time, it would only increase the amount of work the front office will need to do in patching together the bullpen.
For Garrett personally, it would be a significant blow if he ends up needing to miss any notable stretch of time. He has bounced around the baseball world as he has struggled to establish himself, spending time with the Rangers, Tigers, Nationals, Orioles and with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Earlier this year, his utter dominance seemed to the start of a late-bloomer breakout but then the results tapered off and now he’ll have to see what the MRI machine finds in his elbow.
He threw 72 pitches in four days the injury is on Mendy
He’s been pretty horrible for almost two months and hasn’t had a clean inning since June 18. He’s been a little overused as a necessity (because of other injuries) but I wouldn’t place all of the blame on Mendoza. Maybe if he could get batters out instead of walking or giving up a hit to every other batter, his pitch counts wouldn’t be so high.
This is what happens when they attempt to go above capability. This year his strikeout numbers have been great when pitching well and velocity increased, and then poof – tire blows out and it’s downhill the rest of the way. Too many throwers and not enough pitchers.
Yep. Mets seem to be plagued with guys like that, especially in the bullpen. Guys are just winging it, and you can see the results in their ridiculous walk rates. Wonder if it is an organizational approach.
Fabian is way too valuable, should trade that bum Jackson Holliday whos an obvious AAAA player
No, it shouldn’t. There’s no way the Mets trade away Vientos for just a solid prospect like Fabian. If they even entertained trading away Vientos, which I don’t understand why they would, they would want pitching in return. They are already heavy on outfielders in the minors (Jett Williams, Ryan Clifford, Drew Gilbert; plus Acuna and Mauricio have seen outfield time).
Not sure if you’re joking but Vientos has a higher OPS (.874) in the major leagues than Stowers does (.851) at AAA. And Vientos is two years younger. Norby is a great prospect but again, Mets are looking for pitching. They already have Acuna and Mauricio to potentially play 2B and they’ve also been trying Baty out there. The fit doesn’t work.
@Fletcher: lmao, I apologize. I wasn’t really familiar with your game.
Vientos is 24, Fabian 23. Vientos is producing more that the major league level than Fabian is at double-A. And Vientos plays not one, but two position where the Mets may have need next year.
SlapHittingforBetas is a troll. Ignore.
I was about to reply, “Brett, is that you? Enjoying summer in the Salt City?” but, yeah, troll is more likely.
haha, if you scroll up he said “should trade that bum Jackson Holliday whos an obvious AAAA player”. Dead giveaway.
I love that Vientos is having so much success, but even i fear some regression to lesser numbers. That swing still has some holes unfortunately.
Look at Oriole fans already trying to replace their young players. I agree Vientos is better than Westburg but appreciate what you got.
He throws a ton of pitches cause he starts every guy 2-0, works behind every count and walks too many guys. Mendoza’s use of the bullpen in general is horrendous, second only to Stearns failure to assemble one. They bring a guy up for their major league debut or season debut once a week to lose a game and then cut him loose.
All the blame is on Stearns. His bullpen is literally incapable of holding 5 or 6 run leads. Mendoza has two choices, burn out whoever isn’t completely unpitchable or lose the game. Every single offseason bullpen acquisition was a complete disaster by Stearns. Not even Sandy could’ve done this poorly
There are many reasons for all these elbow injuries. One of them is throwing the Roger Beshens Football Slider wrong but most are the Bad Tilt on the Cutter. Beshens is talking with a future HOF pitching coach about his slider and why the injuries on the cutter. Information is king, doesn’t matter where it comes from. If a future HOF coach is talking with Roger why not listen. That future HOF coach can’t give out information that would help a pitcher on another team. Smart teams will contact Roger Beshens. How can a doctor tell MLB what pitch is hurting arms when he doesn’t know the Grip, Tilt, Wrist action and other detailed techniques. One doctor even said there’s no evidence a breaking ball is more vulnerable to the arm than a fastball. That there is incompetence. MLB really doesn’t want to get to the bottom of it cause then the cards fall when they realize the sweeper is really the RB football slider thrown from a lower arm angle and it’s taught wrong by many organizations.
Unfortunately Reid Garrett’s MRI won’t reveal many more Outs in that elbow.
Looks like the Mets will be making a few more trades this week in the reliever market. What’s the record for the most bullpen arms added at the deadline because I have a feeling the Mets are about to set it.
Let’s hope
I wonder why they don’t use Tylor Megill in the bullpen; his brother Trevor is doing well when he transitioned there?
Let Tylor go all out for an inning or 2