Last season, on opening day, Bobby Parnell came into the game in the ninth inning to try and close an opening day win for the Mets.
While the Mets were leading 5-4, Parnell gave up a run-scoring double to Denard Span to blow the save. After that game, Parnell was shut down having season ending Tommy John surgery. Jenrry Mejia got the bulk of the closing role after that and did perform decently well. His high energy brought a lot of attention to both Mets fans and fans all around baseball.
He did have 28 saves and only 3 blown saves, but finishing games was not always an easy task for Mejia, especially getting the first out of the inning. With Parnell returning this season, I see Mejia more in the role of long reliever. He has already shown he has endurance as he showed us by starting six games in his four-year career.
As for the meat of the bullpen, on the depth chart as of now the Mets have seven relievers not including Mejia and Parnell (Torres, Edgin, Black, Goedell, Familia, Alvarez, and Montero). At first glance, this bullpen seems solid. The strongest pitcher in the pen in my opinion is Jeurys Familia. I was stunned at the talent he showed last season only being 24 years old.
Familia appeared in 76 games posting a 2.20 ERA, walking 32 and posting a WHIP of 1.17. What makes him even better is he only allowed three home runs last season which the Mets need to avoid in 2015. Familia also finished seventh in the Rookie Of The Year voting, right behind his teammate Travis d’Arnaud. Familia can definitely be apart of the bright future that is ahead for the Mets.
Another player I hope makes the Opening Day roster is right hander Erik Goedell. In 2014, he was a late season call-up and pitched in six games. Although you can’t get a good perspective on just six games, he posted a 2.70 ERA and struck out six batters. He throws his fastball around 93 MPH and also has curveball which he throws about 17.5 percent of the time.
Other than Dario Alvarez (who might not make the OD roster), Josh Edgin is the only lefty in the pen. Edgin is going to be a key contributor this season as Terry Collins will go to him to face many lefty hitters. The strongest part of Edgin’s game is strikeouts. Last season, not only did he strike out 28 batters in 27.1 innings pitched, but he got those strikeouts in clutch situations. Manning the left side of the bullpen will be a challenge by himself, and we will see how he performs under pressure.
I am excited to see what the Mets bullpen has to offer in 2015. We are past the days of Aaron Heilman, Armando Benitez, Guillermo Mota, and DJ Carrasco, just to name a few of the debacles of the Mets bullpen over the years. They have solid set of arms that I believe can get the job done. The bullpen is going to have to be a huge contributor if the Mets want to be a contender in 2015.
