They laugh at the notion of the luxury tax. The Mets have shown they’ll sacrifice prospects and cash. If the Mets don’t call the Rockies, the Rockies should pick up the phone. And the latter gives them closer options, including old friend Adam Ottavino, who cleaned up last year with a microscopic 0.975 WHIP, his best such figure since his 2016 campaign with the Rox.īut the least disruptive option to the Mets’ hopes is to insert a new closer and roll on with everyone else’s roles untouched.Īnd the sooner they get that closer in place, the better, because if the National League East race evolves as it did last year, the Mets could have scant room for error, with the last two NL champions lurking in their midst. Their rotation is deep their bullpen is stout. The Mets began spring training with as complete a pitching staff as any in MLB.
And now the team with the highest payroll in MLB history - an astonishing $350 million - has a massive ninth-inning hole in its bullpen plans. But Bard would take that outcome over that of Diaz, who tore a patellar tendon while celebrating a Puerto Rico win.ĭiaz is done for the season. It hasn’t gone well for Bard he got shelled by Mexico to the tune of four hits, a walk and four runs in two-thirds of an inning. Leave it for Diaz.)ĭiaz, like Bard, went off to the World Baseball Classic to showcase his wares on a global stage. (A few words of advice to Mizzou football and anyone else trying to use “Narco” for your own big moments: It ain’t the same. Until this week, the New York Mets - and everyone who cares about Major League Baseball - knew who their closer would be, and what it would sound like.Įverything about Edwin Diaz last year was epic, from a fastball that approached 103 miles per hour to his Blasterjaxx & Timmy Trumpet entrance music which subsequently spread like kudzu throughout sporting venues far and wide. Not trading Bard last summer was another reminder.īut they have another chance to make the logical choice that they bypassed last year. We know that the Rockies are a bit different. But it serves as a reminder of how quickly a bullpen can go astray - and why, when teams are not viable contenders, the bullpen arms are usually the first to go out the door at the trade deadline to those making a legitimate postseason push.
There is no indication that will happen to Bard now. Few know this better than Bard the last time before 2022 that he had a sub 1.000 WHIP - the 2012 season - it ballooned to 1.736 the following year, with strikeout and home-runs-per-9-innings rate that shrank and mushroomed, respectively, to equal and alarming degrees. But if Moustakas’ form in the regular season looks like his last two years and Bryant succumbs again, the Rockies will find themselves in the same forlorn spot they’ve come to sadly know too well.īard’s inspirational story now has the sharp teeth of last year’s dominant form. Spring-training pickup Mike Moustakas is swinging a hot bat in Arizona and Kris Bryant is relatively healthy. He’s likely out for the season with a shoulder injury. Now, take that team and subtract its overall WAR leader and reigning NL Gold Glove winner, Brendan Rodgers. The Rockies haven’t been merely losing with the exception of the 2017-18 wild-card seasons, they haven’t been close to winning.Īnd last season, despite Bard’s MLB-leading relief-pitcher WAR, the Rockies lost 94 games and finished 19 games out of the last wild-card spot. What’s more, in just one of those 10 seasons did the Rockies’ win total come within 10 games of their loss tally - and that was in 2020, when they played just 60 games. But a closer can only do but so much on a team spiraling toward its fourth-consecutive losing season - and its 10th in the last 12 seasons. The endorphins kick in when you keep someone like Bard around. When the Rockies re-signed him last August, the move was as curious as it was heartwarming. At one point spanning from June through August, the Rockies lost six consecutive extra-innings contests. Twenty-three pitchers ranked above Bard last year, but all were starters.īy that standard, Bard was the best in the biz.įor plenty of spurts last year, one looked at the Bard-anchored bullpen during games the Rockies led and said, “They’ve got some good stuff here.” Now, the ‘pen wasn’t deep, and when the Rockies got into the Manfredball chaos of the contrived extra-innings format, they often ran short of quality. And his 3.8 WAR led all Major League Baseball relief pitchers in 2022.
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