Josh Edgin’s velocity has Terry Collins concerned

Josh Edgin‘s fastball ranged between 88 and 91 MPH during his 1/3 of an inning on Monday and Terry Collins said afterwards to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York that he’s concerned about the lack of velocity.

During his appearance, Edgin gave up back-to-back run-scoring triples to left-handed batters.

Collins noted after the game:

"What you look for right now is not necessarily anything more than making sure his velocity gets up. That would be right now a concern — the fact that his velocity is not there yet. That’s going to be something we’ve got to certainly work on long-toss-wise, arm-speed-wise, because that sets the tone for everything."

Edgin was sent to minor league camp early last Spring Training but returned during the season and was highly effective.

In 27.1 innings pitched for the Mets in 2014, Edgin posted a 1.32 ERA and 0.91 WHIP while striking out 9.22 batters per 9. His fastball averaged 92.4 MPH last season.

Thoughts:

For most pitchers, reacting in a concerned fashion after one poor Spring Training outing would seem pointless. However, with Edgin having dealt with the same velocity issues last Spring Training, this is something to keep an eye on.

Fortunately, Edgin isn’t too far off from where he usually is (he was between 88 and 91 MPH on Monday while his average fastball velocity is 92.4 MPH), so hopefully this is easily correctable.

Either way, the concern over Edgin brings some things to the forefront.

While Edgin performed very well after returning to the majors in 2014, he’s still not a slam dunk to be an effective reliever. His track record isn’t that long, and the Mets’ failure to add a second established lefty reliever to either pair with or replace Edgin may turn out to be a major issue.

For the time being, Edgin is expected to make the bullpen with Rule 5 draftee Sean Gilmartin, Scott Rice, Jack Leathersich, and Dario Alvarez competing to see who the second lefty will be – if the Mets carry one at all.