NY Mets: 5 reliever rentals who could lend the pen a hand

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Which rental relief pitchers should the New York Mets add before the trade deadline? Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /

With just a couple of days left until the MLB trade deadline, the New York Mets are expected to be one of the most active teams in the market. A lot of the talk has been around starting pitching or Chicago Cubs’ third baseman/outfielder Kris Bryant, both of which would be huge additions. On top of that though, the Mets should also be doing everything they can to add to the bullpen.

The Mets’ stable of arms has pitched admirably this season, but the bullpen as a whole has been incredibly overworked. With all the injuries to the starting pitching, bullpen games have become commonplace as of late, and every single arm in the Mets’ pen has had to carry what would normally be more than their own weight. With over two months of the regular season remaining, it’s unreasonable to expect that to continue.

The Mets need to add some reliable arms to the bullpen that can be counted on for the stretch run. Here are five rentals who could make a difference.

One incredibly intriguing option is Mychal Givens. The long-time Orioles reliever is now in Colorado, and with the Rockies out of contention and Givens a free agent at the end of the season, there is no reason why he should be on the roster by the end of the month.

Givens is having a very nice season for Colorado, putting up 2.73 ERA through 29.2 innings pitched. His WHIP isn’t great at 1.315 and his FIP is highly suspect at 4.67, but he’s still been a very above-average reliever, and his 171 ERA+ shows that.

The most interesting part about Givens though is how he’s pitched when not in Coors Field. In 11 innings pitched outside of Colorado, Givens has given up just one earned run — that’s good for an ERA of 0.82.

His numbers at home are still solid, but he’s just clearly pitched much better when not in Coors, as a lot of pitchers do. It’s not a big sample size in the least, and it wouldn’t be realistic to expect a sub-one ERA from him if he’s traded for, but he has still seemingly turned a corner this season.

He’s pitching the best baseball of his career and should be available for relatively cheap. A reunion with former teammate Miguel Castro might not be a bad idea, and Givens slide in right next to him as another reliable middle innings guy for the Mets.

Jul 11, 2021; Seattle, Washington, USA; Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Raisel Iglesias (32) throws against the Seattle Mariners during the ninth at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports /

The Mets could call the Angels about a pair of very different but still very effective relievers.

The Angels may not sell at the deadline, but there’s certainly an argument that they should.

Sitting at 50-49 through Monday, the Halos are fourth in the AL West, a full 10 games behind the Astros. In the Wild Card race, they’re five games back of the A’s for the second spot and have Seattle, the other New York team, Toronto and Cleveland between them. They aren’t out of it, but in the scope of the AL, they’re right on the fringe of really falling from contention, only a handful of games above teams like Detroit and Kansas City.

The Angels do have the most electrifying player in baseball in Shohei Ohtani, so they might not want to give up on this year and become a non-competitive team, essentially wasting this historic season. However, they didn’t have a problem doing that for the last decade-ish with Mike Trout, so who’s to say that would be an issue now either.

If they sell, the soft-tossing Steve Cishek and flame-throwing Raisel Iglesias could be highly coveted by contenders looking for bullpen help.

Cishek, now 35 years old, is having a nice bounce-back season after his rough 2020. He’s not doing anything special, but his 3.48 ERA in an MLB-leading 50 games played is really solid.

He wouldn’t be the most exciting add, but he’s been about as consistent as they come over his decade-plus in the major leagues. He’s not as good as he was in Miami at the beginning of his career, but he’s still a very quality bullpen arm. Any team, including the Mets, could use an arm like Cishek.

While Cishek is good, Iglesias is better. Through 45.2 innings he’s put up an ERA of 3.35 with a career-low WHIP of 0.898.

His numbers are good, but they don’t really tell the full story. This season, Iglesias is in the top five percent in the league in a whole host of categories, including expected ERA, expected batting average, walk percentage, whiff percentage, chase rate and more. He’s been truly dominant this season, just a bit snake-bitten by the long ball.

He’s given up nine home runs this season, but the numbers say he’s been a bit unlucky. Per Baseball Savant, he should have only given up about six.

He’s also punched out 70 batters, making his strikeout per nine innings of 13.8 the fifth-best in baseball of all pitchers who have thrown at least 40 innings. Edwin Diaz is sixth, and Iglesias is behind Matt Barnes, James Karinchak, Jacob deGrom and the league-leader Liam Hendriks.

Iglesias has already been really good this season, and that’s with getting a bit unlucky on top of it. He’s a premier back-end of the bullpen type arm, and would be another guy the Mets could confidently go to in high-leverage situations.

Jul 16, 2021; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel (46) pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the ninth inning at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /

Craig Kimbrel isn’t the only bullpen arm in Chicago the Mets should be inquiring about.

While Angels might not be selling, the Cubbies are hosting a tag sale for the rest of the league.

Pretty much everyone on the team is available in some capacity, and that includes two dominant relievers. Kimbrel is a household name from his days back in Atlanta, but Ryan Tepera probably isn’t.

Unless you’re a fan of the Cubs or Blue Jays, the only reason you’d probably know of Tepera is from when he received an accidental 10th place NL MVP vote last season when a voter accidentally clicked his name instead of Trea Turner’s. At the time of the vote, Dan Gartland of Sports Illustrated identified him as “a relief pitcher for the Cubs, and an extremely average one.”

Now, Tepera is in his seventh major league season, and his second with the Cubs. Before this season he’d always been a solid pitcher, with an ERA in the mid-3s and an ERA+ of 119, but he never was as good as he’s been this season.

Through 43.1 innings, Tepera has a 2.91 ERA, 0.785 WHIP and 136 ERA+. He’s on pace to have a WHIP below 1.1 for the first time since his rookie year in 2015 and an ERA below three for the first time since 2016, a year where he only threw 18.1 innings.

If the Mets were to trade for him he should at the very least be good, even if he doesn’t continue at the pace he’s been on this season.

Still, even with that, the potential future Hall of Famer in Kimbrel is the real prize of all the bullpen arms potentially available at the deadline.

Kimbrel is probably the best reliever in baseball this season, putting up a minuscule 0.49 ERA and 0.709 WHIP through 36.2 innings pitched. While it’s not a huge sample size, it’s enough to know he’s pitching some of the best baseball of his career. His ERA+ is 824, like, come on! That’s ridiculous.

His Baseball Savant page is absurd, as he’s sitting in the 100th percentile in SIX different categories: Expected weighted on-base average, expected ERA, expected batting average, expected slugging, strikeout percentage and whiff percentage.

After an injury-riddled and supremely disappointing first two years in Chicago, he’s finally living up to the three-year $43 million contract they gave him. Unfortunately for the Cubs, he’s doing it in a year where they’re selling at the deadline, not competing for a playoff spot.

Kimbrel is the only person on this list who isn’t a full rental, but with a team option for 2022, he essentially is. He’d only be back next season if the Mets decide to pick up his $16 million option.

That will probably increase the price tag of what it will take to get him though because if he finishes out this season well his option will almost certainly be worth picking up.

The other big difference between Kimbrel and everyone else on this list is that if the Mets were to acquire him, they would have no choice but to put him into the full-time closer role. That would move Diaz out of the ninth inning and into a spot that he is famously worse in — non save opportunities.

Even so, Kimbrel is too good to hold off on trading for him just because of what it might do to Diaz. If the right deal pops up to bring Kimbrel back to the NL East, the Mets have to do it.

Next. 4 trade targets on the Twins not named Jose Berrios to consider

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They can’t do all of the deals, but they also shouldn’t feel comfortable with what they currently have in the bullpen. They need to add to it, and Givens, Cishek, Iglesias, Tepera and Kimbrel all could be possible solutions.

Home / New York Mets News

The Mets need to add some reliable arms to the bullpen that can be counted on for the stretch run. Here are five rentals who could make a difference.

The Mets could call the Angels about a pair of very different but still very effective relievers.

Craig Kimbrel isn’t the only bullpen arm in Chicago the Mets should be inquiring about.

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