NY Mets: Grading each of the major moves made last offseason

Trevor May

The Mets signed Trevor May to a two-year $15.5 million-dollar deal to be a late inning arm in the bullpen. He went 7-3 with a 3.59 ERA in 68 appearances. He struck out 11.9 batters per nine.

May’s first season in Flushing was very up and down. He would have a couple of bad appearances followed by a stretch of ten or so appearances allowing no runs and striking out a ton of batters.

A lot of May’s struggles this season have come from his changeup. Opponents hit .341 against his changeup with a .636 slugging percentage. He allowed twice as many extra-base hits with his changeup than he did with his slider despite throwing it 104 fewer times this season.

If he can improve on that next season, I believe he will be more consistent and reliable in his eighth inning role.

For the most part, May was as advertised. In Minnesota, he was known to be a strikeout artist. May’s 11.9 K/9 put him in the 90th percentile according to baseball savant and is well above his career mark of 10.7 K/9.

May seemed to be at his best when he was aggressive with and locating his fastball. His fastball was often his put-away pitch as 62 of his 83 strikeouts were with the 4-seamer.

I think with improvement to May’s changeup, he will become an even better late game arm for the Mets to use.

Overall, I liked the signing at the time and still do like the signing. Despite some inconsistency, May was good for the most part in his first season. One year at $7.5 million dollars is very reasonable for an arm like him and I’m looking forward to seeing what next season brings.

Grade: B