NY Mets are bringing back Richard Lovelady, why he can make the Opening Day roster

It’s going to be a while before we see Justin Hagenman again. The New York Mets have put the struggling spring training pitcher on the 60-day IL with a fractured rib. Replacing him on the 40-man roster is Richard Lovelady.

To call David Stearns addicted to Lovelady would be accurate. Lovelady has repeatedly been waived or released and returned to the Mets since first joining the team last season. Still on the same split contract the Mets re-signed him to back in October, the circumstances have changed a bit since. He was a waiver claim by the Washington Nationals earlier this offseason only to get waived again by them, likely with the same thinking the Mets had: who's going to pay him extra while in the minors?

The Mets have an opening on their roster for a lefty reliever. With Bryan Hudson not doing a whole lot, Lovelady is as much a candidate to make the team now that he’s back in St. Lucie.

Unless Bryan Hudson starts to show the Mets he deserves a roster spot, Richard Lovelady can take it

Hudson has given up 3 earned runs in 2.1 innings this spring. He has fanned 4 and walked another batter. It’s a terribly small sample size to make any final decision. As a trade acquisition without minor league options, he’s right there on a level playing field with Lovelady. The big difference is Hudson had a spectacular 2024 season. Lovelady has been mostly blah throughout his career with a 5.35 ERA overall.

Lovelady is an analytical geek pet project. He has poor overall results with hints that maybe there’s more untapped potential. Despite an 8.49 ERA with the Mets and Toronto Blue Jays last year, he recorded some other favorable numbers including a 60% groundball rate and a .208 batting average against his most-used pitch, the sweeper.

Lovelady rejoins the Mets with much better spring numbers than what Hudson has posted. In 4 innings with the Nationals, Lovelady has struck out 7 and given up one earned run.

Either lefty will be temporary in the Mets bullpen as a placeholder until A.J. Minter returns from the IL in May. There hasn’t been much of a competition in camp for southpaws, several players already reassigned to minor league camp. The team seems destined to carry at least one additional southpaw on the Opening Day roster alongside Brooks Raley. Understanding they only need about one productive month out of Lovelady, the only harm here is if they wrongfully believe he’s more than the pitcher he was for them last year.

Ask most fans what they'd like to see at the moment and they'll agree to either a six-man rotation with Tobias Myers in it or Sean Manaea simply moves to the bullpen to become the second lefty in the interim. Unlikely until necessary, we should expect Lovelady to have as much of a chance to make the Mets roster as Hudson or any other fringe major leaguer battling.