NY Mets Monday Morning GM: A real genius early David Stearns choice still triumphing

David Stearns is getting plenty of high-fives, love letters, and singing telegrams sent to the office for his sneaky good additions of Huascar Brazoban from last summer and Max Kranick from the previous offseason. New York Mets fans are loving this team’s bullpen and rightfully so. It’s not just Edwin Diaz. The players in front of him and in lieu of are getting the job done at an excellent rate.

It’s almost easy to forget how this is nothing new for Stearns who last year unveiled a similar product. Reed Garrett stunned us by being a 2023 clinger-on who turned into a stud early on in 2024. While his numbers did fall back down to earth—skyrocketing into alien territory by the time we got to May before descending back to respectability—Garrett has been Carlos Mendoza’s favorite choice as the first man out of the bullpen in Mets victories so far this year.

Things are going well for him once again, lending credence to Stearns’ reputation as a tremendous baseball mind. When’s the popcorn party?

No one saw Reed Garrett coming like this and he remains an effective middle reliever in 2025 for the Mets

Four shutout innings with 5 strikeouts, Garrett has pitched in nothing but Mets victories thus far. He tossed the sixth inning in both Tylor Megill wins, recording the final two outs most recently on Friday with a pair of Ks. On Sunday, another clean inning with a strikeout after Kranick did his job continued the cruise control Garrett is on. His debut in Houston included another pair of strikeouts and a walk but no hits. Only the Miami Marlins with back-to-back singles with two outs have managed to successfully put the ball in play against him for a hit. Garrett escaped that jam in the sixth he created just as he kept the Marlins scoreless when he got the Mets through the fifth after Clay Holmes made a small mess.

Garrett’s role has been slightly altered from late last season. From mid-August onward, he never pitched a regular season game earlier than the seventh inning. It’s easy to see why with A.J. Minter now present for regular duties in the seventh or eighth and Ryne Stanek back along for the ride.

However, Garrett should still get his opportunities to appear in those more high-leverage situations later in games. Off-days and the incredible ability by Brazoban and Kranick to save the Mets from having to “clown car” with relievers coming out of the bullpen left and right has let Mendoza sit back and avoid unnecessarily overusing his bullpen arms. Now calling his own pitches thanks to advancements in technology through the power of Pitchcom, Garrett has looked in control because he is. Right there alongside Brazoban and Kranick in what is shaping up to be a bullpen built on talent and moxie, he’s a more traditional reliever we can continue trusting and thanks Stearns for doing so when he inherited him from the 2023 season.

The real genius behind Garrett on this roster goes even deeper when we get into the fact that he has remaining minor league options and the team isn't handcuffed to keeping him around. If they had to, they could always send him down. Fortunately, with the way things are going at the moment with him dialed in this well, Syracuse is just a place on the map and not somewhere he's bound to visit outside of a rehab appearance.