4 Mets players most likely to be off the roster by September 1

2) Adam Ottavino

This year hasn’t been a great one for Adam Ottavino. A 4.43 ERA in 42.2 innings, he has continued the trend of seeing his ERA jump up a full 1.20 runs per 9. From 2.06 in 2022 to 3.21 last season, we’ve seen a version of Ottavino that could’ve probably stayed on SNY talking baseball rather than playing it.

The tricky thing with Ottavino is that other than his horrific May, every other month for him has been decent if not magnificent. He began with a 1.69 ERA heading into May when his ERA exploded at 9.28. ERAs of 3.18, 3.86, and now 3.00 so far in August helped lower it to where it stands now. Because of how bad he was in May—tagged for a pair of losses, too—Ottavino has been in the fans’ doghouse for quite a while.

Ottavino isn’t getting as many high-leverage situations either. It’s understandable. Batters are hitting .280/.379/.440 against him this year in those spots. A 5.87 ERA in the 8th inning and even worse 6.75 in the 9th, Ottavino has been relegated to earlier frames where he has done well.

It could be a numbers game that bumps Ottavino out. The team doesn’t have a lot of optional relievers and with him not even getting into the most important innings regularly any longer, he seems much more replaceable.