Mets free agent relief pitchers: 3 we should buy, 2 we should sell on having a good year

Buy into the Adam Ottavino signing

Adam Ottavino makes Michael Tonkin look like someone who should be on the playground eating worms. Now 38, the man isn’t ready to quit baseball yet nor can he seem to escape the clutches of Steve Cohen. Re-signed for the second straight offseason, Ottavino is back in the bullpen and hopefully this time he doesn’t have to elevate his role to closer. He’s there to set up Edwin Diaz and that’s what made him so effective in 2022.

The Mets did get punished with a lesser version of Ottavino last season following a brilliant first season. Still, with an ERA at 3.21, how much can anyone really complain?

The stand out bad number from Ottavino is the 7 losses out of the bullpen. Interestingly, three of those losses came in September including back-to-back ones in the latter part of the month. Those three came while pitching in the ninth.

His walk total going from 2.2 per 9 up to 4.2 per 9 last year was one of the main reasons why he got himself into so much trouble. Ottavino will have to improve here as well as find a few more strikeouts. His 9 per 9 was his lowest in a decade.

Ottavino will give the Mets enough quality appearances for the price he returned on. At $4.5 million, we’ll be happy to have him over some guys making double and delivering the same exact results.