1 offseason signing that already looks like the right choice

The New York Mets are 13 games into the 2023 season, and they’ve already relied heavily on one of their offseason signings.

David Robertson, originally slated to be the setup guy for Edwin Diaz before his injury in the WBC, has stepped into the closer role and been dominant in his first six appearances.

Mets reliever David Robertson is getting the job done

Robertson has pitched 6.1 innings, finishing three games and earning two saves. He’s allowed just three hits, no runs or walks, and he struck out eight batters. His ERA is a pretty 0.00, his FIP is 0.88, his WHIP is 0.47, and he doesn’t even have an ERA+ yet, because you have to allow a run to calculate that stat.

His baseball savant page is one of the prettier pages you’ll see. He is in the 88th percentile or better in eight categories (99th in xERA/xwOBA, 96th in whiff rate, 94th in xBA, 93rd in strikeout rate, 91st in hard hit rate, xSLG, and walk rate, and 88th in chase rate. He’s also 82nd in average exit velo, and the only category below that is his barrel rate in the 48th percentile, which is still average.

His pitches all have negative run values (which is good for this stat). His curveball sits at -2, and his cutter and slider are both at -1. His cutter and curveball both have well above average vertical movement, and even though his slider doesn’t, no one has hit it yet.

All of this adds up to the most important signing of the offseason for the Mets. His performance in the latter third of games has been crucial so far, and it will continue to be. I like how Buck Showalter has been using him, often bringing him in for the biggest outs, even if that’s in the seventh or eighth innings. Expect to see more of that going forward.