2023 Mets midseason grades: Relief pitchers

The final piece of our midseason evaluations on the 2023 New York Mets is in, and it has to do with the beleaguered bullpen, as they ranked 21st in the majors in reliever ERA at 4.12. There has been much disappointment, with the shocking injury to Edwin Diaz in the World Baseball Classic setting a bad tone for the season. It also exposed a fatal flaw in roster construction this winter by Billy Eppler and his staff.

Like we did with the position players and starting pitchers, we will sort each graded pitcher by most innings pitched, and all relievers with 15.0 or more innings pitched were considered for grades.

David Robertson – 2023 Mets relief pitcher grade

1st Half Stats: 39.1 IP, 36 games, 2-2, 2.06 ERA, 46 K, 11 BB, 202 ERA+, 13 saves

David Robertson was signed to be the setup man for Edwin Diaz. However, the freak injury to Diaz in the WBC forced David Robertson into the full-time closer’s role for the season. And so far, he’s passed with flying colors, getting the job done, as it was a role he’s been familiar with before his time with the Mets.

His velocity on his cutter and slider have gone up. His average against his cutter has dropped more than 80 points from last year and over 160 points from two years ago, and he’s throwing it for strikes more often. His slider though hasn’t yielded the same results, as the average is up from .167 last year to .381 this year, but it in a much smaller sample size. Other than that nitpick, you could not have asked for anything better from the Mets’ closer in 2023.

Grade: A+

Jeff Brigham – 2023 Mets relief pitcher grade

1st Half Stats: 29.2 IP, 32 games, 0-2, 5.16 ERA, 33 K, 13 BB, 81 ERA+, .171 average against, 6 HR

This campaign has been a bit unfair to Jeff Brigham in a way, as his ERA north of five is a direct result of the Edwin Diaz injury and bad in-game management by Buck Showalter. The low and medium leverage situations were those he thrived in, but when it counted the most, he wasn’t any good.

Looking specifically at the game logs, three big examples stood out. On May 1, Brigham gave up a three-run homer to Sean Murphy of the Braves, in a game the Mets lost 9-8. On May 27, up a run against Colorado, he gave up a two-run tape measure shot to Ryan McMahon that proved to be the difference in a 10-7 loss. And he was the one that hit back-to-back hitters to force in runs in that horrific meltdown against the Phillies on June 25.

Grade: C

Drew Smith – 2023 Mets relief pitcher grade

1st Half Stats: 29.1 IP, 32 games, 4-3, 4.30 ERA, 34 K, 13 BB, 97 ERA+

Drew Smith is another example of a pitcher whose bad results were magnified by the lack of Edwin Diaz’s presence on the roster. Smith had a combined 2.89 ERA over the last two seasons before this season, where he’s allowed nearly as many runs and walks as he did over a full season last year. And most of the damage was done over the past six weeks, where his ERA over his last 16 appearances is 6.60, so you might wonder why this has been a less effective campaign for him.

Smith's two breaking pitches each lost at least 1.3 mph in velocity, allowing hitters to catch up to it and hit them hard. However, while his fastball has been effective this year, Smith’s lack of an effective second pitch is where his season went a bit south in May and June. Nonetheless, he is still the fourth best reliever on the staff.

Grade: B-

Stephen Nogosek – 2023 Mets relief pitcher grade

1st Half Stats: 25.2 IP, 13 games, 0-1, 5.61 ERA, 25 K, 14 BB, 75 ERA+, .903 OPS against

Stephen Nogosek’s poor first half made him an ex-Met and was ineffective as the long reliever for the Mets. In several of his games, the Mets had a chance to come back and win games, but he didn’t attack the strike zone and get ahead of hitters enough, and his inability to keep the ball in the ballpark took the team out of a lot of games.

As a result, he couldn’t consistently give the Mets two effective innings or more of relief when taking the mound, making other relievers get outs when they could have been used elsewhere, while killing the team’s in-game momentum in the process. The Mets designated Nogosek for assignment on June 9 and was released a few days later and is now with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A team in Reno.

Grade: D-

Dominic Leone – 2023 Mets relief pitcher grade

1st Half Stats: 24.2 IP, 24 games, 1-3, 4.74 ERA, 26 K, 9 BB, 88 ERA+

Dominic Leone did not start the season in the Mets organization, and who knows if he’ll finish it with the Mets, either. The Mets picked up Leone as a free agent a week after being released by the Texas Rangers in early May, as they were short-handed with injuries to Brooks Raley and others.

Really, though, his stats were not terrible. His walks and batting average are down from last year when he pitched for the Giants, and his strikeout rate went up. However, his three losses were the result of conceding untimely home runs in high leverage situations, and that’s where it counts the most. Thus, a grade of C is warranted here.

Grade: C

Tommy Hunter – 2023 Mets relief pitcher grade

1st Half Stats: 23.2 IP, 14 games, 0-1, 6.85 ERA, 20 K, 5 BB, 61 ERA+

Tommy Hunter was terrific in limited opportunities last year for the Mets, and he deserved another chance. His season started late as he spent the first three weeks of the season on the injured list due to back spasms. But his season was like Stephen Nogosek’s, as there were too many occasions where his appearances hindered the Mets chances to win as reasonable comeback chances turned into blowouts.

But the shellacking against Hunter was worse and harder. He gave up at least two runs in six of his 14 appearances, as opponents hit .357 against him with men in scoring position, while much of his other appearances were solely to give the bullpen rest with games already conceded. Hunter was designated for assignment by the Mets on June 10, released three days later, and still does not have another team. Who knows if baseball has seen the last of Tommy Hunter.

Grade: F

John Curtiss – 2023 Mets relief pitcher grade

1st Half Stats: 17.2 IP, 13 games, 0-0, 4.08 ERA, 11 K, 6 BB, 103 ERA+

John Curtiss was a sneaky smart add by the Mets last year despite recovering from Tommy John surgery. And by most measures, he’s been somewhat of an above average pitcher, as the righty's ERA is 3 percent better than league average.

Early on, he was a big boost to this Mets team by attacking the strike zone and keeping the opposition off base. He then began to have a wild strike zone, and it led to bad results as he was sent down to the minors by the beginning of May as he had options on his contract. He had another brief stint with the Mets in mid-June where he was effective then, before being sent down again.

Only three bad outings out of 13? Not bad post-Tommy John surgery.

Grade: B