Jake Diekman has stepped up in Brooks Raley's absence for the Mets

New York Mets fans are no stranger to the injury bug and last month their bullpen took a blow with the loss of left-hander Brooks Raley to the injured list with a left elbow injury. To this point, it is completely up in the air if and when Raley will return to the Mets as he's currently dealing with a "complex" elbow issue that has left everyone in the organization wondering what's next.

In the meantime, left-hander Jake Diekman has held his own for the Mets since Raley's absence and he has been one of the many bright spots out of the revamped bullpen over the course of the first month and a half. As of May 12th, since Raley's injury, Diekman has posted a 3.86 ERA over 6 appearances, holding batters to a .200 batting average.

Jake Diekman has been everything the Mets could have asked for and more out of the bullpen to this point in the season.

Overall, Manager Carlos Mendoza has been able to trust Diekman against lefties this season when coming out of the bullpen, as he has held them to a minuscule .188 batting average. That number is interesting nonetheless as in his career, Diekman has been much better against right-handed batters than left-handed hitters (.207 batting average vs..232 batting average).

The key to Diekman's success could be attributed to his fastball and sweeper combination as batters have not been able to hit either pitch to much avail to this point. Diekman's fastball has held opposing hitters to a .176 batting average over his 123 pitches while his sweeper has held batters to a .000 average in 55 pitches thrown.

After a successful stint with the Tampa Bay Rays last season, Diekman has carried that success over to Queens early on this season, especially with the team losing a big piece of their current relief corp. While the Mets most certainly are going to need an additional left-handed option out of the bullpen during this marathon of a season, Diekman has shown the ability to hold his own at this point.