Grading every major Mets move on the road to the 2024 season

Jorge Lopez has considerable aspects to work on in his stuff

The Mets made a gamble for Jorge Lopez hoping that he would return to the level shown in 2022 with the Baltimore Orioles, wherein four months posted an ERA of 1.68, with a WHIP of 0.97, totaling 19 saves with 54 strikeouts in 48.1 innings pitched. From this point on, Lopez's results began to decline rapidly.

In his time with three different organizations last season, Lopez finished with a terrible 5.95 ERA, due mainly to an increase in contact from his opponents and a hard-hit contact allowed above 45%, ranking in the bottom 7% of the league. Additionally, his ability to generate swing-and-miss and produce strikeouts decreased by around six percentage points.

The main problem that Lopez has faced in his stuff in the recent past has been his sinker. The sinker pitch was the most effective during 2022, inducing a slugging of just .331. However, in 2023, this same pitch registered a slugging of .500 because batters elevated it more than in the previous year, decreasing its capacity to induce ground balls from 58.7% to 47.1%.

If Lopez can again find a way to improve his sinker, to make it a pitch with greater capacity to induce ground balls, we can expect a good year for this reliever. The success of this signing depends on the ability of the Mets' pitching coach staff to redirect Lopez toward the mechanics shown in 2022.