3 NY Mets pitching prospects who could earn a permanent bullpen job in 2024

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Developing bullpen arms hasn’t been a strength of the New York Mets. It’s not exactly a goal for most organizations. Like true love or a crime scene in the woods, good relievers are something you just happen to stumble upon at times.

In 2024, there should be plenty of room for Mets pitching prospects to snag a job. Some of the starters should be candidates for innings out of the bullpen. So should these three prospects already be very familiar with coming into the game in relief.

Although outsiders to join the team for Opening Day, this trio of young relief arms should be options mid-year for the Mets.

1) Nate Lavender

Lefty Nate Lavender has been a failure as a professional ballplayer. Draft picks from the 14th round aren’t supposed to be this good. How dare he!

Through parts of three seasons, Lavender has tossed 108.2 innings and given the Mets a 2.32 ERA. A bit wild at times with an average of 4.5 walks per 9, he has a tremendous strikeout rate of 13.7 per 9. When the inevitable happens and the Mets need a southpaw in the bullpen, Lavender should be someone to call.

Practically already a Triple-A graduate, he posted a 3.27 ERA in 44 innings last year in Syracuse. His walk rate ticked slightly above his career average. It’s truly the only concern we should have for the soon-to-be 24-year-old.

It has been a few years since the Mets have introduced us to a truly productive bullpen arm straight from the farm. Will the fresh scent of Lavender permeate at Citi Field in 2024? It’s hard to see them hold him back much longer.

2) Trey McLoughlin

Another later-round pick, in the 16th round this time, the Mets took Trey McLoughlin. He struggled in 2021 and was better in 2022. It was in 2023 when McLoughlin took off flying and made himself a realistic possibility for some relief innings for the Mets in the near future.

McLoughlin made it only as far as Binghamton in 2023 so he is a bit behind Lavender. The season included a combined 51.2 innings with the Rumble Ponies and down in Brooklyn. The totals came out to a 2.79 ERA. He struck out batters at a rate of 11.1 per 9. Walks happened at a rate of 2.8 per 9 which is excellent to see.

McLoughlin is a righty so he’ll be in a battle with far more pitchers than Lavender for a spot on the roster. No matter. Many of those players brought in by David Stearns in the offseason are placeholders. McLoughlin turns 25 in June and should be a piece the Mets look to have for several years, not just one season.

Of course, McLoughlin needs to prove himself at the upper minor league levels. It may take a few extra injuries for him to get a major league promotion in 2024. Although a contender, McLoughlin might still be a little behind a promotion for this third option.

3) Paul Gervase

The Mets have had a lot of luck finding relievers in recent drafts after the tenth round. Another, Paul Gervase, came to them in 2022 in the 12th round. The 2023 season was his first full year as a professional. It was a noteworthy one with a lot of reason to think he can fast-track his way to the majors.

Gervase began the year in Brooklyn pitching to a 1.72 ERA in 47 innings. A strikeout rate of 14.6 per 9 unfortunately came with an alarming walk rate of 7.3 per 9. Gervase did manage to tame this in his 10 innings with Binghamton where the walks dropped down to 3.6 per 9. The sample size is small and given his track record of walking batters at the collegiate level, it’s certainly a concern.

This doesn’t mean Gervase won’t turn into a reliable bullpen arm at some point. Many hard-throwing youngsters only need to find the strike zone a little more frequently in order to become big league arms. He doesn’t need to be at the level of Bret Saberhagen in 1994. Gervase just needs to find a way to pitch to contact a little more frequently and not have it hurt him.

The development of Gervase and McLoughlin may eventually determine who gets the promotion first. Will we see one, both, or neither in the majors this coming year? For the sake of getting someone started for the 2025 campaign, one feels like a must alongside Lavender. There are so many innings from a 31-year-old waiver claim we can see in August.

David Stearns successfully built awesome bullpens with the Milwaukee Brewers. Surely, he already has an opinion on which of these three could be useful for the team in 2024.

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