Examining how David Stearns' reliever additions fared in 2024

Everyone roasted Billy Eppler for his option-reliever strategy. Yet how much better did David Stearns – he of the much-ballyhooed, low-cost moves – do in assembling his pen last year? MLB relievers had a 3.97 ERA, a 1.276 WHIP and a .697 OPS allowed. Here’s how the Mets’ relievers did in those categories, along with their MLB ranks:

ERA – 4.03 (17)
WHIP – 1.279 (17)
OPS - .684 (19)

Those aren’t great numbers for a team that won 89 games. And the thing is, those numbers were boosted by players who didn’t make the Opening Day roster. Here’s how the relievers that Stearns took north with him at the beginning of ’24 did for the Mets this past season:

Diaz, Raley and Smith were holdovers. Ottavino was re-signed after he opted out of his contract. The other four were brought in by Stearns and they simply were not good. Perhaps the best thing you can say about this quartet is that the dramatics from Lopez in his last appearance caused the players to call a meeting and the team played better after that.

And the depth relievers Stearns brought in prior to the start of the season weren’t any better. Carlos Guzman, Cole Sulser, Joseph Yabbour, Austin Adams, Kyle Crick, Andre Scrubb, Cam Robinson, Victor Castaneda, Chad Smith, Yacksel Rios, Max Kranick, Danny Young, Leyvi Rodriguez, Angel De La Rosa, Luis Montero, Maxgregori Harvey, Jose Gomez, Paul Gomez, Yancarios Rivas, Shintaro Fujinami, Diosmerky Taveras, Kolton Ingram.

It’s not realistic to expect even one-third of the pitchers you add in the offseason to appear in the majors. But of these 22 pitchers added by Stearns, only two appeared in the majors with the Mets. Sulser gave up 5 ER in 4.2 IP, while Young had a 4.54 ERA in 37.2 IP.

The success stories for Stearns’ bullpen acquisitions were Adrian House – acquired to be a starter – before he melted down in his last few appearances and was cut, Phil Maton, who was very good in the regular season before getting knocked around in the playoffs and Ryne Stanek, who got off to a horrible start but turned things around at the end of the year and was good in the postseason.

The relievers who came up during the year and were successful – Reed Garrett, Dedniel Nunez and Sean Reid-Foley – were all in the system pre-Stearns. As was Jose Butto, who was used in a sub-optimal manner in just about every way imaginable. He should have been in the rotation from Day One but instead was sent to the minors. Then he was yanked around and finally landed in the pen, where he posted a 2.00 ERA in 36 IP.

So, why doesn’t Stearns get the grief that Eppler did with his bullpen construction?

Hopefully, the 2025 Mets don’t suffer as many pen injuries that they did this past season. But you have to be prepared for those things to happen. It’s my hope that Stearns does significantly better with relievers this offseason, adding ones ready to start the year in the majors, as well as ones who could make an impact after a mid-year promotion. At the very least, relievers he imports shouldn’t be gifted spots on the Opening Day roster just because they signed for more than the MLB minimum, which is what we saw a season ago – for very little bang for the buck.