Welcome back to our Player Performance Meter series, where we publish weekly snapshots of how the position players and pitchers have performed over the past week’s worth of games.
The first pitching meter of 2024 could not be more different than the position player meter. As opposed to the offense, which has been among the worst in baseball, the pitching staff has been among the best in baseball. The Mets currently hold the lowest staff ERA in the National League at 2.71 in 83 innings pitched. Luis Severino’s first start and Saturday’s bullpen implosion are the only outright poor pitching performances to speak of thus far. Otherwise, despite dealing with a couple of injuries in the rotation early in the season, pitching has been the Mets’ strength thus far.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25379593/Screenshot_2024_04_08_133720.png "Mets Player Meter: Pitchers, March 29-April 7 (1)")
Kodai Senga began the season on the IL with a moderate posterior capsule strain and is still working his way back. Tylor Megill made the rotation in his spot and had one shaky start where he lasted just four innings, giving up two runs (only one of them earned) on three hits, walking three and striking out four. Megill then went on the IL himself with a shoulder strain. The Mets have signed Julio Teheran to fill the vacancy in the rotation; he will make his Mets debut tonight. But for Thursday’s doubleheader, José Buttó served as the 27th man and started the second game. He delivered a quality start, giving up just one run on three hits through six innings of work. He struck out six batters and walked three.
Pitching won the day in the Mets’ first victory of 2024 and an unsung hero of the game was Reed Garrett, who was added to the roster to replace Megill when he was placed on the IL. Garrett pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Buttó and earned the win when the Mets walked it off in the ninth. He struck out four and walked one in the outing.
Sean Manaea has been the standout performer of the pitching staff so far. He pitched six scoreless innings in his 2024 debut in Game 1 of Thursday’s doubleheader. Unfortunately, things unraveled for the Mets in extras, denying Manaea the win for that performance. But he was brilliant nonetheless, striking out eight, walking two, and only yielding one hit in the quality start. He did earn his first win of 2024 in yesterday’s game, in which the Mets finally notched a win in which they were leading the entire game. Manaea played a large role in that, giving up just one run on three hits in five innings of work.
In Manaea’s debut on Monday, Michael Tonkin got tagged with the loss. All told, he gave up five runs in a disastrous inning in the tenth, but none of them were earned because of the ghost runner and because of Joey Wendle’s costly fielding error. Tonkin’s Mets tenure began on a more positive note, as he delivered two scoreless innings on Opening Day. But unfortunately Tonkin was thrust into high leverage situations in back-to-back games (with a two-day break in between due to rainouts) and came out on the losing end each time. In the Game 1 of Thursday’s doubleheader, Tonkin once again yielded multiple runs in extra innings and took the loss. He was then designated for assignment.
It was also a rough first couple of weeks of the season for Yohan Ramírez, who is the only pitcher besides Tonkin to earn a poor grade in his first meter and the only poop emoji in the group. Ramírez also got nailed with a two-game suspension for throwing behind Rhys Hoskins last Saturday after Hoskins’ dust-up with Jeff McNeil in the season’s opening series. He recorded one out in that game before he was ejected and things went downhill from there. Knowing that they would be without him for a couple of days, the Mets made Ramírez wear it for three innings in the Brewers series finale after Megill’s early exit. He pitched okay in that outing, allowing two runs on five hits, striking out two, and walking two. But things really went south for Ramírez on Saturday in which he coughed up five runs and the lead in a disastrous eighth inning, taking the loss. As I typed this paragraph, Ramírez was also designated for assignment.
The only other poor pitching performance to speak of was that of Luis Severino in his Mets debut against the Brewers last Saturday. The Brewers tagged him for eleven hits and he gave up six runs, but only three of those were earned due to some poor defense by the Mets behind him. Still, Severino was not sharp and took the loss. The only positive to take from the start was that he did strike out six and walk none. He pitched much better in his second game a week later, but due to the aforementioned tire fire of an eighth inning by Ramírez, his efforts were spoiled. In five innings of work on Saturday, Severino gave up two runs—only one of them earned—striking out seven batters and walking two.
Before the doors got completely blown off the game on Saturday, Jake Diekman gave up two runs in the sixth to get the Reds within a run. This was the lefty’s third outing of the season and the other two went much better. He pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning in relief of Severino in Severino’s first start and earned his first hold of the season for recording a key out in the seventh inning of Game 1 on Thursday.
The first game of Thursday’s doubleheader was started by Adrian Houser, who had a very solid Mets debut. He lasted only five innings and got a somewhat quick hook by Carlos Mendoza, who pulled him after just 67 pitches, but he was effective, giving up just one run on three hits. He struck out three batters and walked three batters. It was a performance the Mets would take every time from a guy who was supposed to be their fifth starter and is now higher in the pecking order due to injuries.
The Mets held a lead in Game 1 on Thursday until Adam Ottavino gave up a game-tying solo homer to Riley Greene. Ottavino also surrendered a run in last Saturday’s game which seemed like harmless insurance for the Brewers until the Mets fell one run short of a comeback and Ottavino’s performance ended up looming large. But his results have improved since then; he pitched 1-2-3 innings in each of the two victories in the Reds series, earning his first and second holds of the season.
Brooks Raley also earned holds in both victories over the Reds and still has a clean 0.00 ERA for the season thus far. Raley came into Friday’s game protecting a tenuous one-run lead and inheriting the potential game-tying and go-ahead runners from Drew Smith. He walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, but then bounced back to record a huge strikeout of Elly De La Cruz to escape that inning unscathed. He also worked around two walks to pitch a scoreless inning yesterday. His first appearance of the season was in the final game of the Brewers series, in which he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning with the Mets behind in the game, complete with two strikeouts. He kept Monday’s game knotted at 0-0 with a scoreless eighth inning, giving up one hit and striking out a batter. He also pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning in relief of Houser in Game 1 of Thursday’s doubleheader. Once again, Raley has been one of the most consistent performers in the bullpen so far this season.
Edwin Díaz has made his triumphant return to the mound and has looked every bit himself so far. Unfortunately because of the Mets’ nightmarish start, Díaz didn’t find himself in a save situation for awhile, but he did appear in a non-save situation in last Saturday’s game, pitching a scoreless ninth inning that paved the way for a near-comeback by the Mets. Though the Mets have not found themselves with a lead all that often this season, they have played in a lot of close games that necessitated Díaz’s services. On Monday, he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts to preserve the scoreless tie. He repeated that performance in Game 1 on Thursday—another contest the Mets would go on to lose in extra innings. Finally over the weekend Díaz found himself in two save situations and he converted them both, though Friday’s appearance was not without some agita. Díaz gave up a run in that appearance, but it was not earned, so his ERA remains at 0.00 for the season as well. His second save of the season was yet another 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. The trumpets are back, baby.
José Quintana pitched okay on Opening Day, but lasted just 4 2⁄3 innings, giving up two runs on six hits, striking out four batters and walking two. Unfortunately, the Mets’ anemic offense was unable to give him any run support and he took the loss for this effort. He pitched much better on Friday, coming just one out short of a quality start, yielding one run on five hits through 5 2⁄3 innings. He struck out four batters and walked four batters. Thus far, Quintana’s starts have involved a lot of traffic on the base paths, but he has been effective at limiting the damage.
Drew Smith came in to relieve Quintana in both his starts and rounds out the quartet of Mets relievers that have yet to have an earned run on their ledger so far in 2024. On Opening Day, Smith struck out Rhys Hoskins to complete the fifth inning for Quintana and stayed on the mound to pitch a scoreless sixth inning as well. Smith recorded the final out of the sixth inning on Friday to bail Quintana out of trouble and then recorded the first two outs of the seventh inning, but needed Brooks Raley to clean up some trouble of his own, which Raley did successfully, paving the way for Smith to earn his first win of the season. Smith also pitched a scoreless eighth inning in last Sunday’s loss and he recorded the first two outs of the seventh inning in Game 1 of Thursday’s doubleheader.
On Opening Day, Jorge López followed Smith and gave up an insurance run to the Brewers in the seventh, but has yet to give up a run since then. After Yohan Ramírez was ejected last Saturday, López finished out the seventh inning and walked a batter and struck out a batter. On Monday, López worked around a walk to pitch a scoreless seventh inning in relief of Manaea, part of the collective strong bullpen effort that kept that game scoreless into extras. López contributed a 1-2-3 tenth inning in Thursday’s extra-inning Game 1 loss and earned his first hold of the season for a scoreless sixth inning in relief of Manaea yesterday.
