To their credit, the Mets have built an organization deep with pitching talent.  When you do that, you are eventually going to be faced with a difficult decision over who to keep and who to trade, who to promote and who to keep down, and who to protect and who to expose in the Rule 5 Draft.  These are difficult and challenging decisions.  With that said, this is why the front office is paid the money that they are paid.  This past year the Mets had a choice between protecting Matthew Bowman or Jeff Walters in the Rule 5 Draft.

Bowman was a 2012 13th round selection out of Princeton University.  He is a four pitch pitcher with no real outstanding out pitch.  He was projected as a back of the rotation starter for a Mets organization that is deep in pitching talent.  Therefore, if Bowman was ever going to make it to the majors, he was going to have to make it in the bullpen as a swing guy like a Logan Verrett or a Sean Gilmartin.  With that in mind, the Mets decided to protect the player who had already had success in the bullpen.

That was their 2010 seventh round selection out off the University of Georgia, Jeff Walters.  Walters possessed a 95+ MPH fastball with a hard slider he had difficulty controlling.  In 2013, he had a breakout season in AA going 4-3 with a 2.01 ERA and a 1.017 WHIP.  In 2014, he was promoted to AAA, and he struggled mightily.  As it turned out, Walters needed Tommy John surgery costing him the end of the 2014 season and the beginning of the 2015 season.  When he returned, he started working his way back up the Mets minor league system starting with Savannah.  He ended the year in AA where he went 2-0 with a 1.96 ERA and a 1.091 WHIP in 18 innings.

Now, it was likely that either Bowman or Walters were going to be picked in the Rule 5 draft given their repertoire and success in the minor leagues.  You could’ve easily made a case for either player.  The Mets chose Bowman.  Unfortunately, the Mets chose wrong.

With the Cardinals this year, Bowman has been pitching well out of the bullpen.  In his 19 appearances, he is 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA and a 1.080WHIP.  Batters are only hitting .232/.286/.347. To put it in perspective, current Mets reliever Jim Henderson is a 1-2 with a 3.52 ERA and a 1.348 WHIP.  Batters are hitting .221/.313/.384 against him.  So overall, Bowman has not only pitched well this year, but he has also pitched well enough to be considered for the current Mets bullpen, which has been good all year.

Walters, on the other hand, has not been very good.  Walters reported to AAA where he has pitched in 26 games going 0-2 with a 9.22 ERA and a 2.268 WHIP.  Due to the Mets current roster crunch with the various injuries at the major league level, Walters was the natural choice to remove from the 40 man roster.  Unfortunately, Walters hasn’t rewarded the Mets faith in him when they selected him over Bowman.

This predicament only serves to highlight the fact that the Mets have a strong minor league system.  Hopefully, Walters will rebound and return to the form the Mets had seen from him in AA.  In the meantime, Bowman continues to have success for the Cardinals.  Fortunately, the Mets decision to keep Walters over Bowman hasn’t served to come back and bite them.  Hopefully, it never will.

Editor’s Note: this was first published on metsminors.net