In many ways, Hansel Robles has become the most important piece of the Mets bullpen as he has literally done everything this year except close out a game.  Seeing how he has pitched this year, if he was ever given that opportunity, it would be fair to assume he would close the game out.

Due to pitcher injuries and the need for Logan Verrett to be more of a spot starter than the Mets ever thought he would be, Robles has become the de facto long man in the bullpen.  Including last night’s game, Robles has made 13 multiple inning performances.  This includes the April 11th game when Robles had to pitch 2.1 innings after Steven Matz couldn’t make it out of the second inning in his first start of the year.  It also includes the July 21st game when Robles had to pitch 3.2 innings after Bartolo Colon had to be removed from the game after getting hit on his pitching hand with a comebacker off the bat of Whit Merrifield.  Three days later, Robles would pitch another 2.2 innings in that infamous game where Matz was spotted rubbing his elbow in the dugout and would eventually be knocked out of the game in the fifth inning.  Through all of these multiple inning appearances, Robles is 4-0 with a 2.67 ERA, 1.222 WHIP, and a 3:1 walk to strikeout ratio.

In addition to his long man duties, Robles has been brought in to get the one big out to get the Mets out of an inning on seven separate occasions.  Robles is effective in this role as the first batter he faces in any given appearance he makes are only batting .2oo/.256/.257 off of him.  Naturally, in every single one of these one out appearances, Robles was able to navigate his way out of the inning without allowing an earned run.

Strange as it may sound, Robles was used as a normal late inning reliever in his other 20 appearances.  The reason why Robles affords the Mets this flexibility is that he is able to get both lefties and righties out.  Over the course of the season, Robles has limited batters to a .241/.314/.400 batting line.  He’s even better against lefties limiting them to a .181/.259/.319 batting line.  Another reason why Robles gives the Mets this type of flexibility is because he’s unflappable.  In late and close games, batters are only hitting .216/.276/.313 off of him.  Overall, Robles has been good to great in 38 of his 40 appearances this season.  There is little reason to believe this won’t continue.

Overall, he is 4-3 with six holds, a 2.76 ERA and a 1.336 WHIP.  If you were to remove his two bad back-to-back appearances at the end of May, he would be 4-2 with a 1.48 ERA and a 1.223 WHIP.  Either way, Robles has had an absolutely terrific year that has seen him become a versatile and extremely important part of this Mets bullpen.