Mets Should Move Quickly On Ryne Stanek
The New York Mets landed Juan Soto, and it just seems like everything got crazier. The starting pitching market is starting to heat up, and the team is going to be pushed to sign Sean Manae or look elsewhere.
If not, Manae, then who? Walker Buehler? Wait out Roki Sasaki?
Oh, and by the way, are the Mets going to be able to keep Pete Alonso?
While this is all happening, the Mets have yet to address their biggest need – the bullpen.
The bullpen was easily the Mets biggest weakness in 2024. It almost cost the team a chance of being competitive, and later, it almost cost them a chance of making the postseason.
By and large, the biggest disparity between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers was their respective bullpens. The Dodgers rode theirs to a World Series, and they annihilated the Mets bullpen en route to winning.
As we know, the Mets are set at closer with Edwin Díaz. Now, they need to work on building the bridge to him.
Ryne Stanek served that role extremely well in the postseason. He had only allowed one earned over his first 5.2 innings, and he had that incredible 2.1 inning appearance in Game 5 of the NLCS picking up the win.
He’s won a World Series with the 2022 Houston Astros. Overall, he has a 2.89 postseason ERA going 4-0 with a 0.821 WHIP and a 9.3 K/9.
He’s a clutch postseason reliever. For Mets fans of old, it’s reminiscent of Dennis Cook. With the goal being to win the World Series, you want Stanek in your bullpen.
Now, the regular season has been a different story. Truth be told, he had a bad 2024, and that included his 6.06 ERA in 17 appearances with the Mets.
Still, he is a quality reliever with a career 114 ERA+. Also, as noted by Eno Sarris of The Athletic, Stanek is one of the best relievers available per that Stuff+ metric.
As noted by Fangraphs, Stuff+ “aims to capture the “nastiest” pitches in baseball, using a decision tree-based model to capture the nonlinear relationships that exist across release points, velocities, pitch movement, and more.” Read the article for more detail.
This is again where Jeremy Hefner factors into the equation. He’s long been a good pitching coach, but this past season was likely his best. He did wonders across the pitching staff. That included his work with Stanek.
Stanek has always had great stuff. He’s at his best in the big moments. He’s shown he can handle the stage. He’s everything the Mets need and want, and the team should make sure to keep him.
Definitely should sign him. I’ve been thinking that since the season ended. He’s proven himself in Mets uni as late inning reliever that opponents fear. He’s a competitor who doesn’t back down and has the stuff to match.