Mets Player Meter: Pitchers, May 18-31
· Yahoo Sports
The past couple of weeks have been a time of great flux for both the Mets’ rotation and the bullpen. David Peterson has slotted back into the rotation only to lose his job again in favor of Sean Manaea, who has been greatly improved of late. Jonah Tong has been called back up to the big leagues and comported himself well. Tobias Myers has struggled with an unclear role and has been sent down to Triple-A to be stretched out. A.J. Minter has returned from the injured list and been a boost to the bullpen, who had been cycling a couple of guys in and out. Christian Scott continues to pitch well, but Nolan McLean has hit a rough patch.
PlayerLast weekThis weekHuascar Brazobán, RHPDaniel Duarte, RHP—Craig Kimbrel, RHPSean Manaea, LHPNolan McLean, RHPA.J. Minter, LHPTobias Myers, RHPFreddy Peralta, RHPCionel Pérez, LHP—David Peterson, RHPJonathan Pintaro, RHP—Brooks Raley, LHPChristian Scott, RHPZach Thornton, LHP—Jonah Tong, RHP—Austin Warren, RHPLuke Weaver, RHPDevin Williams, RHPOn May 22, the Mets called up Jonah Tong from Triple-A Syracuse, which ended Craig Kimbrel’s Mets tenure. Kimbrel had two poor outings in Washington prior to the DFA. He was subsequently picked up by the Rays, pitched one scoreless inning for them, and then went on the injured list. Meanwhile, Tong has pitched well enough to stay in the rotation. He has pitched twice behind an opener since being called up and has yet to allow an earned run across 6 2/3 innings of work. He is still issuing too many walks and not striking out enough batters, but he has been effective so far, earning the win in Wednesday’s game.
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Tobias Myers appeared in both of the games Tong pitched in and allowed a run in each of those appearances. In Miami, Myers was the opener and allowed a run in 1 1/3 innings of work. Against the Reds, Myers assisted Tong by getting the final out in relief of him in the fifth, but he came back out for the sixth and created a jam that resulted in a run. But the lowest point of his recent struggles came when he blew the lead in the eighth inning of Friday’s game, resulting in an extra inning affair, which the Mets would go on to win in walk-off fashion. But Myers’ challenges are as much the result of an inconsistent role as anything else—one day he is being asked to be the opener, the next outing he is tasked with multiple innings in mop-up duty, and then another day he is relied upon to be a late-inning fireman. The Mets seem to understand that this is not conducive to his success and have sent him down to Triple-A to stretch out as a starter. Cionel Pérez was called up to take Myers’ roster spot and pitched a scoreless sixth inning on Saturday in his Mets debut.
Meanwhile, Sean Manaea appeared in two games during this two-week stretch and pitched well in both of them. He followed Myers and preceded Tong in last Friday’s closely contested loss in Miami and took the tough luck loss in that one for allowing one run on four hits in 3 2/3 innings of work. In Tuesday’s loss to the Reds, Manaea did mop-up duty for David Peterson, allowing one run in three innings of work, striking out six batters in the process. Peterson was knocked around for six runs on eleven hits in that game and took the loss. He had pitched much better in his previous start in Washington, where he allowed just one run on four hits over five innings of work, striking out three and walking three. But the outing against the Reds was so poor that he lost his rotation job again (to Manaea this time). He appeared in relief in Sunday’s lopsided victory and earned a save for pitching the final four innings of that game without incident.
That bulk relief appearance came to the benefit of Nolan McLean, who earned the win on Sunday for five innings of one-run ball. It was a big bounce back outing for McLean, but even with the positive result, McLean had to fight for it and it saved him from getting a poop emoji because his two other starts over the past two weeks were awful. In Washington, McLean had the worst outing of his big league career to date, giving up nine runs—only six of them earned—on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. One hoped it was just a blip, but he followed that up with an even worse performance against the Reds, yielding seven runs before being chased from the game after just 3 1/3 innings. Even the best young pitchers struggle sometimes and the Mets hope that McLean can right the ship because they cannot hope to stay afloat otherwise.
Fellow rookie Zach Thornton was called upon to make a spot start in Washington and though he had a better time out there than McLean did, it wasn’t by much. He gave up four runs on four hits, including a home run, in 4 1/3 innings of work, striking out three batters and walking two. But to be fair to Thornton, the Nationals—currently one of the top offenses in baseball—turned out to be a surprisingly tough assignment for the young lefty for his debut.
While we’re discussing the Mets’ young arms, Christian Scott continues to perform consistently well, though he too struggled a bit against the high powered Nationals bats. He gave up three runs on four hits in four innings of work in Washington, but faired much better against the Marlins—once in Miami and once at home. In Miami, he was excellent, twirling 5 2/3 scoreless innings in which he struck out five batters and only allowed four hits. He followed that up with five innings of one-run ball at Citi Field against those same Marlins and this time, the Mets were able to win the game to finally give Scott his first big league win.
Devin Williams was involved in both of those contests to very opposite results. Last Sunday’s game remained a scoreless tie until the bottom of the ninth when Williams was tasked with trying to send the game to extras. But instead he gave up a walk-off grand slam to Heriberto Hernández. All three of Williams’ other outings, including on Saturday in a non-save situation, were effective ones. He capped off Saturday’s win with a scoreless ninth and converted save opportunities in Washington and at home against the Reds.
The Reds series also saw the return of A.J. Minter to the Mets’ bullpen and the veteran lefty picked up right where he left off. Peterson and Manaea combined to pitch the first eight innings of Tuesday’s 7-2 loss, but Minter finished the game with a scoreless ninth in his 2026 debut. On Friday night, Minter recorded the final out of the fifth inning with a strikeout of Jakob Marsee in a tough spot and then went on to record the first two outs of the sixth as well.
That outing came in relief of Freddy Peralta, who continues to be as advertised: a guy who usually won’t go deep into the game, but will keep his team in the game more often than not. On Friday, Peralta couldn’t quite make it through the fifth and needed Minter’s help to navigate out of it. But to be fair to Peralta, only two of the four runs he gave up in the outing were earned and the Mets did go on to win the game. Peralta’s most recent start prior to Friday—also against the Marlins—was the exception to the rule: he was pushed to seven innings, over which he gave up four runs on eight hits, striking out nine and walking two. The Mets unfortunately failed to give Peralta any run support that day and he took the loss for that effort. Jonathan Pintaro pitched the final inning of that game in relief of Peralata and delivered a 1-2-3 inning. Pintaro also pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings in last Tuesday’s game before being optioned back down to Triple-A Syracuse.
Similarly, Daniel Duarte’s time with the Mets has come and gone during the two-week period covered by this meter, despite him pitching well in his cup of coffee with the big league squad. Duarte saved the rest of the bullpen with 2 1/3 scoreless innings in Washington in relief of Nolan McLean after his poor outing. Duarte yielded just one hit, struck out a batter, and didn’t issue any walks in the outing. He was then optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse.
For the time being, it seems that Austin Warren has pitched well enough to avoid being the guy that gets sent back down just because he has options, as he has survived all the roster shuffling over the past couple of weeks. And he has been used heavily during that time, appearing in five games over this two-week span. In the crazy series opener in DC in which the Mets put up a ten-run twelfth inning, Warren pitched two hitless innings in relief of Christian Scott, striking out a batter and walking a batter. He appeared again in relief of Thornton two days later and that was the only recent outing in which he struggled, giving up two runs on four hits. But every pitcher the Mets sent to the mound struggled in that 8-4 loss. After Nolan McLean imploded against the Reds in the fourth inning last Tuesday, Warren calmed things down with 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Warren’s best outing came in Friday’s extra inning game, in which he pitched a scoreless tenth to strand the ghost runner and earn the win when the Mets walked if off in the bottom of the frame. He then capped off his month of May with a scoreless eighth inning in Saturday’s win.
The only guy that has been used just as heavily as Warren is Huascar Brazobán, who continues to excel in every role he has served in this season, including as an opener. Brazobán appeared in both games in this past weekend’s Marlins series that Warren appeared in and earned a hold in both of them, striking out the side in the seventh inning on Saturday. Brazobán’s only outing lasting more than one inning came in the series opener in Washington, in which he earned the win for that group bullpen effort. He earned a hold for a scoreless sixth in the finale of the Nationals series. Brazobán has a fantastic 1.82 ERA on the season. He recorded two outs in last Sunday’s walk-off loss in Miami and then served as the opener ahead of Tong in Wednesday’s win over the Reds.
Luke Weaver also continued his sustained run of brilliance over the past couple of weeks. He has now dipped his season ERA below 3 by not allowing an earned run in the entire month of May. The period encompassed by this meter included 5 1/3 innings across five appearances, over which he allowed just four hits in total, striking out five batters and walking only one. Put simply, Weaver has been the Mets’ most consistent reliever this month and is pretty much automatic right now.
Brooks Raley has been one of the other most consistent performers in the bullpen but he’s scuffled just a little bit of late. In the series opener in Washington, Raley got himself into quite a jam by giving up a double to the lefty James Wood who he was brought in to face and then walking two batters to load the bases with nobody out. A run scored on a sacrifice fly in that inning, but the Mets did maintain the lead. Raley bounced back with a scoreless seventh inning (Weaver followed with a scoreless eighth) in the series finale in DC to protect a one-run lead and earn his eighth hold of the season. In Miami Raley allowed what would have been a go-ahead RBI hit in a scoreless game in the seventh, but A.J. Ewing threw Javier Sanoja out at the plate to help Raley keep the Marlins off the board (until they walked it off in the ninth). Raley contributed 1 1/3 scoreless innings to the victory in the series finale against the Reds on Wednesday and struck out Kyle Stowers in a key spot in Friday’s game.