So the Mets are allegedly among the top-three teams pining for Dallas Keuchel's services.
While it's always prudent to add pitching, bagging a starter won't cure their real illness so far this season. It won't lower Seth Lugo's 9.64 ERA. It won't ease your ulcer when Jeurys Familia takes the mound and hemorrhages runs. It won't make nearly every reliever less than a variable beyond Edwin Diaz.
Jacob deGrom is pitching in another orbit. Noah Syndergaard looked like Thor in his last start. Steven Matz has been stellar. Zack Wheeler will get better. There's enough lumber in the lineup to keep the club competitive.
But in this age of acute analytics and widespread specialization, the bullpen has emerged as an essential part of any baseball club. Forty years ago, the bullpen was a closer and a bunch of potbelly pitchers who either mopped up losses or ended laughers. Bullpens were the MLB version of NFL special teams -- the tertiary part of the game.
Now you can't win without a conga line of bionic bullpen arms. With pitch counts, innings limits and starting pitchers living in six-inning bubbles, you just can't win a World Series anymore unless you have the last three innings locked down.
Last year, seven of the 10 playoff teams had bullpens ranked in the top-11 in the sport. The two clubs in the World Series -- the Dodgers and Red Sox -- were ranked second and eighth, respectively. The team Boston beat in the ALCS (Houston), had the top-ranked bullpen.
Conversely, the Mets (3.54 ERA) had the sixth-best rotation in baseball in 2018, yet won just 77 games. Right now, the Mets' pitching as a whole ranks 20th in the majors with a 4.48 ERA. Almost none of that lands on the rotation, which, Wheeler aside, has been excellent.
Lugo has allowed eight hits, five walks and five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. Familia sports a 5.40 ERA in five appearances. Robert Gsellman has an identical ERA, allowing nine hits in five innings. Only Diaz, with four saves in five games, has not allowed a run. If you watched the Mets dip from 5-1 to 6-3, you saw an eyesore of a bullpen vomit runs in myriad ways.
The Mets are reportedly staying in touch with Craig Kimbrel. But staying in touch is a far cry from signing him. And what's the hold-up? Kimbrel is only a seven-time All-Star with a career 1.91 ERA, 333 saves, 868 strikeouts in 532 2/3 innings and a career WHIP of 0.92. At 30, he's still in his pitching prime. It is odd that someone of his talent isn't on an MLB club. But while 2018 wasn't his best year, he was the closer for the World Series champs. He still fanned 96 batters in 62 1/3 innings. He also posted a 2.74 ERA with a 0.995 WHIP in 63 games.
Don't think the Mets can use some of that? Would fans be happier finding a fix to their fifth starter? Is Jason Vargas really the issue?
Fans and pundits are already on manager Mickey Callaway for his use of the bullpen, for riding Lugo like a rented mule. But Callaway just doesn't have the arms to close games right now. General manager Brodie Van Wagenen made a seismic splash when he took over the team. But the Mets' rookie GM has represented enough pitchers to know how vital pitching is.
Indeed, the reason the Mets don't have a third World Series ring is because the Royals had the better bullpen. In four of the five games of the 2015 Fall Classic, the Mets had leads in the eighth inning, yet still lost the World Series in five games. They had zero saves in the series, but Familia blew three. From the eighth inning on, the Royals scored 15 runs. The Mets scored once.
Van Wagenen has boldly declared that the Mets are the team to tackle in the NL East. If he really means that, then he really knows he needs a better bullpen.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel.
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