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New York Mets Acquire Addison Reed From Arizona Diamondbacks

By Kenneth Teape

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The New York Mets continued to rework their bullpen this weekend, as they facilitated another trade. They acquired reliever Addison Reed from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for two minor leaguers. Reed cleared waivers earlier in the month, enabling the Diamondbacks to trade him to any team without any restrictions.

Reed is earning $4.875 million this season and is under team control through 2017, so is he succeeds with the Mets they will have him for the next couple of seasons. But, if he happens to struggle, the Mets can get out of the contract as he is a non-tender candidate because of his contract.

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The 26-year old was abysmal earlier in the season, as Reed compiled horrific stats through June 20th, pitching to a 5.92 ERA. He quickly lost the closer’s role in Arizona with his inability to get people out. It got so bad, that he was actually sent down to Triple-A Reno to try and figure things out.

It is safe to say that he got things figure out during his demotion, as Reed has returned looking like totally different pitcher. Since the All-Star break when he was recalled, Reed has given up only three earned runs, two of which came this past week, in 16 ⅓ innings. That equals a strong 1.65 ERA, and a big reason for the new found success was that he drastically cut down on the base runners allowed.

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With his recent performance, Reed will be a solid addition to a Mets bullpen that has recently become a question mark. Overuse and fatigue are the main culprits, as manager Terry Collins has only been able to truly rely on Tyler Clippard, who was acquired from the Oakland Athletics at the trade deadline, and Jeurys Familia. With his experience closing games and pitching in high leverage situations, Reed will be a welcome addition to a bullpen that needs a boost.

Where Reed will really help the Mets out is in his ability to handle left-handed hitters. In his career, Reed has actually allowed a lower batting average against lefties than righties at .240 compared to .260. The last two seasons he has really excelled, allowing lefties to hit .210 and .219 before allowing them to hit .242 this season.

Without Jerry Blevins, the Mets have struggled to find a consistent pitcher to go against left-handed batters. Eric O’Flaherty has been a disaster since being acquired, and is probably playing his way off the roster at this point. He has not been the only pitcher to struggle though, as Bobby Parnell was also before electing to go on the DL rather than go on a minor league assignment.

Those struggles have made Collins rely heavily on young arms such as Hansel Robles and Logan Verrett. Both have excelled at times, but there are still those instances they show that they are rookies and struggle, such as this weekend against the Boston Red Sox.

Collins and the Mets are hoping that Reed can help alleviate some of the pressure off the young arms and veterans at the back end, as they could really use some help as the Mets head on their stretch run for the postseason.

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