New York Mets don’t need a 5th starting pitcher, they need Kimbrel

Early in the season, the New York Mets have some holes in their pitching staff. One answer is former Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel.

It’s only April and there is no need to panic yet. Certainly with teams feeling their way around and finding their identity and chemistry. Still, there are several teams that are in need of pitching help, one being the New York Mets.

The Mets have been fortunate in that their offense has been much improved from prior seasons. This lineup is a manager’s dream and manager Mickey Callaway has many better hitters he can move around in the lineup. According to teamranking.com, the Mets are third in run production in the Majors with 6.29 runs per game. Only the Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Dodgers are better, but not by much.

Eventually, regression analysis will show that the numbers will level off, teams will go into slumps and they will rely heavily on their pitching staff. It happens, and this year will be no different. This is when the New York Mets bullpen will need to be at its best. They have too good of a starting pitching staff to not have a strong bullpen when they falter.

So the Mets signed free agents Justin Wilson and Luis Avilan. They also brought back Jeurys Familia, and traded for the best closer of 2018, Edwin Diaz, to go with Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman. To handle the pitching they signed veteran catcher Wilson Ramos.

But they seem to still lack that pitcher than can bridge to Familia and Diaz. Two unsigned players who can impact the Mets are starter Dallas Keuchel and reliever Craig Kimbrel. The latter was the closer last year for the World Champion Boston Red Sox. Both are still free agents looking for a team to hook up with.

While many fans believe want the Mets to sign Keuchel, I feel the Mets should get another arm in the bullpen and sign Kimbrel. Here’s why.

While Keuchel may be a steadier pitcher than Jason Vargas, he still is a soft-tossing lefty that relies on control more than velocity, same as Vargas. As the fifth starter in NYM’s rotation, he will be skipped due to game scheduling and rainouts. The top four starters, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, and Steven Matz will not be skipped unless there are situations of Callaway’s control dictate otherwise.

New York Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen needs to get Kimbrel. He has a closer’s mentality and can blow batters away with his fastball. Callaway can alleviate the strain on using so many pitchers if he can bring Kimbrel for the 7th inning, Familia for the 8th, and close it out with Diaz.

As for the fifth starter, Callaway can take Lugo out of the bullpen and insert him into Vargas’ slot. The Mets manager has done it before and it has worked. Lugo is more valuable in the bullpen because the Mets have no one else to fill his role. With Kimbrel, the Amazins free up Lugo to do what he always wanted, be a starting pitcher.

All this speculation is great, Contracts and how much money are the Mets willing to spend determines if these moves are possible. Both Keuchel and Kimbrel are asking big money deals for more years than any owner is willing to give them.

But if the either Keuchel and Kimbrel drop some of their demands and settle for less, this may work out for all parties involved. Even if they bring in one of the pitchers to a one-year prorated deal. It beats sitting out most of the season. Then no one wins.

So while the Mets fan base want Keuchel, I say replace Vargas with Lugo, and bring in Kimbrel to solidify a bullpen that can become a strength for the Mets leading them to October.