SAN FRANCISCO — The first piece of the Mets’ bullpen makeover arrived in the Bay Area on Saturday and will begin helping the team soon. The Mets plan to activate Gregory Soto before Sunday’s series finale at Oracle Park.
Any additional bullpen upgrades, president of baseball operations David Stearns indicated, probably won’t get here until early next week. Like most contending teams, the Mets are waiting for the league’s last few fence-sitters to decide whether they want to buy or sell.
Even after acquiring Soto, Stearns has still designs on bolstering his bullpen, which ranks 10th in the Majors in ERA at 3.77.
Of course, once more help arrives, the Mets will still rely on many of the same high-leverage arms they’ve used all year — a group that has proven consistently solid.
Case in point: after Mark Vientos gave the Mets their first lead Saturday with a two-run double in the sixth, the Mets leaned on Reed Garrett, Ryne Stanek and Edwin Díaz for the final nine outs of their sixth consecutive victory, a 2-1 win over the Giants.
“It’s definitely comfortable knowing that those guys are ready to go in a one-run game,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.
It was a sharp performance in relief of David Peterson, who allowed just one run over the first six innings. The bullpen did him one better, permitting a single baserunner over the final three.
Although Díaz was the shakiest of the bunch, Pete Alonso picked him up with a leaping grab of Patrick Bailey’s liner with two outs in the ninth, turning a potentially tied game into game over.
“That’s amazing,” Díaz said. “That’s a great play.”
“To be able to end the game right there is big-time,” added Alonso.
In addition to securing the victory, Alonso’s play extended the bullpen’s scoreless streak to nine consecutive innings. It’s been a stark turnaround for Mets relievers, who ranked 29th in the Majors in June with a 5.47 ERA. They’ve been more than a full run better in July, and over the past week, New York’s bullpen has been nearly untouchable, with just four runs allowed over 27 innings.
“We know we’ve got a really good bullpen, and now everybody’s started throwing the ball way better,” Díaz said. “Everyone in the bullpen is doing his job, so that’s really easy to manage when everyone is doing really good.”
Even so, Stearns understands the Mets’ need for reinforcements — and not just the types of waiver claims and minor transactions they’ve made continually over the past three months. To build an elite bullpen for the playoffs, the Mets were always going to need more.
Enter Soto, who arrived in San Francisco during Saturday’s game and immediately said all the right things, including his desire to compete for a title. When the Mets traveled to Baltimore earlier this month, Soto noted through an interpreter, he was “motivated” to pitch well so that the Mets would trade for him.
“It’s a good group, obviously anchored by Sugar,” Soto said. “I’m just trying to put in my grains of salt to help the team any way I possibly can.”
With Soto here, the bullpen now features him, Díaz, Stanek, Garrett and Brooks Raley, all of whom have extensive experience pitching in high-leverage scenarios. Whether the Mets will add to that mix isn’t as much of a question as the identity of the next arm to arrive.
“We’ll keep having discussions in the bullpen,” he said. “We’re not going to close the door on other aspects of the team. But as we’ve said all along, the bullpen is the priority and probably remains that way.”
In the interim, the Mets will continue relying on this improving bunch. Over the past two years, Mendoza has been careful with his best relievers early in the season, in hopes of keeping them fresh into October. It’s a formula that worked for them last year. It continued to work Saturday against the Giants.
The Mets are hopeful that with Soto and perhaps another arm on board, they’ll be able to ride this bunch the rest of the way.
“As a bullpen, we are ready right now,” Díaz said. “They [protected] us early in the season pretty good — like pitch today, get a couple days off. That was smart. Now, we’re in the second half, we are chasing to win the division. I know everyone from the bullpen knows what they have to do, and we are open to come in any situation and do our job.”
