Mets forced to rejigger bullpen after sending key reliever to IL

The New York Mets placed southpaw reliever Brooks Raley on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to April 28) with a left elbow inflammation. Fellow lefty David Peterson was also optioned to Triple-A, creating a second spot on New York’s active roster.  Right-handers John Curtiss and Adam Ottavino will fill that void, with Curtis called up from Triple-A and Ottavino activated from the paternity list.

Raley entered Saturday’s action tied for the league lead in appearances (14) and holds (eight). For the most part, the southpaw has been quite sharp despite a somewhat misleading 4.76 ERA.  12 of Raley’s 14 outings have been scoreless, but he was tagged for four runs in an inning of work against the Brewers and for two runs in his most recent appearance against the Nationals on Thursday.  His 22.4 percent strikeout rate is also below average, but Raley’s 2.0 percent walk rate is among the league’s best and he is doing a good job of limiting hard contact.

Ottavino has pitched well this season and will likely slide back into his set-up/part-time closer role, with David Robertson drawing the overall bulk of save opportunities.  But, losing Raley is certainly a blow to the Mets bullpen, in part because he was also the team’s only left-handed reliever.  The Mets have not seemed to be particularly concerned with bullpen balance in recent times, though, given that Joely Rodriguez was occasionally the only southpaw in the 2022 relief corps. They chose to just recall Curtiss, for instance, rather than select a left-hander like T.J. McFarland onto the 40-man roster.

Since the Mets optioned Peterson to Triple-A multiple times in 2022, it isn’t necessarily a shock that the left-hander is again headed to Syracuse.  With Justin Verlander set to be activated from the injured list next week and Max Scherzer returning from suspension, Peterson was the odd man out of the rotation mix after making six starts thus far in the 2023 season.

It has been a hard-luck year for Peterson, whose 3.59 ERA is well below his career 7.34 ERA.  Peterson has above-average strikeout and walk rates, but he has also allowed eight home runs in only 30 2/3 innings of work.  For comparison’s sake, Peterson surrendered 11 homers over 105 2/3 frames in 2022.  The left-hander has allowed plenty of hard contact this spring, but even the softer contact has been finding holes, as per his inflated .357 BABIP.  Peterson will get a chance to get himself on track at Triple-A, while remaining on tap as the Mets’ top depth starter.