The New York Mets had a bullpen breakdown last year, and it was a big part of their second-half collapse. Closer Edwin Diaz held up, but nearly everyone else was unreliable, and that’s something GM David Stearns is desperately trying to fix.
He let Diaz go and signed new closer Devin Williams, but for the moment we’ll leave the financial aspects of that transaction go untouched. Williams is one of the few closers who doesn’t rely on his fastball to get outs, which means the Mets have to put some hard throwers in front of him.
That’s where reliever Mason Miller of the San Diego Padres comes into play, maybe. Miller threw the hardest pitch of the season for the Padres at just over 104 mph, but due to San Diego’s financial situation the reliever may be on the block.
There are a lot of names being thrown around in the rumored trade talks between the Mets and Padres, but Miller is one of the primary ones. He’d make a great fit in front of Williams, but the cost in prospects wouldn’t be cheap.
So what would the Padres want? Young, controllable pitching, and preferably pitchers who have already performed at the big-league level. The obvious names here are pitchers Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong, although McLean is reportedly untouchable.
The concept of “already performed” is fungible, however. Sproat mostly looked ready, but Tong got lit up badly a couple of times down the stretch for the Mets, so that’s where things get dicey. The Padres would say they want McLean, but Sproat and Tong are both possible fits.
There are other possibilities, too. San Diego might be interested in outfield prospect Carson Benge, or possibly outfielder Nick Morabito, who’s risen quickly through the ranks. The Padres might consider Mets infield prospect Jett Williams a viable infielder who’s close enough to ready to be a worthwhile add.
But this is Padres GM A.J. Preller we’re talking about, so expect all kinds of names to be thrown around. Doing a deal with Preller is always a roller-coaster ride, but he does need to do something. The only question is how badly.
As for the Mets, adding Miller would also open the door for reliever Dylan Ross to make the big club and pitch initially in low-leverage situations, and Miller could also be a closer in waiting given that Williams is over 30.
If the Mets were as daring as the Padres supposedly were going to be, they might even try converting Miller to starter at some point, although that’s a back-burner, high-risk move that New York probably wouldn’t touch right now.
The point is that Miller would change the Mets bullpen pitcher as soon as he hopped on a cross-country flight for his media presser, and Stearns seems ready to do another deal for pitching. Stay tuned.