Mets Player Performance Meter: Pitchers, June 1-14

The Mets’ rotation continues to change like the tide. The Mets are the only team in baseball that doesn’t have at least three pitchers who have made at least 10 starts. Of course, part of this is because of the Mets’ frequent use of the opener this season, but it is a striking statistic nonetheless. David Peterson remains in the dog house, but Sean Manaea seems to pitched himself out of it. Meanwhile, Jonah Tong has been sent back to the minors and Christian Scott has hit the injured list. Having

ascended up the bullpen pecking order, Austin Warren had a rare misstep, but Luke Weaver and Devin Williams have had a strong month of June. Cionel Pérez has pitched well enough to stick around, but the likes of Jonathan Pintaro, Daniel Duarte, and Joey Gerber continue to ping-pong between Triple-A and the big leagues.

The usual disclaimer: this meter does not reflect last night’s game and only covers the period from June 1-June 14.

Player	Last week	This week
Huascar Brazobán, RHP
Daniel Duarte, RHP
Joey Gerber, RHP	—
Sean Manaea, LHP
Nolan McLean, RHP
A.J. Minter, LHP
Freddy Peralta, RHP
Cionel Pérez, LHP
David Peterson, RHP
Jonathan Pintaro, RHP
Brooks Raley, LHP
Christian Scott, RHP
Jonah Tong, RHP
Austin Warren, RHP
Luke Weaver, RHP
Devin Williams, RHP

The good news for David Peterson is that he will continue to get significant innings—either starting games or pitching behind an opener—because the Mets don’t have any other options now that Christian Scott is on the injured list. It’s a shame for Scott, who had been the Mets’ most consistent pitcher of late. The same definitely can’t be said for Peterson, who was hammered by the Cardinals to the tune of six runs on seven hits over 3 2/3 innings. Austin Warren served as the opener in that game and didn’t fare much better, coughing up two runs in the first inning, taking the loss. That was the second of three consecutive outings in which Warren was scored upon. The most costly of those was last Saturday against the Padres, in which he gave up a go-ahead (and ultimately game-winning) home run to Freddy Fermin in the seventh inning. He also gave up an insurance run to the Braves in the Mets’ only loss in that series. His only clean outing in the month of June came on June 1 against the Mariners, in which he served as the opener and pitched a scoreless first inning.

Sean Manaea went on to pitch five innings of one-run ball after Warren opened the game, striking out four batters and walking one. Unfortunately, the Mets went on to lose the game in extra innings. Manaea followed that up with another strong outing in San Diego, in which he earned the win. He was rewarded with being granted the standalone start against the Braves in which he pitched six very solid innings, but unfortunately the Mets did not give him enough run support and he took the loss.

After David Peterson’s poor outing against the Cardinals, Jonathan Pintaro had to fall on the sword and soak up the final three innings of the game. He gave up an insurance run, but the game was already well out of hand by that point. He was of course rewarded by being optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse for a fresh arm. That arm was Daniel Duarte, who made back-to-back appearances over the weekend against the Braves and didn’t give up a run in either of them. He was then optioned back down to Triple-A in favor of…Pintaro again. Joey Gerber is receiving much the same treatment; he was recalled on June 3 and pitched a scoreless ninth inning in a lopsided victory against the Mariners that night. He then pitched two innings in last Tuesday’s shutout loss to the Cardinals before being sent back down to Triple-A.

Cionel Pérez, on the other hand, has managed to stick around. He has a 2.84 ERA over 6 1/3 innings in June thus far, giving up just two runs in total over the five appearances he’s had this month. Three of those five appearances were over an inning in length. He appeared once in Seattle, soaking up two innings in an 8-3 loss. He then appeared twice in both the Cardinals and Braves series. Against the Cardinals he had back-to-back scoreless appearances. He recorded two outs in Sunday’s lopsided victory and then earned the victory in Saturday’s game, despite giving up a run.

Pérez’s appearance on Saturday came in relief of Nolan McLean whose performance continues to be…uneven. McLean put up a quality start in San Diego, giving up just one run on three hits, striking out five batters and walking three. Against a more formidable offense in the Braves, he got away with an outing that could have been way worse. After looking unhittable in the first inning, McLean loaded the bases with nobody out in the second inning and somehow only gave up two runs. He needed a ton of pitches to navigate through it, but managed to grind his way through two more innings after that and thanks to Bo Bichette’s power surge, the Mets hung on to win the game.

“Uneven” is a good descriptor for Freddy Peralta’s recent performance as well. He began his June with a quality start against the Mariners in the only win the Mets managed in Seattle. But then he followed that up with one of his worst starts (at least results-wise) as a Met against the Cardinals. Despite the Cardinals dropping a four spot on Peralta in the third, Carlos Mendoza stuck with Peralta for six innings, over which he gave up six runs on six hits in total. His results against the Braves on Sunday were much better and unlike in his previous outing, the Mets gave him plenty of run support to work with and he earned the win to even his record to 5-5.

If nothing else, the Mets have been getting strong work from their closer and primary setup men. Luke Weaver and A.J. Minter are the only pitchers currently on the roster to be unscored upon in the month of June—both across 5 1/3 innings apiece. They definitely co-own top honors for this meter, as Weaver lowers his season ERA to a sparkling 2.40. A.J. Minter returning looking strong is good timing, as the Mets’ other primary lefty Brooks Raley, usually so consistent, has hit a bit of a snag. He began the month by giving up a game-tying homer to Josh Naylor in Seattle in a game the Mets would go on to lose in extra innings. That loss was charged to Minter, but the run was of course unearned due to the ghost runner. Raley bounced back with three consecutive outings in which he pitched a scoreless frame, but then he had a bad outing on Friday which necessitated the use of closer Devin Williams in the eighth inning to hold off the Braves. Williams gave up an RBI single (run charged to Raley), but then got out of it and pitched a scoreless ninth to seal the victory and earn his tenth save of the season. It was the second consecutive save for Williams, who also earned the save in the series finale against the Cardinals, in which the Mets salvaged a win. Williams also pitched in two non-save situations. He followed Weaver’s 1 1/3 scoreless innings in a tie ballgame in Seattle with a scoreless inning of his own to send the game to extra innings and then he gave up a walk and a double to plate a run in San Diego, but the Mets had built up enough cushion that it did not cost them.

Huascar Brazobán also continues to be one of the Mets’ more reliable bullpen arms, but he has been shuttled back and forth between the opener role and a fireman sort of role. He has started two games in June to mixed results. In Seattle, he opened for Jonah Tong and gave up two runs in 1 2/3 innings. Tong poured gasoline on the fire, yielding an additional five runs (only four of which were earned) and taking the loss. Tong was optioned back to Triple-A after that game. Brazobán then opened for Manaea in San Diego and that went much better; he issued two walks to lead off the game, but got out of the inning unscathed thanks in part to a double play grounder off the bat of Ty France. Brazobán was unscored upon in all three of his appearances in the month of June thus far as a reliever, racking up six strikeouts in those appearances, compared to none as an opener. He has put up an incredible 204 ERA+ this season—by far the best mark of his career.