The Mets bullpen stayed sharp in today’s 4-2 victory over the Cubs after another starter failed toget deep into the game. After two eighth inning outings in back-to-back games, the bullpen was heavily relied on Tuesday. Manaea went just five innings but was able to limit the damage. He left the game with a 1-1 tie.
After Manaea went five, Sean Reid-Foley worked out of a gem. In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets scored three runs as D.J. Stewart went deep for a three-run home run. Time for the Mets to call on arguably their best reliever to keep the lead. In comes Reed Garrett.
The journeyman righty pitched a scoreless inning with a walk and a strikeout, lowering his ERA to 0.57. He kept his WHIP below one and added one more strikeout to his insane rate. How is Garrett having so much success, after being DFA’d a couple of times? Pitch Usage
Garrett was always a guy who relied on a fairly high velo Fastball. The Fastball was the most thrown pitch every single season until this year. And it paid off.
Garrett in his major league stints went from 64.8 percent in 2019, 49.5 percent in 2022, 32 percent in 2023 to 13.3 percent in 2024 in his Fastball usage, relying on his ‘secondary’ stuff to get his outs.
This year Garrett has thrown his Slider (28.4%) the most, closely followed by the Sweeper (25.3%) and Splitter (23.1%) meaning he throws those three pitches over 75 percent. All three of those pitches have a whiff percentage above 40 percent, while the 4 Seamer gets a whiff at just 8.9 Percent, showing Garrett has nasty stuff, but his 4 Seamer does provide contact.
If you look at Garrett his 4 Seam success not only this season but, in the past, it’s logical he went away from the pitch. In 2023, Garrett slash line against the 4 Seamer was .287/.386/.476 and his expected slash against was even worse at .299/.440/.639. This year it’s even worse with a.400/.511/.400 slash against and a .368/.522/.510 expected slash against. It’s a very good idea to go with his better stuff and pick his spots with the 4 Seamer. It’s obvious he still needs the 4 Seamer, to get the hitters off his off-speed pitches. So even if the results aren’t there, it’s important he keeps mixing in his 4 Seamer.
So back to the numbers for his secondary stuff, which obviously isn’t his secondary stuff anymore. The most used pitch is his Slider, which got hit for the only Homerun/Earned run he allowed. That increased his slash line against however, his expected slash against the Slider is good at .232/.256/.361. So, there is no concern he is lucky with the pitch as his expected slash line is better than his overall slash line against the Slider.
His best pitches are the Sweeper and Splitter. The Splitter has a 70.4% whiff rate with a .053/.080/.053 slash line against. Crazy numbers against a single pitch, he has now thrown 23.1 percent. His expected slash is very close to his overall numbers so another pitch that didn’t get lucky results. It just has been that good. Garrett has the best Whiff rate on any MLB pitch so far with his 70.4. Second best Fernando Cruz his Splitter at 66.7%. In his outing today, Garrett threw two Splitters resulting in an out and a whiff. The Splitter does get more drop this year, so Garrett also has improved the shape of the pitch.
The other great offering so far has been Garrett his Sweeper. He added Horizontal movement on that pitch, and it gets great results as well. He owns a .000/.179/.000 slash line against on that pitch, which means he hasn’t allowed a hit on the Sweeper. His expected slash on the Sweeper stands at .036/.088/.044, which shows it’s another elite pitch for Garrett. (K to McCutchen below)
Overall, Garrett is amongst the league leaders in Whiff Rate, K Rate, Expected ERA and leads the league in Expected Batting Average. What a tremendous start to the year for the most surprising bullpen arm in the game so far this year. If Garrett keeps this up, an All-Star nod would be in his near future. What a find for the Mets has Garrett been!
