Newly-appointed New York Mets manager Luis Rojas doesn’t want to choose roles for his relief pitchers just yet.
One of the low points for the New York Mets last season was the performance from their bullpen. Despite undergoing a resurgence in the second half of the year — which led to them finishing 86-76 — the Mets relievers combined for a 4.95 ERA. That statistic was good for 25th in the major leagues.
But heading into this season, New York will possess a new manager in Luis Rojas. The organization decided to appoint him to that position this past week after parting ways with previously-hired skipper Carlos Beltrán.
Rojas has faith in the bullpen and believes it’ll improve in 2020. Nonetheless, he isn’t deciding roles for his relievers just yet.
“We have such a great bullpen, I mean a lot of guys with history of closing games,” Rojas said this weekend at Mets FANFEST, per Alex Smith of SNY. “A lot of them. I think that’s only good. So we’re going to look at it real close. We’re not going to define roles yet, and we’re going to go through the process of spring training and how our bullpen looks throwing the ball and facing opponents.”
Within the bullpen, the closing pitcher spot is arguably where the Mets witnessed the majority of their issues last year. Edwin Díaz — a one-time All-Star who the team acquired in a trade prior to the 2019 campaign — finished his first season in Queens with a 2-7 record and a 5.59 ERA. He totaled just 26 saves, which was 31 fewer than his major league-leading 57 saves in 2018.
Based on Rosas’ statement, it’s unclear if Díaz will be closing out games for New York in 2020.
