New York Mets right-handed relief pitcher Brad Brach believes this pitching staff has extreme potential heading into the new season.
Ladies and gentlemen, baseball has arrived. Spring training for the 2020 MLB season is officially underway, with the slate of exhibition matchups commencing this Friday.
The New York Mets will begin their spring training game schedule on Saturday and are coming off a year in which they possessed the seventh-best rotation in the majors in terms of ERA. The bullpen wasn’t nearly the same (25th with a combined 4.95 ERA), but that isn’t hindering reliever Brad Brach‘s expectations of this entire staff.
“If guys pitch to their career norm I think we have a chance to really, especially with the starters that we have, I think the staff as a whole has a chance to do something real special,” Brach said at spring training in Port St. Lucie, per Mike Puma of the New York Post. “I just think some of the guys, there is no way they could pitch as bad as they did last year. I just think it’s not possible when you watch how good of stuff they have.”
A large contributor to last year’s struggling pen was closer Edwin Díaz, who the Mets acquired in a trade with the Seattle Mariners prior to the 2019 campaign. After an All-Star season in 2018, Díaz was 2-7 with a 5.59 ERA last year.
Brach is working towards his first full season with the Mets. He originally signed with the ballclub last August after the Chicago Cubs released him. The Mets re-signed him to a one-year deal this past December.
After coming over to Queens, Brach went 1-1 with an ERA of 3.68 and WHIP of 1.227 through 16 appearances.
New York will take on the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins in split-squad games this Saturday. The matchups will begin at 1:05 p.m. ET and 1:10 p.m. ET, respectively.
