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17 hours ago
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Almost exactly one year after the New York Mets traded for reliever Huascar Brazobán, they were reminded of just how volatile late-inning arms could be.
On Monday night, Brazobán entered the fifth inning with a two-run lead, two men out, and two outs to get. Brazobán, seemingly, did his job. He got Gavin Sheets to pop out before inducing a ground ball from Jake Cronenworth. But in a flashback to the New York's wacky Game 161 win last season, Brazobán was a step late to cover first base.
The inning continued. Two singles, a walk, and a wild pitch later, the San Diego Padres had a 6-5 lead. It was among Brazobán's lowest moments as a Met and a precursor to Tuesday's news.
This isn't the end for Brazobán
Before the second of three games in San Diego, New York announced that it optioned Brazobán to Triple-A Syracuse. In a corresponding move, the Mets signed reliever Chris Devenski to a one-year MLB contract.
Devenski has pitched for New York in 2025, appearing in 10 games and allowing just three runs in 11.1 mostly low-leverage innings. But this move is much more about Brazobán, whose absence is a blow to a bullpen already searching for answers.
His ugly inning on Monday was his second of the month and his third in the last five weeks. Against the Kansas City Royals, he faced six batters and surrendered four hits and two runs while closing out an 8-3 win. In Pittsburgh, he blew up, allowing four earned runs in a third of an inning.
Brazobán has a reputation for confidence issues, making bad innings worse and all but forcing managers to usher him into lower-leverage spots when things aren't going great. New York is taking a different approach. Rather than attempting to get right in the middle of a pennant race, he'll do so from Syracuse.
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This offers him the opportunity to pitch against lower competition, perhaps inflating his strikeouts and, in turn, confidence. But he also doesn't have to pitch as often now that his games don't matter.
Brazobán and Reed Garrett lead the Mets with 44 games apiece. With 51.2 innings to his name, he leads the bullpen and has arguably been overused. In Triple-A, the consequences of using him once or twice a week are minimal, whereas doing so in the bigs would have cascading issues for the rest of the 'pen.
Manager Carlos Mendoza has leaned on him heavily this year, but mentioned on Tuesday that he'd like to stretch him out to 35-40 pitches before returning to the majors. That would open the door for more comfortable multi-inning roles while also providing breathing room physically for when things go awry mid-outing.
As such, it's clear New York expects him to pitch important innings down the stretch. This is much more maintenance than punishment, even as the team considers adding arms at the deadline.
Brazobán still gets ground balls and strikeouts at above-average rates. He's largely been the third-best reliever in this bullpen, and while that could change in the coming days, he remains more proven than the lower-priority arms the Mets have churned through. While it isn't immediately clear how long he'll be on the farm, fans can expect him to pitch well in Flushing before October.
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