Saturday the Mets acquired Addison Reed from the Diamondbacks and they made a claim on Marc Rzepczynski (Scrabble), although thankfully up until this point they’ve been unable to come to terms on a deal with the Padres for him. It’s remarkable how many transactions Sandy Alderson has made in general the last 10 months or so, and for the bullpen in particular. If a year ago, someone would have said that Sandy Alderson would have made this many deals, he would have been laughed out of the room.

Here’s a list of bullpen moves made since the Winter Meetings:

Added Sean Gilmartin in Rule 5

Acquired Jerry Blevins

Traded for Alex Torres

Dealt for Tyler Clippard

Actually sent something of potential value for the useless LOOGY who shall not be named

Completed the transaction for Reed

In negotiations for Scrabble

Gilmartin has been a find and Clippard has been an absolute key pickup. They’ve had unqualified success with the two relievers that they’ve essentially just let … pitch, without trying to force feed them into sub-optimal roles. The hope is that they do the same thing with Reed and that they cut the useless one to make a spot on the roster for him.

Everyone probably recognizes Reed’s name because he comes with 104 lifetime Saves to his credit. But despite those shiny Save numbers, he’s never been a particularly dominating reliever. His best season was in 2013, when he had a 3.79 ERA and a 1.107 WHIP. Last year he had his best-ever K/BB ratio, with a 4.60 mark. That’s a strong rate; however, it didn’t translate into a good year, as he went 1-7 with a 4.25 ERA.

This year he lost his closer’s job and was even sent to the minors, where he spent a month pitching in Reno, another hitter-friendly place in the Pacific Coast League. Reed struggled with his command in this brief stint, but otherwise pitched well, as he recorded a 1.74 ERA and a 1.258 WHIP in the city once best known for divorce.

The interesting thing is how Arizona used Reed upon his recall in late July. Not only did they not use him as a closer but in five of his 13 outings, they let him pitch more than an inning. Since his recall, Reed has a 1.65 ERA and a 1.163 WHIP. In 16.1 IP, he has 14 Ks and 3 BB for a 4.7 K/BB ratio. Since he had a 5.92 ERA, a 1.726 WHIP and a 1.8 K/BB ratio before his demotion, it’s safe to say he’s been getting much better results here lately.

Imagine if the Mets replaced the useless one with not only a competent reliever but one who could go two innings at a time. That would go a long way towards solving a lot of the problems we’ve witnessed with the pen. They could bend over backwards trying to limit Jeurys Familia and Clippard to one-inning outings and have the remaining five guys in the pen capable of going multiple innings at a time.

My personal preference would be for these five relievers to go two innings at a time and then get two days off, rather than one inning pitched every three out of four days and then hope the next game doesn’t go extra innings. Of course, you can lay out whatever scenario you like ahead of time but the game is never going to be so neat and tidy to allow you to use that scheme all season. You have to be able to adjust on the fly.

But which would you rather do – pitch a guy coming off a two-inning stint after he’s had just one day of rest or call on a guy for the fourth time in five days, like we just saw Friday with Carlos Torres?

Also, the bottom line is that you’ll have to make fewer adjustments if you can use all of your relievers at any point in time, which as we’ve seen time and time and time again is not possible if you insist on carrying a LOOGY. Which makes the pursuit of Scrabble all the more frustrating. Now seems like a good time to mention that Scrabble has a 4.88 ERA and a 1.518 WHIP in 60 Games over 27.2 IP this season. He’s allowed 6 R (5 ER) in 7.1 IP since joining the Padres. And the Mets want to trade for the guy!!

A tip of the hat to Alderson for acquiring an MLB-quality reliever in Reed who’s recently displayed the ability to go multiple innings at a time and have success. He’ll be a welcome addition to the bullpen. And a wag of the finger for even entertaining the idea of adding another LOOGY. The one we currently have plays a large part in why the pen has been burnt out here recently.

It can’t be stated strongly enough that the poor results of the useless LOOGY here lately is only part of the problem. The inability to use the situational lefty in anything but the most favorable circumstances for him puts extra strain on every other reliever in the pen. And you have to go back no further than Friday and Torres to see what happens when that’s the case.

Now we just have to hope that A.J. Preller demands too much – a broken bat and a pop-up toaster – for Scrabble and saves Alderson from himself.

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