Ryan Helsley probably did not have a full grasp of the specifics around his new team’s rotation’s to pitch deep into games — David Peterson is the only Mets starter to complete six innings in a start in nearly eight weeks — but he did have an idea of how this bullpen can be deployed.
“I think if starters can go five innings,” Helsley said Friday after introducing himself around the clubhouse, “we have a pretty good chance of winning the game.”
On the other side of the trade deadline, the Mets’ super bullpen has been unleashed.
Edwin Díaz will remain at the back as “our guy,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, typically handling the ninth inning but perhaps inserted earlier against a strong pocket of an opposing lineup.
Before Díaz usually finishes games, the Mets will have options in bridging the late — and middle, and perhaps even early — innings because of a deep group with a rare upside.
Mendoza said his typical eighth-inning arm could be Helsley, a power righty who throws 100 mph, has a wipeout slider, led the National League in saves last season and arrived with a 3.00 ERA.
“Obviously throw hard,” Helsley, a seventh-year reliever who logged 105 saves with the Cardinals, said in giving his own scouting report. “Closed quite a few games in my career in St. Louis. And pitched in a lot of big moments over there.”
The 31-year-old was prepared to be dealt as a walk-year reliever on the floundering Cardinals, but the initial reports that linked him to the Mets left him “surprised.”
“Obviously, you have Díaz here,” Helsley said before the Mets opened a series against the Giants at Citi Field. “But in the playoffs, it takes as many good arms as you can get. [I’m] excited.”
Or maybe Tyler Rogers will become the primary setup man.
The Wednesday pickup from the Giants — with whom he flew to New York and then traded clubhouses and bullpens — is a submariner with a unique arm slot and unique results: He lugged a 1.80 ERA to his new home, ranked third in the majors with a 2.1 percent walk rate and fifth with a 64.4 percent ground-ball rate.
Both Rogers and Helsley said they did not care when they would be used.
“There’s some big names down there, for sure,” Rogers said about his new relief corps. “I’m just trying to slide in and kind of do my part … kind of have the mentality of, you don’t need to do too much. Just do what you do.”
What Rogers does is pitch a lot and well and distinctly. He has not touched 86 mph this year, but his slingshot, underhand delivery has been difficult for hitters to pick up and apparently sustainable: Since 2020, Rogers leads the majors (and not by a little) in games pitched and has never hit the injured list. Rogers himself was not sure if the windup helped him stay healthy, but if so, it would be “awesome.”
Also awesome: His view of the Mets, whom he had seen last weekend in San Francisco.
“This team was the complete package,” Rogers said. “So I’m very excited to be a part of it.”
Or maybe it will be last week’s acquisition, Gregory Soto, who checks off the “hard-throwing lefty” box and winds up as the primary eighth-inning arm.
Or maybe it will be Brooks Raley, the lefty who relies more on guile.
Or maybe Reed Garrett, who is especially helpful because he can go multiple innings and entered with a 2.70 ERA.
Or maybe it will be Ryne Stanek, who has been up and down but also throws 100 mph.
“There’s a lot of different options,” Mendoza said after David Stearns loaded up the Mets’ bullpen. “There’s big-time potential, no doubt about it. The expectation is for them to continue to be themselves, continue to go out there and get results when we get them given the ball. We feel good with righties, lefties, different looks.
“There’s a lot to like.”
