ATLANTA — The Mets came out of spring training excited about bullpen additions Yohan Ramirez and Michael Tonkin. Nine games into the season, neither pitcher is with the team.
Ramirez was designated for assignment Monday and the Mets added right-hander Cole Sulser. Julio Teheran is on a pitch count for his first game and the Mets needed a fresh arm in the bullpen with some of their top relievers like Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley and Edwin Diaz having pitched in three of the last four games. Sulser hasn’t pitched since April 4 and is capable of pitching multiple innings, so the Mets were forced to make a change.
Without minor league options, they had no choice but to designate Ramirez and risk losing him on waivers.
“I felt like we needed a little bit of length out of the bullpen today,” said manager Carlos Mendoza ahead of the Mets’ first game of the season against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. “We needed an extra arm.”
The Mets don’t have a lot of relievers with options in the bullpen. Last year, former general manager Billy Eppler prioritized options only to see many of those pitchers fail to perform. This year, the Mets have a group of five relievers with high-leverage experience and are willing to rotate the about three middle relievers in and out of the bullpen to find the right pieces at the right times.
Ramirez’s time with the Mets didn’t last long, but it sure was eventful. He was suspended for three games for throwing at Rhys Hoskins in the first series of the season against the Milwaukee Brewers. He appealed the three-game suspension and the league reduced it to two games, which he served last week.
Ramirez and the Mets maintain the pitch he threw behind Hoskins was not intentional.
Over the weekend, Ramirez pitched two innings against the Cincinnati Reds and blew a lead in the Saturday game, giving up five earned runs in one of those innings. The 28-year-old Dominican is 0-1 with an 11.81 ERA and a blown save in 5 1/3 innings.
“You hate to let pitchers like that go,” Mendoza said. “We did that with Tonkin, now we’re doing it with Ramirez. We knew when we broke camp that we were going to have some relievers that were out of options and here we are. With a doubleheader and playing some extra-inning games, here we are making this move.”
Tonkin was designated Friday to make room for Teheran. The Mets have until Friday to trade him or pass him through waivers.
MANEUVERING McNEIL
Much like Mets managers of the past, Mendoza plans to move infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil up and down the lineup and around the field. Monday, he made his first start of the season in left field. This pushed Brandon Nimmo to center and Harrison Bader received a day off.
McNeil hit eighth for the third time this year, having also hit fourth, sixth and seventh.
“They’re such pros and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to put this team in a position to win games,” Mendoza said. “Yesterday, after the game, I went up to Nimmo, I went up to McNeil and pretty much told them what I was thinking. They were good to go from the beginning, so that’s when I made that decision. That makes it easy.”
HONORING HAMMERIN’ HANK
The Mets opened their series against the Braves on the 50th anniversary of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run. The Braves celebrated the life of the late Hall of Famer and the home run he hit to break Babe Ruth’s record. They also celebrated the 714 homers that he hit before April 8, 1974 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. A total of 715 fans carried cardboard baseballs onto the Truist Park field with numbers to signify some of his most important homers.
Aaron played 23 seasons and hit 755 home runs, the second-most all-time.
