According to reports, the New York Mets have expressed interest in signing a cheap contract to add a second lefty reliever to the bullpen.
They successfully completed that on Thursday. According to The Athletic, Jake Diekman and the Mets have reached a contract agreement.
Jake Diekman is signed by the New York Mets
Diekman, 37, will be the second seasoned southpaw in the Mets bullpen, paired with Brooks Raley. Diekman had a difficult 2022 and the beginning of 2023. After the Chicago White Sox cut him in May, many assessors believed he was done. But he settled in with the Tamp Bay Rays and did very well.
The left-hander recorded a 2.18 ERA (192 ERA+), 1.12 WHIP, and an impressive 28.7 percent strikeout rate in 45.1 innings over 50 games with the Rays. Diekman still has a strong throwing motion, which may come as a surprise given his age and build. Last season, he had an average fastball velocity of 95.4 mph.
What Diekman Will Bring to the Bullpen
Diekman’s exceptional ability to create soft contact was the key to his success in the previous season. His Hard-Hit percentage (27.1%) put him in the 99th percentile; his Average-Exit Velocity and Expected-Slugging placed him in the 98th percentile. Diekman’s best pitch is a four-seam fastball. Last season, he threw it over 57% of the time, and its Run Value of 5 was the highest of all his pitches. The biggest issue with Diekman’s game is his walks. In 2023, his walk rate of 15.6 percent was in the first percentile, indicating that not many people stopped walking as much as Diekman did.
That figure, though, might not accurately reflect the changes he made in Tampa Bay. Diekman walked 22.4 percent of the Chicago White Sox in 11 1/3 innings played the previous season. With the Rays, that dropped dramatically (13.5 percent). Though it remains higher than the league average, his Rays strikeout rate is more controllable and in line with his career average. The Mets signed Diekman for the middle innings in order to clean up messier situations, since Raley is anticipated to be the primary lefty in high-leverage innings.
Diekman most likely will pitch in low-leverage situations with the Mets, as he did in 2023.