Monday, February 16, 2009
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — On one mound was Francisco Rodriguez, kicking his left leg high and whipping through the frenzied delivery that helped him set a major league record for saves last year.
A few spots down, big J.J. Putz peered in and fired a heater low in the strike zone.
After another late-season collapse brought on by, well, collapses late in key games, the New York Mets opened spring training Sunday confident about closing this time.
“Now, we’ve got the pieces it takes to win it all,” ace starter Johan Santana said.
Looking to rebuild a miserable bullpen, general manager Omar Minaya signed Rodriguez and traded for Putz at the December winter meetings in Las Vegas.
With two moves in a matter of hours, the Mets replaced injured closer Billy Wagner and turned their biggest weakness into an enviable strength — at least on paper.
“We’ve got a lot of arms out there,” Putz said. “It’s a very deep ’pen. It’s going to be a fun bullpen to be a part of.”
Wagner, a six-time All-Star, was sidelined for the final two months last season and is expected to miss all of 2009 following elbow ligament replacement surgery. Also gone are 2008 culprits Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis, Luis Ayala and Joe Smith — though the latter was effective most of the season.
All were members of a New York bullpen that finished with 29 blown saves in 72 chances. Mets relievers were touched up for a 6.23 ERA and .335 opponents batting average over the final 17 games last season, going 2-for-6 on save chances during that stretch.
That was a huge reason New York lost six of its final nine games and went 7-10 down the stretch, squandering a season-high 3 1/2-game lead in the NL East. The year before, the Mets led the division by seven games with 17 remaining before finishing 5-12 and missing the playoffs in one of baseball’s biggest meltdowns.
“Last year, when our bullpen was kind of in a difficult situation, it was quite challenging,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “It wasn’t like, OK, here we’ve got an eighth-inning guy — boom. Got a ninth-inning guy, OK. If they do it, fine. If they don’t, well, that’s the game. It was a situation where you had to manage every out until the very last out, which for me was a great lesson.”
Enter Rodriguez, who saved a record 62 games for the Los Angeles Angels last season before signing a $37 million, three-year contract with the Mets.
His eighth-inning setup man will be Putz, an All-Star closer for Seattle in 2007 when he had 40 saves and a 1.38 ERA. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound righty missed long stretches last year with ribcage and elbow injuries, but said he’s healthy now.
The rest of the bullpen includes Duaner Sanchez, Brian Stokes, lefty specialist Pedro Feliciano and durable right-hander Sean Green, also acquired from the Mariners in the three-team deal with Cleveland that brought Putz.