At one point early this season, David Bednar looked like anything but a potential bullpen savior for a contender. The Pirates closer was so awful in his first three appearances – coming off an uncharacteristically rough 2024 season – that the two-time All-Star was demoted to Triple-A to get right.
He stayed in the minors almost three weeks before returning, and his ERA was a bloated 5.52 as recently as May 23. But Bednar has turned around his season since – 18 appearances, no earned runs – and the righty could be the biggest impact reliever moved at the trade deadline.
Maybe the Mets should pursue him to bolster the bridge to Edwin Díaz.
Despite his wobbles across 2024-25, Bednar has been a dominant reliever for long stretches in his career. From 2021-23, he had a 2.25 ERA and struck out 226 in 179.2 innings while allowing just 135 hits.
So should David Stearns and his front office pepper the Pirates with calls about Bednar? Let us consider the pros and cons of such a deal.
Pros
Fortifying the bullpen might be the biggest need for a Mets team with a real chance this October. Mets relievers have accumulated 3.3 WAR so far this season, seventh-best in MLB via FanGraphs, and their pen ERA is 3.83 (14th in MLB).
But there are looming workload concerns.
They have used 31 different pitchers in relief, thrown the fourth-most relief pitches in MLB and have recorded 371 innings from the bullpen, tied for seventh-most with the Rockies. Perhaps most alarming, they are getting five innings per start from the rotation. Only four teams get fewer innings pitched per start. The average team is getting two more outs per night from the rotation than the Mets.
Acquiring Bednar would allow the Mets to change their bullpen pecking order and get bigger arms into games earlier. Bednar, who has pitched comfortably in a setup role before, would be an eighth-inning beast capable of facing the best hitters in an opposing lineup. He also could close on nights Díaz must rest.
Bednar, who will be 31 in October, was the National League Reliever of the Month for June when he struck out 16 of the 36 batters he faced. This season, he has a 2.53 ERA, and his 12.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 would both be the best marks of his career. Overall, he is striking out 34.6 percent of batters, in the 96th percentile of MLB, according to Statcast.
Bednar features a 97-mile-per-hour four-seam fastball, a plunging, high-70s curveball that changes pace and eye level and a splitter that goes low 90s. The expected slugging percentage on at-bats that end on his curve is a microscopic .147.
Cons
Relievers are combustible. It’s a fact of pitching life.
Bednar went through woes over the past two seasons, finishing 2024 with a 5.77 ERA. He allowed nine home runs in 57.2 innings, a 1.4 HR/9 that was easily his worst since he became a valuable part of the Pittsburgh pen. His K/9 and BB/9 were career worsts for a full season, too.
The 2023 season might be peak Bednar – he led the NL with 39 saves – and he got batters to chase at a rate in the 96th percentile that year. But that number has gone down over the past two seasons. Now, hitters are chasing at a rate in the 46th percentile. Will that matter? He’s still getting plenty of outs.
Prospect cost is always a concern, especially for a club committed to its farm system like the Mets. Bednar is under club control for one more season and won’t hit free agency until after the 2026 season, which might up the asking price since whatever team might acquire him gets more than a year of potentially-great relief pitching.
Here’s another con, though it’s certainly no strike against Bednar – he’s a Pittsburgh local. He was a 35th-round pick by the Padres out of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. and got to his hometown team via the three-team trade between the Padres, Mets and Pirates in 2021 that sent Joey Lucchesi to New York. He’s used the Styx song “Renegade” as a warm-up tune – that’s also a famed anthem of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Pirates (39-58) don’t seem to be going anywhere, but would they really trade a hometown kid made good?
Verdict
Easy – the Mets should go get Bednar if he’s available. You could probably say the same about most available relievers, even those without his huge upside.
He is making $5.9 million this season and will surely get a raise in arbitration. Would the Pirates really pay big money for a reliever after this season? Maybe that mitigates the ultimate asking price.
This Mets season is too promising not to add significant bullpen help. It’s great to have so much promise on the farm, but part of the system’s purpose is to fuel the big league operation, too.
Envision this – an October night this fall, Kodai Senga delivering seven superlative innings against a rugged playoff opponent. Bednar comes in for a shutdown eighth, Díaz for a blazing ninth.
As Gary Cohen would say, “And the ballgame is over!”
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