Heading into the offseason, David Stearns and the Mets knew that rebuilding the bullpen would be a major priority.
With Brooks Raley, Drew Smith, Adam Ottavino, and Ryne Stanek all free agents, reconfiguring the bridge to Edwin Diaz was a must. And after signing lefty A.J. Minter to a two-year deal, the Mets made another huge signing by bringing back Stanek on a one-year deal.
Speaking to reporters on Monday in Port St. Lucie, Stanek explained that coming back to the Mets wasn’t exactly a sure thing, but he was definitely hoping he’s be able to stay in Queens.
“It was something where I enjoyed my time here and we were obviously hopeful that it would be something that would happen, but it wasn’t something that I thought ‘Oh, this is a for sure thing.’ But it came together pretty quick, which was cool,” Stanek said.
“Just the clubhouse and the vibe, and obviously the team is good,” Stanek added when asked why he enjoyed last season with the Mets. “They were really welcoming to me and my family. Like, the baseball is the baseball, that’s the easy part to see. But a lot of the stuff that goes into the behind the scenes, like the quality of life for families that matter for people with kids and stuff like that. That actually takes a bigger weight than most people would assume. They took great care of my family, and that meant a lot to me. And obviously the guys in the clubhouse were great, and we have a lot of guys coming back, so it was cool.”
Acquired last season in a trade with the Mariners, Stanek was uneven during the regular season, and while his 6.06 ERA wasn’t much to write home about, he took his game to a different level in the postseason, pitching to a 3.38 ERA in seven games, emerging as one of the club’s most important bullpen arms.
As the 2025 regular season quickly approaches, Stanek once again figures to be a major factor in the Mets’ bullpen.
While Carlos Mendoza and the coaching staff don’t like pigeonholing relievers into specific innings (outside Diaz in the closer role), Stanek knows that he and the other relievers could be called upon at any time, and he hopes to keep the high-leverage role he had in last year’s postseason as the Mets look to take another step towards a World Series championship.
“For the most part, there’s really no guys where it’s like ‘Hey, you’re going to throw the eighth inning every single day.’ That doesn’t really happen,” the 33-year-old explained. “I think the thought and the hope is maybe what happened down the stretch, but I think a lot of it depends on how the season goes and who’s hot at the time. A lot of times the bullpen goes with the hot hand. … I think the hope is that I can kind of slot into some kind of similar role, but I don’t know, it wasn’t really discussed.”
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