By Jonah Drew

Reed Garrett, New York Mets

Of all the relievers on this list, I will say Reed Garrett is the most well known, partly because he is in a major baseball market in New York but mainly because of his sheer dominance. There is absolutely nothing fraudulent about Reed Garrett’s absolutely elite, .79 ERA across 22.2 Innings. Garrett also picked up a save in Los Angeles and has strangely accrued a 5-0 record. Reed Garrett’s peripherals are nearly as impressive as his baseline numbers, his 1.74 xERA(99th percentile), his .145 xBAA(99th percentile), 41.1% K%(99th percentile), his 44% whiff%(99th percentile), and his 32% O-Swing(81st percentile) are all among the best marks in all of baseball. To go along with the fact he is virtually unhittable, when hitters are lucky enough to make contact, their quality of contact has been simply bad. Reed Garrett somehow has not allowed a single barrel in the young 2024 season and has an average exit velocity of 85.5 MPH and a 31.7% hard hit rate. The arsenal that earned him an ERA north of 6 each of the past 2 years is a thing of the past as he has completely revamped his pitch usage. His Four Seam usage has dropped over 30% since his MLB debut back in 2022. He has been a predominantly sweeper/split finger guy thus far, two pitches with a .158 and .116 xwOBA respectively. Reed Garrett didn’t even break camp for this Mets team, fast forward a couple of months, he is one of the best relievers in the game, Baseball!

Cade Smith, Cleveland Guardians

Cade Smith is one of the lesser known relievers in this dominant Cleveland Guardians bullpen, but he has been as dominant as anyone (not named Emmanuel Clase) in it. Cade Smith has not even exceeded his rookie eligibility yet, only throwing 20.1 innings at a 2.21 ERA. Early on, the 6’5, 230 pound rookie is missing bats with the best of them. Despite the low 19th percentile O-Swing, Cade Smith has still posted a 30% whiff rate and an absolutely elite, 96th percentile, 34.1 strikeout rate. Smith generates extension like a 6’5 pitcher should, averaging a diabolical 7.5 feet of stride. Smith’s 2.55 xERA and his .259 xwOBA both back up his result based success. Like Reed Garrett, Smith gets it done with a split finger. The pitch has posted a -4 degree launch angle, a .217 wOBA, and a 34.2% whiff rate. Not just for a rookie, but for anybody, Cade Smith is a problem.

Justin Slaten, Boston Red Sox

Speaking of overachieving pitching staffs, look no further than the Boston Red Sox and Justin Slaten. Justin Slaten had not stepped on a Major League prior to 2024, furthermore he was a rule 5 pick, but not of the Boston Red Sox but of the New York Mets. The Mets did not wait to get rid of him, trading him to Boston in exchange for prospect Ryan Ammons and some cash considerations. As a Mets fan this upset me as Slaten was my favorite Rule 5 arm. However, as a personal consolation prize I received utter dominance for Justin Slaten to the tune of a 1.96 ERA in 23 Innings with one save to boot. Slaten is great in all aspects of relief pitching, he has elite K/BB ratios, he sits 96 MPH with 3 other viable pitches. He generates soft contact at a high level while keeping most of it on the ground. Simply put, Justin Slaten has all the makings of reliever who will pitch quality innings in a bullpen for years to come.

JoJo Romero, St. Louis Cardinals

I challenge you to watch an inning of JoJo Romero ball and not be entertained, matter of fact, don’t bother because spoiler alert, you will not be successful. There is something about a southpaw with a beautiful mustache that is absolutely electric to me. Looking past the stash, Romero has been stellar on multiple levels, from a baseline standpoint, Romero has thrown 21.1 innings of 1.27 ERA ball with an elite 0.66 WHIP. Looking even deeper Romero is equally as impressive, he has a 2.49 xERA and a .211 xBAA. He has also struck out batters at a 30% clip while walking them at just a just a 5.2% clip. His quality of contact is also very impressive, over half of his batted ball events are grounders and just 28.6% of them are hit hard, both tremendous marks. Romero has a true 4 pitch mix headlined by the usual sinker slider combo of ground ball generators like himself.

Adrian Morejon, San Diego Padres

I don’t fault you for saying “Who is Adrian Morejon” but for those who are aware of his existence, how old do you think he is? If are like me you would have guessed 28, maybe 29. Incorrect, Adrian Morejon is just 25 years of age, not sure about you but that floored me. Now to the numbers, the lefty has thrown just over 16 innings at an ERA of 2.7 in 11 appearances. Like the other 4 members of this list, the peripherals back it up. Morejon has an expected ERA just over 3 and wild .78 FIP. Morejon has been a strikeout artist posting a 34% strikeout rate while also limiting quality contact, posting an average exit velocity in the 98th percentile. That is a blend you simply do not see.

Sources

Amazin Avenue

Baseball Savant

Fangraphs

By Joe Browne

As I sit here and begin to write this article, the Jays get set for a Sunday afternoon rubber game at home against the Twins. The Jays are off to an underwhelming 18-21 record to start the year. This team has some serious issues. Bo Bichette, who has been one of the most consistent hitters in baseball since he got called up has been absolutely abysmal this year. Bo’s defense has always been a net negative at short but now he has seemingly forgotten how to hit. On top of that, his peripherals do not offer much hope that Bichette will turn it around this season. We may also be seeing the end of George Springer. He had a down year last season and has continued on that downward spiral this season. Springer is the highest paid player on the team and still has two years left on his contract. At least, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been solid and his peripherals back him up. However, at this point I think it is evident that this is who Guerrero is and he will never play like he did in 2021 ever again. Daulton Varsho and Davis Schnider have been great despite the more relied upon Jays failing to perform. Schnider has continued to just rake like he did last year and Varsho has swung a solid bat with elite defense in left. This team also cannot rely on a 39 year old Justin Turner to jumpstart their offense. I will however give this offense some credit as they have been elite at limiting the  strikeouts. A ten run performance yesterday will also give the numbers a nice boost. Overall, this group of hitters is talented but are going to have to put up some serious results before they get me to start believing in them again. 

On the pitching front, the results have also been disappointing. Berrios and Kikuchi have both been phenomenal but the rest of the staff has lagged behind them. The numbers for the staff as a whole are just not good. They have given up 51 homers which is the second most in baseball only behind the miserable White Sox. The Jays staff is bottom five in baseball in all of these stats: BAA, ERA, WHIP and strikeouts. Turn the calendar back a year and the staff was top five in a lot of categories as a team and now they are somehow bottom five. Chris Bassitt needs to be better and get back to his old self. Alex Manoah very well might be the biggest joke in baseball and has completely forgotten how to get hitters out without them hitting baseballs 400 feet into the seats. Kevin Gausman deemed the ace of the staff also should be doing more to help his team win. He got shelled by the Twins yesterday and if Troonto is going to turn this ship around they need Gausman to start performing. The bullpen has talent but the arms are just not producing at all. Tim Mayza and Erik Swanson have been straight up batting practice all season long and the only guy who has been consistently good is Yimi Garcia. Just like the hitters this group has talent and they have had success in the past. The entire staff is virtually the same from last season when they were amazing. There is still time for the Jays to turn this around and get back on track. 

The reason why I deem this team is stuck is because of the situation they find themselves in. Sure they have made the playoffs the last two seasons but they were swept in the Wild Card both times by Seattle and Minnesota respectively. Take a look at the division they find themselves competing against. Baltimore is going absolutely nowhere anytime soon. The Yankees will always be in the hunt no matter what. Tampa definitely does not have as much talent right now as they have in the past, but are still solid and have a loaded farm that will fill out their roster soon. Boston has had the best pitching staff in the league this year and any team with that kind of performance from their arms is no joke. There is no sign of any of these teams in the Jays division suddenly becoming perennial losers anytime soon. So, what should Toronto do ? Should they just blow it up and trade away all the guys who are set to hit free agency soon. Or, should they stick it out with the core they have and find a way to put the right pieces around them. There is a very slim margin for error in Toronto and they have already made bad transactions in the last few years. The Jays are certainly stuck, the question is where do they go from here ?

By Jonah Drew

Lets take a minute to rewind to October 25th, 2022, the Marlins were coming off of yet another abysmal season and had recently fired Manager Don Mattingly. On this date, then GM, Kim Ng hired 11 year MLB vet and former Padres Bench Coach, Skip Schumaker to be their Manager. Fastfoward a couple of to January 20nd, 2023 and Kim Ng scores a blockbuster deal, trading up and coming ace Pablo Lopez, along with prospect Jose Salas for the reigning batting champ, Luis Arraez(More on him later). Despite the move, there were very little expectations heading into 2023, and certainly nobody thought they would break their full season playoff drought that had been standing since their World Series victory all the way back in 2003.

The 2022 Marlins had some ridiculous bad luck in one run games but regression to the mean was all but inevitable. This proved to be the case as the Marlins had a record of 35-17 in games decided by one run. The Marlins were long starved for any thing that resembled offensive firepower but that changed too as Luis Arraez won his second batting title, batting .354, and posting an OPS+ of 132. Jesus Luzardo and Braxton Garrett were effective and Uber reliable southpaws to go along with the scattered dominance of Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez(Both of whom are out with Tommy John Surgery). All of this lead to them snapping their full season playoff drought, winning 84 games and scoring a wild card berth. This scored them a date with the Phillies at the Bank and well, it did not go well. Behind a rowdy Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies beat Miami handedly in both games en route to a 2 game sweep. Unfortunately, this looks like it will be the last Marlins baseball we will see in October for a while.

In a shocking turn of events, Bruce Sherman and Miami Marlins ownership fired the Woman who brought Marlins baseball back to relevancy in General Manager, Kim Ng. Bruce Sherman has long salivated over the Tampa Bay Rays model of spending little to no money and still being a playoff team year in and year out. With that in mind, it only made sense that he quickly hired those same Rays GM, Peter Bendix to fill Ng’s shoes. Rumors of the Bendix and the Marlins looking to tear it down with a trade of young stars Luis Arraez and Jesus Luzardo. The former did not take very long as on May 4th, Arraez was dealt to the San Diego Padres in a deal for Woo Suk Go, Dillon Head, Nathan Mortarella, and Jakob Marsee. This is a lot to unpack with this mid season blockbuster deal but rather let’s discuss how we got to this current juncture.

Coming of a playoff berth, the Marlins were looking to get back to the Postseason. To say the least you wouldn’t know it by the way they started the season. The Marlins got swept in a 4 game set with the Pirates, then got swept in a 3 game set with the Halos, then promptly got their first win in a series loss with St. Louis. This pathetic start was a sign of things to come as it somehow took the Marlins until the month of May to even win a series, where they beat the equally poor, Colorado Rockies.

Not only are they losing, they are embarrasing themselves in the process. Their current bWAR leader(.9) and former 3rd overall pick, Max Meyer is currently in triple A right now. Their big move of the off-season and another former batting champion, Tim Anderson is currently a -.4 win player, barely hitting over the Mendoza line, 35 OPS+, and has some of the most appalling peripherals you will ever see. The man tasked with constructing this team, Peter Bendix flat out said “We are unlikely to make the playoffs this year”(via @CraigMish on X). You rarely hear GMs say this at any point in the year but in the beginning of May with this much Baseball left? Now that is just unforeseen. This is how you inspire hope in a struggling fan base? Now that Luis Arraez is gone I would frankly be suprised if players like Jazz Chisholm and Jesus Luzardo are playing in Miami in August and beyond. It is clear what Peter Bendix wants, he wants to model his team after the Marlins of 20 years ago. He wants to completely tear it down, start from scratch and attempt to set themselves up to contend with a new core. It remains to be seen how successful he is but this sure has all the makings of a major league disaster.

Sources

Baseball Reference

Baseball Savant

Fangraphs

Fox Sports

@CraigMish