Through about three weeks of the season, the Mets predictably own a reliever who has been as unhittable as anyone in baseball.
The identity of that reliever has been less predictable.
Edwin Diaz has been typically excellent, but the club’s closer has been less impressive than a journeyman middle reliever who has emerged as a potential revelation.
Through a still-tiny sample size, Reed Garrett has been best-in-baseball good.
Entering MLB action Thursday, no one else struck out hitters at a better rate (a stunning 54.8 percent). Despite just four appearances and 8 ²/₃ innings, he ranked as the seventh-most valuable reliever in the majors, according to FanGraphs.
His 0.00 ERA obviously was tied for first, and opposing hitters have hit just .143 against him.
“One hundred percent,” Garrett said Wednesday, asked if this is the most confident he has felt in the majors. “I think [the changes made] at the end of the season last year was kind of the biggest thing. And I think having people who believe in me has been awesome.”
The Mets believed. A team that has not developed pitchers well in recent seasons but thinks it has improved in the area might have found an early success story.
Garrett, a 31-year-old righty from Virginia Military Institute, is about as well-traveled as any player in baseball.
He was drafted by the Rangers in the 16th round in 2014, debuted with the Tigers in 2019 and pitched in Japan in 2020-21.
He returned to MLB in ’22 but mostly played in the minors with the Nationals.
He pitched 2 ²/₃ innings with the Orioles last season before being designated for assignment.
Billy Eppler’s Mets claimed Garrett in late June and optioned a pitcher with a lifetime 7.90 ERA in 27 ¹/₃ major league innings to Triple-A Syracuse, which is when the organization’s work began.
In six major league outings in July and August with an otherwise-forgettable Mets team, Garrett allowed 10 runs in 9 ²/₃ innings relying heavily upon a four-seam fastball, a pitch he used 50 percent of the time in an Aug. 22 inning against the Braves.
He was demoted afterward.
By the time he was summoned the next month, Garrett had minimized the four-seamer, added a sinker, ditched a curveball and continued to work on a sweeper that was new to his arsenal.
“That’s when it started,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said.
The results did not immediately demonstrate that Garrett was evolving into a new pitcher, but his repertoire was coming together.
In his final outing with the Mets last season, Garrett pitched three scoreless, one-hit innings and struck out four.
“Just keep going with it. It’s going to turn,” Hefner told Garrett entering the offseason. “Believe what we’re telling you. It’s going to turn.”
A reliever who was no longer particularly young and had little history of major league success survived the entire winter on the 40-man roster, in large part because the Mets, including Hefner, could envision what fans are now seeing.
Garrett worked out at a gym in Virginia this offseason with his new weapons.
He kept in touch with Hefner and vice president of pitching Eric Jagers, relaying the Trackman data that showed the velocity, movement, spin and each bit of information with each pitch.
Garrett himself has a passing knowledge of the advanced data and used it especially to figure out his new sweeper.
“Why are the good ones good? Why are the bad ones bad?” Garrett said, and the numbers usually could tell him. “It was cool to figure out what the data means and how to get the numbers that you’re chasing.”
The new pitches were coming along. The older ones were refined, and he better learned how to land his splitter for a strike.
After a strong offseason and strong spring training, Garrett was optioned back to Syracuse largely because he still could be optioned, and other Mets relievers couldn’t.
He was called up April 1, when Tylor Megill went down, and at least so far has pitched like a pitcher who won’t see Triple-A again.
His slider has been excellent, his splitter (particularly against lefties) nearly untouchable: Opposing batters are 1-for-10 with eight strikeouts against it. His sweeper and sinker have been deadly against righties.
The Mets predicted that his walks would dip and his strikeouts would rise, and that his new mix would help him against lefties and lead to more ground balls against righties.
They might not have envisioned Garrett would become arguably the major’s top reliever through mid-April, but his success has been “exactly what we expected,” Hefner said.
“We have a motivated staff. And when you have a really motivated player, that’s what you dream of as a pitching coach.”