PORT ST. LUCIE — There can be a fine line between mediocre and awful, and there’s little doubt who controls that line here in Mets camp.
We know that the Mets’ outfield will be abominable, and their starting rotation, infield and catcher all should be presentable, if far from excellent. Which leaves the bullpen as this team’s misery index.
“You look at last year, in the first half, we won some of these games, but we had 19 blown saves in the first half and still, we were eight games over .500,” Terry Collins said yesterday, after the Mets’ 4-1 victory over the Marlins at Tradition Field. “We win the majority of those games, all of a sudden we’re 13 games over .500. It’s a whole different look.”
The Mets actually stood at six games over .500 at the All-Star break, and they blew 13 saves in the first half; they blew 19 for the entire season. The Post excuses Collins for his imperfect memory. Wouldn’t you try to lose track of this stuff if you were the Mets’ manager?
His greater point stands, though. Just as we’re not talking about the Mets trying to win the 2013 World Series, we’re not suggesting they could have the world’s best bullpen. Just a competent one, which could lead to, conceivably, a season-long flirtation with .500.
In 2012, Mets relievers saved 65 percent of their opportunities, tying them with the White Sox for eighth-worst in baseball. They haven’t been better than average in this department since 2007, when they converted 70 percent of their saves to rank 13th.
“You get a good bullpen when everybody’s working together,” said Pedro Feliciano, who is back with the Mets on a minor league deal. “When the bullpen is a team, they combine to be good friends and good teammates, always on the same page. We can build that here.”
With just eight Grapefruit League games plus a B contest in the books, the Mets won’t yet render any serious judgments on what they have seen so far from the relievers. Nevertheless, Collins can envision the formation of a unit featuring Bobby Parnell at closer and a bridge featuring Scott Atchison, LaTroy Hawkins, Brandon Lyon and a fourth right-hander as well two left-handers.
Last year’s primary closer Frank Francisco, is rehabilitating from right elbow surgery, and threw off flat ground yesterday. Given how poorly he pitched last year, the Mets aren’t sweating Francisco’s status.
A scout who has been watching the Mets gave positive early reviews to Parnell, Atchison, Josh Edgin (the leading lefty candidate), Jeurys Familia and righty side-armer Greg Burke. Collins suggested Burke, 30, having reinvented himself just last summer, could use some more time to develop. Burke gave up a ninth-inning homer yesterday to Miami’s righty-hitting J.T. Realmuto. He expressed satisfaction with Familia while adding he’d like to see better command.
The scout hasn’t thought as highly so far of Lyon and Feliciano, noting the velocity of both are down. Lyon threw between 85 and 87 miles per hour yesterday — his fastball averaged 90.2 mph last year, according to FanGraphs — while Feliciano, trying to come back from the major left shoulder surgery that sidelined him for two years with the Yankees, threw in the 82-83 range. He averaged 87 in 2010, when he pitched for the Mets.
Collins spoke of complete faith in Lyon, who put up good numbers last year, and said of Feliciano, “We’ll just keep running him out there and seeing if he can get his velocity up as he builds up his arm strength.” Scott Rice and Robert Carson also are lefty possibilities.
Mere respectability from the bullpen could lead to the same modest goal overall. Which would be a huge step for these Mets, who were last respectable when Feliciano helped set up victories for Billy Wagner.