Less BAZ, More Roster

BAZ was on the back of the jersey of the pitcher on the mound for Tampa Bay on Sunday. For a moment, I let myself believe BAZ was an icon on the level of CHER. Just one name. Just one syllable. All you needed to know was that BAZ was in town. No wonder Citi Field was sold out. People must have been lined up at dawn to get in for an up close and personal glimpse of BAZ. If BAZ was truly as bold-face as all that, it could have been the biggest road show to come to Flushing since Fernandomania was at its height.

Then I remembered BAZ was not a global sensation, not the hottest ticket since The Bird talked to the ball, just a pitcher for the Rays — Shane Baz. Nothing against Shane Baz, the Texas-born righty who turns 26 on Tuesday and came into Sunday’s game with an ERA of 4.97, but unless he had relatives who flew in specifically to see him pitch as a pre-birthday surprise, I don’t think Baz qualified as a marquee attraction for anybody in Flushing.

Unfortunately for the home team, he pitched like one. Maybe not Jim Bunning on Father’s Day 1964 level, but close enough for six-and-two-thirds. Baz and three relievers shut down the Mets, whose starter Griffin Canning elicited no mania and whose four relievers included Jared Young, who you’ll remember from his occasional swings as a designated hitter. All the elements of a 9-0 loss coalesced to take the edge of Hawaiian Shirt Day (which explained the sellout) and make even drearier an overcast Sunday.

The Mets were swept three games for the first time in all of 2025 over the weekend. In case we needed a reminder of how dispiriting a trio of consecutive losses to the same opponent can be, we had it. We didn’t need it. The Phillies swept their three-game series versus their American League East opponent in the same time frame, so our division lead that was 5½ games before we played the Rays and they played the Jays is now 2½.

When your lead grows to substantial proportions by the middle of June, it’s never too early to be gleeful. When it shrinks, it’s too soon to worry. Still, not a great showing from any angle as the Mets head to the general Atlanta vicinity, home of the thirteen-out Braves. Dismiss the records when these two teams meet, right? I don’t know about that. The Braves are still the Braves in the sense that they’re the Braves — a statement that makes all the sense in the world if you know your Mets — but we do lead them by thirteen games, a function of what had been excellent play by the Mets until very recently and all the stopping that has surrounded Atlanta’s attempts at starting. The Braves are always beatable. We just haven’t always beaten them. Last time we absolutely had to, we did. That’s a confidence-booster for the ballclub that leads them by thirteen games.

David Peterson starts us off on Tuesday. I doubt he’s someone baseball fans in other markets plan their ticket-buying around the way they did for Mark Fidrych in 1976, Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, or BAZ in my imagination, but he is, at this moment, the only member of the Mets rotation I metaphorically rub my hands together over in anticipation of him toeing the rubber. Up to last Thursday, that cohort definitely included Kodai Senga, but all we’ve got going where he’s concerned right now is his hamstring strain isn’t considered too bad. I’ll attempt to reboot my faith in the other Met starters, but, honestly, they’re not exciting. David, or “Petey” as his manager and teammates call him presumably to create clubhouse confusion, has grown into his role. He’s Ace Peterson, Met Effective. He’ll deliver the keynote in the series-opener. If it’s anything like the shutout he threw at the Nationals the other night, it will be rousing. Shutouts by complete game are pretty rare, but we’d probably settle for something BAZlike out of Petey.

Short of a CG (never mind the ShO), we will see the Met bullpen in action, and they’ve been, more or less, Met Effective, too, provided this one pitches only this much, and that one pitches only that much, and if somebody is needed two days in a row, all bets are off. You may have noticed amid the general miasma of the weekend that the Mets actually used the same pitcher one day and then the next. Justin Garza, a recent pickup from the Giants, went two innings on Friday night and an inning Saturday. He gave up no runs on either occasion. Handy guy to have around.

Barring some injury we sure as hell prefer not happen, don’t look for a hand from Garza in Atlanta this week, as he was optioned to Syracuse Sunday in favor of Ty Adcock. Was Adcock a better bet than Garza for the long haul? Or was Adcock’s arm “fresh”? You know the answer. You always know the answer these days. The Mets seem to plan their bullpen usage meticulously, but when the real world of baseball intrudes, everything teeters on the brink of hell. Limit Clay Holmes to five innings in deference to his previous start in Colorado taking a bit out of him? That’s fine. Slot in Paul Blackburn behind him to ramp up his innings for when he needs to enter the rotation? That’s wise. Blackburn blows up and needs to be pulled? And Max Kranick ain’t what Max was Kranicked up to be earlier this season?

Suddenly the bullpen’s built on shaky ground, and the only thing that’s going to steady it is Tylor Megill giving the Mets a lengthy outing on Saturday, and…nope, that doesn’t happen. It’s not unlike that Friday night a few weeks ago against the Dodgers. Nobody saw a thirteen-inning game coming, and nobody is Chris Short or Rob Gardner when it comes to going extra deep these days. Hardly anybody is David Peterson. Starters almost never go as long as you wish, and relievers have to be handled with an abundance of caution.

An answer? You want an answer? Besides building outward from the DNA of Turk Wendell so you have relievers who can pitch day after day and not have their arms fall off from slamming the rosin bag? The answer I stumbled upon was visible in the Rays’ bullpen this weekend. Three different ex-Mets who passed through New York only long enough to qualify for our annual Hot Stove and Spring Training features are alive and well in Tampa Bay. We saw Edwin Uceta, Eric Orze, and Cole Sulser. None got more than a glimpse as Mets. Each had to be treated like a shuttlecock (or an Adcock) in order to manage whatever numbers game was weighing on the front office the week he was optioned or waived. We saw something similar when Jose Ureña had one extended outing as a Met. When next we saw him, he was a Dodger, getting Mets out.

None of the aforementioned relievers has blossomed into a stopper, nor might they wind up as anything better than replacement level. But how often do you wish an additional replacement level reliever was available to Carlos Mendoza on a given day? This can’t possibly be a Mets-only problem. Guys like these bounce around, or up and down, because they don’t have options or do have options. Garza did nothing that merited a demotion to Triple-A. Brandon Waddell wasn’t necessarily throwing like a minor leaguer, but he’s there right now. Options exist for a player’s protection as well as an organization’s convenience, but they sure have a way of destabilizing the back ends of bullpens.

My solution, that admittedly just passed through my head à la my image of BAZ, is a larger roster. The 25-man roster was so sacrosanct that it was expanded to 26. On days with previously unplanned doubleheaders, it’s 27. During COVID, it was 28. During September, it’s 28. Enough pussyfooting. Just make it 30. Keep another couple of pitchers on hand. Throw in a third catcher so you’re not wondering what you’ll do in an emergency and, if you’re not blessed by a Luisangel Acuña-type already, a pinch-runner. If you want to create an eligibility system — last night’s starter and two obviously overworked relievers are “scratched” tonight — go ahead. Nobody really wants to see one reliever after another trudge out of the pen until we’re down to DHs willing to give slinging a shot, but that’s what you’ve got, anyway, save for the rare David Peterson complete game. What nobody needs to see is the pitcher who pitches for an inning or two, pitches perfectly well, and is sent down or offered up because, gosh, his arm isn’t fresh anymore. Why pretend an eight-man bullpen is sufficient for contemporary baseball? Why skimp on the fringes of the roster in a multizillion-dollar industry? What’s the cost — meal money and service time? Think how much you’ll save on airfare between LaGuardia and Syracuse.

Or just put on another Hawaiian Shirt Day. Those things really get the fannies in the seats.