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00:03how we doing everybody it's Tyler Ward aka Wardy to many of you and in our latest straight out
00:08flushing podcast covering all things New York Mets here on the New York Post Sports YouTube
00:12channel we're gonna deep dive five bullpen trade targets for the New York Mets that they should
00:17very well be considering if they have not done so already especially now as AJ mentor their
00:22veteran south father who they're hoping and obviously us fans are dying to see back in
00:27this Mets bullpen he was set to initially looking like he was going to return over the past week
00:31week and a half now we come to find out he was shut down has a setback dealing with a
00:35hip issue so we
00:36don't exactly know the timetable for AJ mentor nor do we know exactly what we're getting when he
00:41returns from injury knowing there's a lot of uncertainty there for a very uncertain ball
00:45club as is it goes without saying the Mets should be making proactive moves in the first half this
00:49year before the trade in line and they would still like to keep their season alive so let's go ahead
00:54and deep dive these five relievers all which are going to be southpaws to go in hand as to essentially
00:58be the AJ mentor replacement or at minimum someone who can come in again fill that need for the time
01:03being and then once AJ is ready to go then the Mets have a bit of an embarrassment of riches
01:07with
01:08lefties because if it isn't the AJ mentor uncertainty is also the shamanaya uncertainty as we know at the
01:14time of me recording this video shamanaya did not look all that great over the past 24 hours against
01:18the Colorado Rockies could only secure one out gave up a bunch of hits with soft tossing not looking good
01:23not even touching 90 while throwing those meatballs and there's a lot of belief that shamanaya may very
01:28well not even be on this Mets roster before the season ends so should the Mets decide to cut that
01:33court and say you know what we need more viable lefty options in their bullpen all the more reason
01:37as to why we're having the conversation that we're having today so to begin our conversation let's get
01:42into a southpaw that I've actually heavily admired for the past year and a half now this goes back
01:45to the dominance that he had against the New York Mets with the exception of Brett Beatty hitting well
01:50against him as was the case against Garrett Crochet in the first half of last year Mets fans you should
01:54know where I'm going with this if you've been paying attention we're going to be talking about
01:57a guy Brennan Bernardino in case you guys don't know Brennan this is an interesting story okay because
02:02Bernardino in my opinion really kind of burst on the scene this past year for Boston in 2025 he was
02:07a
02:08fixture in the back of their bullpen that we saw it was really helping get quality outs for them that
02:11we especially saw in the first half he was in fact traded to the Colorado Rockies over this past
02:16offseason the Mets have already dealt against him to a degree and they may face him later today at
02:21the time of me recording this video this is before this series finale so maybe the Mets are either
02:25going to rock him or he's going to rock the Mets if he rocks the Mets all the more reason
02:28to say hey
02:28we should go ahead and trade for this guy but knowing that Bernadino is now on a bottom feeder like
02:33the Rockies who are not going to be making playoffs this year and I know before you say anything I
02:36get it
02:37the Mets are absolute dog water right now they're not in position to win either I hear you
02:41but the difference is that at least what the Mets are trying to sell to us fans that being David
02:45Stearns and Carlos Mendoza if not Steve Cohen alike is that this team is going to be pushing
02:49for postseason play this year regardless as to how piss poor of the first month month and a half
02:54they found themselves having so if you're going to be looking to bolster your bullpen and you want
02:58to add a quality lefties the only downside with someone like Brennan here is that he's more of a
03:02soft officer he's going to be sitting more in the low 90s than the high 90s ideally you want a
03:06flamethrower to add to this bullpen to really pair nicely with a soft officer like Brooks
03:11really who's been great and mind you god forbid if anything happens with all reliable
03:15as I love to call him and really this year then you really have no viable options that are true
03:19lefty options your bullpen I mean the Mets just made a minor league signer over the past 24 hours
03:22bringing in a former you know Baltimore Oriole reliever and Mr. Perez who had his most success
03:27in Baltimore he's bounced around but not a guy that we're really expecting to do much at the
03:31major league level so all the more reason to bring in someone like Bernardino who has a sub two year
03:36race so far this season over 10 outings and had right around a three year rain a very respectable
03:40sample size for Boston last year when he was traded to the Rockies transparently I said myself
03:44why didn't the Mets do something like this okay we got the Rockies and Paul D. Modesta who used
03:49to be in the Mets front office if you know going back to the Sandy Olsen regime he is now
03:53at the
03:53helm for the Rockies this past offseason and they brought in a lot of guys that have been
03:57former Mets people in their front office and they had the thinking that I had which is that this is
04:02a
04:02viable southpaw to add to the bullpen while the Rockies have not been the best team in baseball
04:06by any stretch this year they haven't been the worst and part of the reason has been getting that
04:10nice solidified back in their bullpen where Bernardino has stayed true so I would love to
04:15hear your thoughts in the comments down below I'm Brendan Bernardino what do you before or against
04:19the Mets trading for him especially as the early season trade to help bolster their bullpen now to
04:25get on to number two again this is in no particular order today let's get on to you could very
04:29well
04:29argue the best reliever on today's list and that's gonna be Mr. Daniel Lynch the fifth okay very very
04:35fascinating story here with Daniel Lynch who's at the age of 29 if I'm not mistaken he doesn't have much
04:39left on his contract again don't quote me on that let me know in the comments down below if I'm
04:43wrong
04:43I believe that I'm right on that however he's built the Royals for a hot minute now and the
04:47Royals are a team that as we know is very much along the lines of fringe so if we think
04:51of a team that
04:51might be willing to do an early season trade before the deadline to give up a solid asset knowing that
04:56they could get a really good return and we know the story with the Royals a lot of the cases
05:00is if they
05:00don't have enough stability in the back end of their rotation the problem is the offense right it is the
05:05power that has always been a bugaboo for the Bobby what jr ran Kansas City the Royals the past couple
05:10years
05:10Bobby's doing his thing they have their guys the kind of feast or famine Salvador Perez is obviously not in
05:16his
05:16prime anymore so it's kind of few and far between as to what you're getting consistently from that
05:20Royals lineup and that's where I see a team like the New York Mets that does have guys that don't
05:24necessarily
05:25fit the mold for them right now but are here in our game playing time because of injuries to other
05:30players on the
05:30club that especially once guys start to heal up if he's ever gonna heal up and someone like a Jorge
05:35Polanco a Luis Robert a Francisco Indor eventually as we get into the summer of this year the point
05:41stands the Royals could find themselves as a viable option and I can tell you confidently and you guys
05:46if you don't know this let me enlighten you the Mets were deep in trade talks with the Kansas City
05:49Royals this past offseason I won't get into specifics as to who they were talking about potentially
05:55parting with but the Mets did trade that individual this past offseason just not to the Royals but to a
06:00different club and when they were in those discussions they were most certainly after
06:03pitching so take that with a grain of salt or take that with everything however which way you want to
06:08go about it but Daniel Lynch has been absolutely a man possessed that we've seen for the Royals so far
06:12this season okay he has a 1.84 ERA in 14 games and the big difference between him and most
06:17guys on
06:18today's list is that this kid does throw gas okay you need velocity you need certainty you're looking at
06:23baseball savant's numbers on a scale of 100 which tells you that if you're at the 100th percentile you're the
06:28best in baseball he's got a lot of 97s he's got some 98s in there buddy throws absolute cheddar okay
06:33and to pair that type of velocity that the Mets really don't have their bullpen much at all right
06:37now when you've lost that at end with Diaz and now you don't have a really a flamethrower of a
06:41southpaw other than Anderson Severino who's been looking good in AAA Syracuse but this was a part of
06:47your first round of cuts this spring training coming off of a great year in the Mexican League so
06:51a lot of uncertainty with him okay I want certainty you get certainty here with Daniel Lynch the only thing
06:56that you don't get is certainty as to how he would fare in a big market because he's coming from
07:01Kansas City we did see last year as Davidson's traded for guys like Ryan Helsey who completely
07:06had the yips and was tipping his pitches as soon as we got him a guy like Gregory Soto who
07:10looked good
07:10for a week and that was absolute dog water Tower Rogers was the anomaly but that's because he is
07:14an anomaly he's the only guy that literally throws basically at the knees with the way that he's such a
07:19crafty submariner so the point I'm trying to make though is that while yes some guys are not going to
07:23adjust from small market to big market Daniel Lynch is all making an ability to be someone
07:28who if utilized properly could be one of the best weapons for the Mets in their entire bullpen
07:32this season and that is exactly the type of guy that I would love nothing more than to see pair
07:37with a soft tosser like Brooks Raley and then once AJ Mentor is locked and loaded okay then you have
07:41three viable options and it makes you have to be tied down even less to say a shamanite to be
07:45that
07:46lefty guy for you other than just solely eating innings or eating garbage time whatever the case may be
07:50because another thing that I did not mention yet what AJ Mentor is while I'm hopeful that he will
07:55return to this Mets team and be effective for them there's also been a fair level of concern when
08:00looking at velocity and this is something that I've been telling my viewers on YouTube for the past
08:04year I'll tell you guys this as well when you have a guy like AJ Mentor that's been essentially
08:08removed from Major League Baseball for more than a handful of games for two plus calendar years because
08:12let's not forget he was out the entire second half of the 2024 season with the Atlanta Braves dealing
08:18with injury then needing surgery that off so that upcoming offseason okay so when David Stearns first
08:23invested into AJ Mentor he knew it was an uncertainty you can see the trend of David Stearns as Mets
08:28president and adding uncertainty and guys coming off of down years and the small market mentality
08:32and now focusing nearly as much uncertainty and if he did maybe just maybe the Mets wouldn't be in
08:37the hole that they found themselves currently speaking now May 6th May 7th 2026 at the time I was
08:43talking right now so what do I love a lot when it comes to Mr. Lynch and the flamethrower that
08:47is him
08:48I'd love to know your thoughts about him in the comments down well if you think that he is a
08:51viable option for the back end of this Mets bullpen but as we continue our discussion let's get into
08:56a reliever that I have somewhat of a soft spot for just because you know I've been keeping tabs on
09:01for a number of years and he's been he's managed to continue to have success going from a starter to
09:06reliever I remember him like it was yesterday during his time in Atlanta he's bounced all over the place
09:10since then whether it's Chicago the athletics or now we're finding him you know getting getting
09:14success still whether it's going to be with the team like the Chicago White Sox what have you
09:20Sean Newcomb is the next man on the list I want to get into because Newcomb is a fascinating one
09:24as
09:24well again this is guy that was both you know as we saw starter and reliever so what I like
09:28is that
09:29he is someone that if you need a stretch to give you two plus innings kind of like a Oscar
09:32Brosban
09:32he can do that for you it's not like oh that this is simply you know three up and three
09:36down when
09:37it comes to outs and that's that that's the NLB all Newcomb who has a 3.6 year race so
09:41far this season
09:42for the White Sox is someone who again can provide length for you as a reliever and just bring you
09:46more certainty in your bullpen when you need it from a lefty okay does Sean throw absolute cheddar
09:51no he doesn't you know he's going to be more in that low to mid 90s when looking at velocity
09:55but a
09:56crafty towering southpaw there on the mound from the left side that it would most certainly bode a
10:00Mets team well that again is certainly looking for stability on that front it pains me to no end when
10:06we enter every single season especially as a Mets fan and a talking and an on-field reporter for the
10:11post now I can tell you it drives me up a wall to see a team that you know you
10:15know should be adding
10:16more to their bullpen you know instead of having three spots of uncertainty they should ideally only
10:20have one where maybe they're considering their in-house options like a flamethrower and a Ryan
10:25Lambert or maybe a Shane Pintaro or a Dylan Ross who's looking good now rehabbing from injury to begin
10:30the year or Anderson Severino if you want that lefty option from Syracuse so the laundry list goes on
10:34from there I'm cool and I understand that but when you get to the point of having two three bullpen
10:39options where they're just completely uncertain that's where I have a problem because that
10:44uncertainty rears its head fast we see it and it always becomes an issue for the Mets and then we
10:49wait too little too late to actually go ahead adjust on the fly and make proactive decisions to
10:54remedy that of what was initially a wrong move by David Stearns again the same New York Mets that
11:00utilized more pitchers than any other team in Major League Baseball's history last year because of a
11:04combination of injuries and incompetence from front office down with the continued lack of proper
11:09decisions that they found themselves making but Sean Newcomb in itself another viable veteran
11:13option for this Mets bullpen as a southpaw we'd love to know your thoughts in the comments down
11:18below about him as well especially if you guys remember him again during his time or as an Atlanta
11:22brave starter now next one uh not not last okay second to last year we had Mr. Cody Thunderbird what
11:29a name
11:30love to see that okay especially Cody with a K everything about it's electric okay and this is more of
11:35a
11:35soft tossing southpaw this is not a guy that's going to be looking like Daniel Lynch where he's
11:39literally throwing absolute gas but he's a viable southpaw option and for a Minnesota Twins team that
11:44if you guys haven't seen the trend of the players I'm discussing today they're all coming from teams
11:48that will probably be either sellers by the deadline or could be both buyers and sellers okay I'm not
11:52really going out for teams as much as I would love to pick and prod the San Diego Padres and
11:56everyone
11:57their mother in their bullpen they're not a team that's currently in position that's going to be saying hey we're
12:01going to be doing an early season trade where we give up a viable asset from our bullpen so having
12:06said that with the Twins who we know are not going anywhere yet again this year and I understand the
12:10Mets may fall in that category as well if they haven't already you have a two and a half year
12:13Ray and 17 outings so far this season and this is someone that again if you can bring in pair
12:18that with
12:19Raley even though they're too a little redundant on the sense of soft tossing it's always good to have
12:24you know more than less of a great thing and as soon as Brooks really has bad outing or if
12:29he's
12:29inconsistent right away you have yourself a massive problem if you're the New York Mets in the back
12:33end of this bullpen so do I think that he's necessarily the best player on my list they know
12:37not necessarily but he might be one of the most consistent guys on my list that we find ourselves
12:41breaking down of just again another lefty that can come in get you quality outs do it at an effective
12:46rate and do it at a level that you're going to be satisfied with as either a fan a talking
12:50head
12:50whatever the case may be for whoever's watching this right now so last but most certainly not least on
12:55today's video we're going to get into a reliever that I've talked about probably more
12:58than any other lefty the past two calendar years for a long time it was Andrew Chafin but until
13:04Andrew Chafin is in a Mets uniform I have now come to the realization that he's never going to handle
13:07this big market but someone who I desperately want to see in New York who if you follow me on
13:12Wardy NYM on my YouTube channel you know I discussed this literally not even a week ago a couple days
13:17ago
13:17for that matter and that's Garrett Clevenger okay if you guys don't know Garrett Clevenger come to my
13:21TED talk let me enlighten you okay Clevenger is one of these relievers that for the past three plus years
13:26for the Rays has been an absolute dog okay we're looking at anywhere from a 10 and a half to
13:3012
13:31plus K per nine really respectable walks per nine he keeps the ball in the park he throws solid gas
13:37he
13:37sits mid 90s but can get to the upper echelon when needed so it's a better dimension and a greater
13:41certainty and velocity as is versus an AJ Minter or a soft tosser and Brooks Raley and something that
13:47Brooks Raley and Garrett Clevenger have in common is that this would be passing the torch then from one
13:52former veteran Rays reliever being traded to the Mets to another and I would love to see both these guys
13:57in this
13:58Mets bullpen and when we talk connection and familiarity for David Stearns David Stearns has not made moves
14:04with more organizations since becoming president of the New York Mets than the Tampa Bay Rays
14:09when evaluating clubs and the American League so the familiarity has been there the rapport has been there and
14:14when we talk early season trades huh what is what is the most notable early season trade that we have
14:20seen
14:21David Stearns do as a team president going back to his time with the Milwaukee Brewers and the answer
14:25to that more than likely is what he did by acquiring Willie Adamas you want to know where he got
14:29Willie
14:30Adamas from yes you guessed it the Tampa Bay Rays okay so again I'm just I'm seeing the writing on
14:35the
14:35wall now and the Mets want to make an early season move happen I think Tampa might be their destination
14:39and I know it's stereotypical New Yorkers always fleeing to Florida but we're not talking retirement
14:43we're talking mid-season got to make moves here and the Mets have already done a fair share of moves
14:48with the Rays in years past I mean even to a smaller scale like a year plus ago acquiring Tyler
14:52Zuber
14:53who didn't do anything for them really at the major league level but that doesn't change the fact
14:56that there's still rapport familiarity with Stearns and that front office so what do you get in
15:01someone like Garrett Clevander you get someone who again this past uh this past season a 2.35 year
15:06right now he has a just under five year a but he's only had like two or three outings because
15:10he just
15:10returned from injury he didn't pitch at all that we saw in the month of April due to injury so
15:15he's
15:15just got back he's just got healthy he has all the makings to be a high quality dynamic
15:19back-end reliever for this Mets bullpen and give us certainty something to be satisfied about so
15:25is it a lot to happen most certainly not we know the Tampa Bay Rays are a team that's going
15:29to be good
15:29and they could be finding themselves a bit as buyers at this year's deadline if everything goes right
15:34but there's one thing we know about the Tampa Bay Rays given their small market mentality
15:37even when they're in a buyer's position they find themselves still selling and they can really
15:42maximize the return of a player and Garrett Clevander still has two years left on his
15:46contract including the 2026 season he's not a free agent until 2028 but do the Rays really want to
15:51wait until he is essentially in his walk year to make a move or do they want to maximize on
15:55his
15:55value while he still has a little bit of club control common sense tells you it's the latter
15:59will they in fact trade him only time will tell but to varying degrees I think all these southpaws
16:04we broke down today make plenty sense for this York Mets team whether it's a soft tosser or a
16:09flamethrower either way the Mets need more certainty in the back in their bullpen they're
16:13not getting it right now they're not going to get it the way that they thought in AJ Minter and
16:17while
16:17they may get AJ back still within the next month or so it doesn't change the fact that when it
16:21comes
16:21to what they're getting is a massive uncertainty let's add some certainty if you're the New York
16:26Mets and let's try to get on the right foot as they're winning now for their past five games if
16:30they take the series finale against the Colorado Rockies having won five other past six Mets fans let us
16:35know all your thoughts in the comments down below regarding the five relievers that we found ourselves
16:38breaking down today which one do you like most as a viable trade option which one do you dislike the
16:43most as a viable option let us know in the comments down below make sure to subscribe to the New
16:47York
16:47Post Sports YouTube channel in case you guys have not done so already check out my work on Wordy and
16:51Wham where I'm talking all things Mets there as well as here everybody this is your guy Tyler Ward
16:55co-host of the Straight Out Flushing Podcast I'll see you guys next time peace out
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