One of Brodie Van Wagenen’s last moves as the general manager of the New York Mets might be a very underrated one, with the acquisition of reliever Arodys Vizcaino.

Vizcaino has had quite a decent career, even though the right-hander has barely pitched at all in the last two seasons. The former Braves closer had his career derailed in 2019 after needing surgery on his pitching shoulder to repair his labrum as well as the removal of scar tissue.

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He will more than likely start the season off in the minor leagues, however if he remains in the organization, you will surely see him in Queens at some point.

Vizcaino has a career ERA of 3.01 while having struck out 218 batters in 194.1 innings pitched, and owns a 13-11 record.

However in 2017, Vizcaino pitched to a 2.83 ERA while saving 14 games in 62 appearances. He also struck out 64 batters in his 57.1 innings pitched giving him 9.4 strikeouts per 9.

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He was even better in 2018 as he put up a 2.11 ERA with 16 saves in 39 game. In 38.1 innings, the Dominican Republic native struck out 40 batters.

Unfortunately, that would be the start to his shoulder problems as he’d only appear in 39 games that year, and then 4 games in 2019 while posting a 2.25 ERA in a small sample.

This is no easy injury to comeback from by any means, we’ve watched Matt Harvey have a similar procedure and he of course never returned the same.

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So again, I don’t expect Vizcaino to break with the club out of the gates, but if an injury happens in that bullpen, the righty should be one of the first pitchers called up. If he can provide the Mets with a quality 30 innings pitched with an ERA under 4, it’ll be a very cheap and under the radar gold ticket.

Photo from ESPN