The Mets search shouldn’t be over after the Mets signed Trevor May early in the off-season. Rumored arms that the Mets are interested in are Liam Hendricks and Brad Hand. Both of those arms are top of the class in the relief market, but the market is so deep. That could mean cheaper solid options to round out the pen are avaliable as well. And Doolittle is an arm the Mets could target.

Doolittle is coming off two iffy seasons. In 2019 he pitched to a 4.05 ERA over 60 inning pitched for the World Champion Nats. In the postseason that year he was great, helping a bad bullpen thru the postseason. Him and Daniel Hudson were the go to guys for the Nats. In 2020 it might had impacted on the lefty. He pitched just 7.2 innings and wasn’t good. His strikeouts were down and he pitched to a 5.87 ERA and 1.69 WHIP.

Main problem with Doolittle is him relying on his fastball. In 2019 he threw his fastball 81 percent of the time. However, in 2020 his velo was down 3mph and he got hit hard on his main pitch. That’s a serious concern.

Is there reason to believe he can bounce back? If he is used correctly, I think he can. If the Mets sign him, he wouldn’t be the closer or even the main set up man. Depending on Lugo his role and the Mets other additions, he can be a guy who is used in spots, facing mostly lefties. In 2019 Doolittle left handed hitters just had a .656 OPS against Doolittle. Over his career lefties just have a .536 OPS, showing his continued success against them.

With the 3 batter rule he wouldn’t be a sole lefty specialist, but you can still pitch him in the right spots. I can see Doolittle waiting a long time on the market, with all those solid bullpen arms available. Maybe he would even have to settle on a MILB deal? Either way I would have him on my radar as an option but I would not reel him in right now. There are better options avaliable from the left side (Hand/Wilson).

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