Lefty Reliever Help on the Way for Mets?

Unless you follow the minors league closely, Dedniel Núñez showed up out of nowhere last year in the New York Mets bullpen, and he was a key cog in their 2024 success. With the Mets bullpen going through its roughest part of the 2025 season after facing season-long injuries to both of their lefty relievers–A.J. Minter and Danny Young– they could use an out-of-nowhere arm to help out.

Could that be left-handed pitching prospect Felipe De La Cruz?

Like Núñez, he has been in and out of our top 30 prospect rankings, and before the season, I had him in my just-missed group. I wrote about De La Cruz before the 2023 season as being an under-the-radar arm to watch after he made his stateside debut the previous season. The lefty struggled to limit runs in 2023 with St. Lucie (4.68 ERA) but excelled in a brief stint with Brooklyn (2.65 ERA), and overall, he struck out 131 batters in 107 1/3 innings over 24 appearances (22 starts).

In 2024, De La Cruz continued to walk a little too many hitters (9.6%), have an above-average ERA (4.25), and strike out hitters (24.6%) at an above-average rate when he pitched exclusively for High-A Brooklyn over 106 innings in 24 starts. After the regular season, De La Cruz went to pitch in the Dominican Winter League, where he struggled overall (6.48 ERA) but got his first taste of being exclusively a reliever.

Felipe De La Cruz was NASTY yesterday in his first start for the @SyracuseMets! ?

6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 9 K. He was up to 97 mph with his fastball, and threw strikes on 75% of his pitches! pic.twitter.com/uVwTKR06yl

— Mets Player Development (@MetsPlayerDev) May 3, 2025

De La Cruz, 23, started the 2025 season with Double-A Binghamton, pitching three to four innings per outing and rotating between starts and relief appearances. In those appearances, he had a 1.98 ERA and 20 strikeouts compared to only three walks. With his performance and the Mets’ constant need for pitching during a grueling stretch of games, De La Cruz was promoted to Triple-A Syracuse last week to make a start.

And what a start it was. In his Triple-A debut on May 2, De La Cruz pitched six scoreless innings of one-hit ball with nine strikeouts. He threw only 70 pitches, with 54 of them being strikes. On Wednesday, De La Cruz returned to the mound for Syracuse, but this time as a reliever. He pitched 1 2/3, allowing no runs on hits, a walk and two strikeouts. His fastball (a sinker) was up to 98 mph during the outing. Overall, this season, his 32.9 K-BB% ranks No. 10 among 498 minor league pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched.

Going back to the start in his Triple-A debut to look at what he threw, you can see why (besides the obvious need) the Mets might see him as a reliever. Of the 70 pitches he threw, 66 were either a fastball (29) or his gyro slider (37). He threw only four changeups to round out his repertoire. In his relief outing, he threw 19 pitches, all of which were the fastball or slider. As you can see, De La Cruz is mostly a fastball/slider pitcher. In his start, his fastball averaged 94.5 mph and maxed out at 97.3, while in his relief appearance, his fastball average was up to 95.7 and topped at 97.7 mph.

It’s a small sample size, but it looks like we could reasonably expect De La Cruz to get a little bump on his fastball in a shorter stint. An athletic lefty reliever with a 95-98 mph sinker and gyro slider at 84-88 mph could be successful in the major leagues if he attacks hitters. As you can see in the video above, De La Cruz pitches from a three-quarters arm slot and slings the ball a bit.

The Mets currently have Génesis Cabrera as their lefty in the bullpen and recently signed lefties Brooks Raley and Colin Poche. Cabrera has allowed one run in 2 1/3 innings with the Mets and has yet to strike out a batter. Although Poche has had recent big-league success, he posted an 11.42 ERA with the Washington Nationals this season. The 36-year-old Raley hasn’t pitched since April of last season, though he could be getting close to a rehab assignment as he’s almost 12 months removed from Tommy John surgery.

De La Cruz’s stuff has him looking like potentially one of the Mets’ better left-handed options to help the bullpen sooner rather than later.

Editor’s Note: Another reliever to keep on for making his MLB debut in 2025 is right-hander Douglas Orellana. The 23-year-old has excelled this year for Double-A Binghamton following his switch to the bullpen full-time. His 41.9 K% ranks second in the Eastern League, and his 0.57 WHIP ranks third among pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched. He’s pitching in high-leverage spots, picking up saves in two of his last four outings. 

The post Lefty Reliever Help on the Way for Mets? appeared first on Metsmerized Online.