Among the many failures of the 2023 Mets — there were letdowns on offense, defense and starting pitching — the bullpen might have been the most glaring.
By FanGraphs’ measure of Wins Above Replacement, Mets relievers were the second-worst in baseball.
By ERA (4.45), the Mets’ bullpen was the ninth-worst.
There was no Edwin Diaz, but there also was little depth beyond David Robertson, Adam Ottavino and Brooks Raley.
So many of the optionable relievers then-GM Billy Eppler brought in — Jeff Brigham, John Curtiss, Sam Coonrod and Stephen Ridings, just to name a few — did not work out.
Virtually the only help from the farm system came from Grant Hartwig.
Next season the Mets will need more step-ups, which means prospects such as Paul Gervase will matter.
Gervase was one of the better stories among Mets prospects in 2023, when he took a large leap and ended a dominant season with Double-A Binghamton.
A 12th-round pick in 2022 out of LSU, Gervase is unique in virtually every area, beginning with his long, 6-foot-10 stature and including his long, circuitous climb to reach the pros.
“A lot of hard work,” Gervase said about his journey, speaking last month as Binghamton’s season finished up. “A lot of people telling you you can’t do it — just ignoring those people.”
He has had to ignore more than most.
Coming out of Harnett Central High School in North Carolina, Gervase received one college offer — from tiny Pfeiffer University, with whom he posted a 4.19 ERA in just 19 ¹/₃ innings in 2019.
“I was a bench-warmer on a Division III team,” Gervase said. “I was like, ‘If I want to do anything, I’m going to have to flip a switch.’ And that summer I flipped one.”
He worked with his father, trainer Chris Patton, and Brandon Young, a North Carolina physical therapist with a specialty in pitching biomechanics.
About two and a half months later, an 84-85 mph fastball had become a 92-93 mph fastball.
His stuff was improving, he improbably was still growing and he kept finding new landing spots.
His brief 2020 season was spent at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, where he was throwing harder but with little control, walking 10 in 8 ¹/₃ innings before the season prematurely ended.
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He spent the downtime working on his command and was granted an extra year of college eligibility.
“COVID saved my baseball career,” Gervase said with a laugh.
He parlayed his fastball and improving stuff into a 2021 season at Pitt Community College in N.C., where he broke through, struck out 35 in 21 ²/₃ innings and went from a nobody to an LSU recruit.
He closed games at the powerhouse for a season before the Mets drafted one of the more distinctive prospective relievers.
Gervase’s stuff — a mid-90s fastball, a slider with plenty of sweep and a developing split-change — stands out less than he physically stands out.
Giants righty Sean Hjelle (6-foot-11) was the only pitcher in MLB this season listed above 6-9.
Gervase is 6-10 with a wider wingspan and pitches from an arm slot so low that he nearly sidearms.
A long limb that slings out hard fastballs and breaking sliders has proven tough to pick up.
“[Hitters are] seeing almost 7-feet tall with 7-and-a-half feet of extension coming from behind a right-handed batter, way away from a left-handed batter,” the 23-year-old said. “I think when you don’t see anything like that, it gives me a significant advantage.”
The numbers bear out that advantage, Gervase getting repeated whiffs especially on his fastball.
Among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched this season, Gervase’s 15.16 strikeouts per nine innings was the fifth-most in all of minor-league baseball.
A breakout season that began with High-A Brooklyn and concluded at Binghamton finished with a combined 2.05 ERA, 96 strikeouts and 42 walks in 57 innings.
Gervase has emerged as potential major-league bullpen help as soon as next season.
This offseason, he said, he aims to further develop his split-change — “once I have that, the sky’s the limit” — and “still just try to throw more strikes.”
In a Mets system that is developing and now has a pitching lab to play with in Port St. Lucie, the hope is there will be many more prospects like Gervase who develop well and can solve a bullpen problem that hampered the Mets this year.
There might not be many more exactly like Gervase, though.
