Mets Adding to Pitching Staff as Season Nears Post Lockout

There is a different feel right now around the two New York baseball teams. Typically the Yankees are the ones spending big money at free agents, while the Mets are counting their pennies. This year has been the complete opposite so far.

In the post-lockout era, the Mets have been busy, picking up right where they left of in December, trading a pair of minor league players to the Oakland A's for right-handed starter Chris Bassitt, and inking free agent reliever Adam Ottavino to a one-year deal.

In Bassitt the Mets get a middle-of-the-rotation starter, who was 12-4 with a 3.15 ERA last year in Oakland. In 2020 Bassitt came in eighth in the AL Cy Young vote after posting a 2.29 ERA in 11 starts. He has a good mid-90s fastball that has a lot of movement, and a killer curve ball that comes in between 73 to 75 mph.

If he continues to pitch at the rate he has the past two seasons, he is going to be a welcome addition. It is interesting to note, Bassitt is a free-agent after the 2022 season.

Ottavino is no stranger to New York having pitched for the Yankees in 2019 and 2020. After a great year in 2019 where he posted a 1.90 ERA for New York, he was 2-3 with a 5.89 ERA in only 24 appearances in 2020. The Yankees traded him away to Boston without even thinking twice, and he was just 'ok' for the Red Sox last season.

While his name won't jump off the page, Ottavino is a veteran and a much needed arm in the Mets bullpen.

Speaking of the Yankees, word came down Sunday that Gio Urshela is expected to be the Yankees starting short stop this season.

The Yankees have been linked to the likes of Carlos Correa and Trevor Story all off-season, but the likeihood is they will bypass paying big bucks to a top free agent, since Anthony Volpe is closer and closer to becoming Major League ready. Volpe might even find himself starting for the Somerset Patriots this summer.

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