Tyler Bashlor/Photo by Ed Delany

The New York Mets have announced Tyler Bashlor, Tim Peterson, and Daniel Zamora have been optioned to minor league camp. With less than a week to go before Opening Day, this not only reduces the current roster to 36, but it also means the race for the last spot in the bullpen is now between Kyle Dowdy, Hector Santiago, and Ryan O’Rourke.

The aforementioned three players options all made their Major League debuts last season. Of the trio, Zamora was arguably the most successful. With his high spin rate slider, he was able to strike out 16.0 batters per nine in his 16 appearances. While he had a strong season last year, he was likely squeezed out with Justin Wilson and Luis Avilan expected to make the Opening Day roster.

At one point, Peterson was in the thick of the race for the last bullpen spot with Mickey Callaway lauding his strike throwing ability. However, he has struggled over his last few appearances, and he now has a 5.40 ERA during Spring Training. Last year, he got off to a good start allowing just two earned runs in his first 11.1 innings pitched, but he would taper off finishing the year with a 6.18 ERA in 27.2 innings pitched at the Major League level.

Bashlor did not have a strong Spring. Despite being equipped with an upper 90s fastball, he only struck out three batters in 10.2 innings. This isn’t too dissimilar from his striking out just 7.0 batters per nine over 32.0 Major League innings last year. Still, those low strikeout numbers are an anomaly from him as he has struck out 12.7 batters per nine in his minor league career.

Overall, given how bullpens have been used in recent years, it is very likely we see all three of these pitchers make at least one appearance for the Mets during the course of the 2019 season. When they get that opportunity, each one of them has the talent to make it a difficult decision for the Mets to send them back down to Syracuse.