Aaron Loup's a Priority, and Here's Why...

Making every effort to bring back bullpen stalwart seems like a no-brainer

Image: Roberto Carlo

In late September, after the reality of yet another lost season in Queens had set in for all interested orange-and-blue clad parties, New York Mets standout reliever Aaron Loup — wrapping up a career year in Flushing — minced no words when asked if he was open to a reunion with the Mets.

“I’d love to come back,” he said to the team’s media corps. “I’ve had a blast playing here. I’ve had fun with the guys all year long and I’ve had a great year, so I see no reason not to.”

We love to hear that, especially considering the never-ending wave of no the Mets have received so far this offseason. Kinda reminds you that there’s a lot more on the to-do list than filling out executive chairs this winter.

In Loup’s case, the Mets making every effort to bring the 33-year-old left-hander back in 2022 and beyond should be item no. 1 and a no-brainer.

Though, they will assuredly have competition. Most notably from the Phillies, who were reported to have interest in Loup this week, among a host of other teams (Heyman).

That makes sense. Every team with visions of contention needs solid relief pitchers and Loup fits that bill to a tee. The journeyman southpaw was undoubtedly the best reliever on their roster last season and proved to be the unexpected glue of the group.

As intimated by the player, there’s no good reason for the Mets not to make it happen. Just look at these numbers. Geez.

Over 65 appearances (two as an opener, which slightly skews his stats as a reliever but not by much; 56.2 IP total), Loup pitched to a 0.95 ERA (1.01 as RP, best in MLB) with 57 strikeouts, 16 walks, 0.94 WHIP, a .187 batting average against, and a 2.1% barrel rate — good for third among all qualified MLB relievers.

His 30.9% called-strike-and-whiff rate, 64.4% first-pitch strike rate, 24.8% hard-hit rate, all ranked within the top-30 among the same group. His splits are immaculate (.211 BAA, .547 OPS in 125 PA versus RHB; .167 BAA, .440 OPS over 93 PA against LHB). And Loup’s still making adjustments — and marked improvements — despite playing on the back nine of his career.

After allowing three homers to right-handed batters over 58 plate appearances in 2020, Loup allowed none to righties in 2021. He allowed two extra-base hits to left-handed hitters all season. Unreal.

In our opinion, the deceptive delivery Loup employs with regards to his sinker and cutter and noticeable location adjustments this past have been key.

Notice Loup’s release points below, specifically those two pitches (via Statcast). It’s like he sneaks the cutter in with the sole intention of messing hitters up from that angle.

Note the differences in the average location of Loup’s cutter in 2020 (first image) and 2021 (second image). That did the trick as far as limiting hard-hit damage this past season (.277 SLG versus cutter compared to .424 SLG in 2020; impressive).

Playing off a sinker that he unapologetically pounds the zone with, Loup’s cutter coming in at a comparable pace yet dropping out of the previous tunnel is dastardly and the results were just as effective, as noted above.

Better yet, it opened up the door for his seldom used but wholly effective secondary pitches to flourish, as evidenced by the 47.2% strikeout rate on his changeup (8.6% usage) and 41.7 percent on his curveball (6.6% usage) this past season.

A place for everything and everything in its place.

With an uber-talented relief corps assembled in Queens (albeit without consistently elite results) in Edwin Diaz, Trevor May, Seth Lugo, Miguel Castro, and others, the reliable cohesion Loup’s presence brings reinforces the sum of the parts. That’s the goal. Ideally, nobody will fall because everyone will be each other’s crutches.

What it might take to secure Loup price-wise is anyone’s guess, especially with divisional competition for his services (two years, $20 million is our rough prediction). If it takes a third year a la Jeurys Familia’s three-year, $30 million deal in 2019 to get the job done, tread with caution but not too much.

Loupie seems like a player the Mets should be tossing around their newfound financial weight for, no? We think so.

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