Max Kranick has aced each of his first two tests out of the Mets bullpen this season, the latest coming on Tuesday night in Miami when he held the Marlins down across three perfect innings — needing just 22 pitches to do so.
“He attacked, threw strikes, used all his pitches, was pitch efficient,” Mendoza said. “That’s going to be huge for us moving forward having a guy like that that you know you can trust in helping you keep games close or keeping a lead, or giving you distance out of the bullpen. That’s a pretty valuable piece out of the bullpen there.
“For him to come in like that and basically save the bullpen and kept the game [close] and gave us a chance, that was pretty impressive.”
The stakes were far lower on Tuesday in Miami compared to his first outing of the season. In the eighth inning of a 2-1 game on Saturday in Houston against the Astros, Kranick was called into a one-out, bases-loaded jam and needed just five pitches to get the last two outs of the inning, getting Yordan Alvarez to foul out to Mark Vientos at third base and Christian Walker to ground out to second.
“I definitely had some jitters all series long,” Kranick said in Houston. “My heart was racing.”
The 27-year-old right-hander is making his first MLB appearances since 2022 when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates, transitioning from a starter to a multi-inning reliever. His spring training was so good (1.48 ERA, 15 strikeouts in 12.1 innings) that he forced his way onto the big-league roster, which now gives the Mets yet another long reliever alongside Jose Butto and Huascar Brazoban.
Now, Mendoza is hailing Kranick as a potential “really good” weapon to utilize out of a bullpen that has been lights-out to start the season. In 15.2 innings entering Wednesday’s series finale, New York relievers have allowed just two runs (both from Danny Young in the ninth inning of Monday’s 10-4 win) with a 0.894 WHIP.
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