Mets relievers Ryan Helsley, Ryne Stanek trying to find answers for recent struggles

ATLANTA – There is Ryan and there is Ryne.

One throws a fastball that averages 99.4 mph, which is fifth fastest in baseball, and the other throws a heater that clocks in at 98.5 mph, which is 15th. They’re the hardest tossers on the Mets, with the type of stuff that challenges hitters to go out and get it.

The problem, though, is that those same hitters are, in fact, going out and getting it.

It’s a conundrum the Mets are trying to solve, but for now, the numbers are grim. Ryan Helsley, acquired from the Cardinals at the trade deadline, has a 9.82 ERA in nine appearances since coming over from St. Louis, while Ryne Stanek, who started off the season strong, has an 18.56 ERA in his last seven appearances.

“For sure [it’s frustrating],” Helsley said Saturday, a day after the erstwhile closer, brought to Flushing to instead be Edwin Diaz’s set-up man, let up three runs in an inning that should have been little more than garbage time.

“I don’t think I’ve really ever been through a stretch like this in my career,” he said. “The stuff feels good. There are stretches when things are going good and you make mistakes and guys get themselves out. You make good pitches and you get rewarded. Right now, it feels like when I make good pitches, guys are getting hits and obviously [when I make] mistakes, they’re doing damage.”

And that’s a problem. When David Stearns acquired Gregory Soto, Tyler Rogers and Helsley this July, it was with the intent of creating a bullpen made to bulldoze – a shutdown unit that shortened games, protected leads, and put out fires.

But the formula hasn’t been flawless.

“We kind of had roles fairly situated for a long period of time and then you kind of mix up the group with three new guys, so obviously, you’re going to use those guys in situations that are advantageous to them,” Stanek said. “It’s definitely a transition period for a lot of guys.”

Helsley noted that he has to be ready whenever his name is called, which certainly is different from closing out games for the Cardinals. Stanek is being used earlier in games, and sometimes in mop-up duty, when he’s got to wear outings whether he has his stuff or not.

Both pitchers are seeing damage done against their fastball, and manager Carlos Mendoza noted Stanek’s issue has been a combination of execution and sequencing, “especially [when] he’s ahead in counts, not being able to finish hitters.

“Maybe it’s a little bit too much in the strike zone and they’re putting the ball in play and he’s been a little unlucky as well. I think executing when he’s ahead in counts has been the biggest thing – making guys chase as opposed to just leaving hittable pitches up," Mendoza said.

As for Helsley, he added: “We’ve got to help him because he’s not getting swings and misses. He’s not getting chases, so we’ve got to go back and see how we can continue to help him, because he’s elite.”

But there’s also another aspect to this – one that makes the issue harder to resolve: Hitters just seem to be getting better and hitting the hard stuff. This is the first year since 2017 where league-wide hits outnumber strikeouts – the result of offenses adjusting to an era marked by hard throwers with a vast array of pitches.

“It’s not so much the [fastball] itself, I think it’s a little bit of how the hitters have adapted,” Stanek said. “I think a lot of it is finding the counterpunch to how they’ve adapted…And it may not all be damage. It could be a foul ball extending pitch counts to where they’re getting something different [or a] mistake. I’ve noticed a lot that when you make a good pitch, they fight it off or they get enough of it to flare it out and you’re like, oh wow. [In the past] that would have been a whiff or an out.”

Both pitchers, though, are in problem solving mode. Helsley is conferring with coaches, watching previous outings, and trying to recognize patterns of “what guys are doing on certain pitches.”

Stanek is looking at the data and quality of contact, and noted it’s important to differentiate between hitters making solid contact versus just plain bad luck, of which he’s sometimes been victim.

“You have to be able to separate the real damage versus the pseudo damage,” he said. “Some of it’s been weird damage where I break a bat and the ball landed on the line and it’s a double, and in a lot of players' eyes, that’s fake slug…They got beat, but they got rewarded.”

But all damage, real or pseudo, takes its toll, on both ERAs and minds.

“That’s the tough part,” Stanek said. “When you get into pressure situations, you rely on what’s always worked and if [hitters] are getting better at what’s always worked for you, that puts you in a situation where, ok, I have to play a little bit of defense as opposed to relentlessly attacking.”

And adapting, “is not a quick process,” he said. But it’s certainly an ongoing and necessary one.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.