David Robertson delivering as solid offseason signing for Mets
Mets starting pitcher David Robertson reacts after he struck out San Diego Padres' Rougned Odor to end the top of the eighth inning in an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Wednesday, April 12, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
David Robertson was standing right by Mariano Rivera when the Hall of Famer tore his ACL shagging fly balls in 2012, and was woken up by a barrage of messages when Edwin Diaz tore his patellar tendon during the World Baseball Classic earlier this year.
In both instances, at age 27 and now at 38, Robertson was thrust into a higher-leverage role with a grim sort of immediacy (though in 2012, he mainly worked as a setup man). The meaty part of the order? That’s yours now. A one-run lead in the ninth? That could be yours, too.
Oh, and did we tell you that the people around these parts really like to hear trumpets when their big gun comes out of the bullpen?
Well, we guess “Sweet Home, Alabama” will have to suffice.
“Things happen,” Robertson said with a verbal shrug after a gutsy performance in Wednesday’s 5-2 win over the Padres — one that extended his scoreless streak to six games to start the season. “There’s nothing I can do about [it].”
Technically, though, there is, and Robertson is doing it.
Though Diaz’s particular brand of firepower is pretty much irreplaceable, Robertson’s adaptability and gamesmanship has quickly made him one of the Mets’ most vital offseason signings. He’s spent so much of his career as a closer, he’s come back from Tommy John surgery, and he signed with this team as a setup man. Now, he’s the Mets sort-of ninth-inning guy, until he’s not. And all of that is just fine with him.
Wednesday, he was deployed with two outs in the seventh, the Mets clinging to a two-run lead, and Juan Soto coming up to bat as the tying run at the plate. Soto, who had hit a 453-foot missile against Tylor Megill in the first, worked the count to 2-and-2 before getting just under an 84.6-mph curveball that he skied harmlessly to left.
Was it the best pitch Robertson could have thrown? Probably not. And he himself said he wasn’t quite as sharp as he wanted to be in a scoreless eighth, an inning where he allowed two singles before striking out Rougned Odor on an outside curveball. But after 15 years in the big leagues, Robertson still knows how to get hitters out in his own particular way. He’s also more than shown that he’s willing to pitch whenever, wherever — something that’s proved valuable as Buck Showalter mixes and matches him and Adam Ottavino. He’s allowed three hits in 6 1/3 innings, with no walks, eight strikeouts, two saves and a hold.
"I think he’s got a feel” for the game, Showalter said. “The one thing I always ask pitchers when I first get them is what position they played in high school when they didn’t pitch . . . He’s a shortstop. He’s geared up. He’s a baseball player. He fields the position, he holds runners, he throws strikes.”
And unless the Mets make a very splashy move at the trade deadline, that sort of thing is going to be absolutely vital for their continued success. Diaz, speaking for the first time since his injury Wednesday, said he was hopeful he would pitch again this year — but even in a best-case scenario, that’s not happening until September (or October, if the Mets get there).
While Diaz was as optimistic and jovial as ever, the tableau he presented was a visceral reminder of how far he still has to go: He was still hobbling slowly on two crutches, his knee in a jointed plastic brace.
It’s a nasty injury, and Robertson said that when he first heard what happened, he didn’t sleep. A lot of Mets didn’t. But at least in the early going, his veteran presence is easing a little bit of that worry.
“D-Rob, whatever role he has, he’s money,” Pete Alonso said. “Whatever role he’s called upon, he’s ready to go.”
Added Showalter: “There are a lot of layers to him.”
Including, it seems, the most important layer of all.
“Last year I was throwing seventh, eighth inning, ninth inning, extras,” Robertson said. “It’s all the same to me . . . You can’t overthink it.”
That’s served him well in a baseball universe where nothing is guaranteed. And hey, even if it’s no Narco, Sweet Home Alabama will do just fine.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
