Mets' Tobias Myers is just fine in role of swingman, long reliever
Mets pitcher Tobias Myers during a spring training workout on Feb. 13, 2026, in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Long live the long reliever.
Though Tobias Myers hardly was the headliner in the trade that brought Freddy Peralta to the Mets, the righthander is being primed to fill a role that has become all but extinct in modern baseball.
In the era of max-effort relievers, Myers, who has started and worked out of the bullpen, is being eyed as a sort of swingman-long reliever — something the team desperately needed last year when its starters routinely failed to pitch past the fifth inning.
“It wasn’t easy for us [to navigate the pitching last year],” Carlos Mendoza said. “We had seven closers last year, right? And it was hard, especially when you weren’t getting length from your starting pitching. Having guys like that is always important. But not only is [Myers] going to be a guy [who does that] — depending on where we’re at, because we have a long ways to go — but this is a guy that can pitch high-leverage innings as well. He’s been in situations like that, so he’s very versatile.”
The role suits the versatile Myers just fine.
“I’m comfortable on the mound,” he said, adding that the plan is to be stretched out to 60 to 65 pitches in spring training. “I feel like if you’re starting a game, if you’re relieving, if you’re closing, you’ve still got to get three outs or whatever the case may be, so for me, I just try to keep that mentality and keep everything simple.”
Myers, 27, allowed one run, two hits and a walk with four strikeouts in three innings in his spring training debut at Clover Park on Saturday. He is entering his third major-league season and appeared in 22 games with the Brewers last year (starting six) and pitched to a 3.92 ERA.
“I’m not trying to do too much out there,” Myers said of his outing. “I felt under control and the body felt great.”
Notes & quotes: Luis Robert Jr., who’s been slow to ramp up as the Mets attempt to avoid the lower-body injuries that have peppered his career, will begin playing in minor-league games on Wednesday, Mendoza said. “He’s getting a ton of at bats,” he told reporters. “I think he’s one of the guys that is up to like 50 live at-bats already, but before we put him in a setting where he’s running the bases and playing defense, he’s going to start in the minor leagues.” . . . Craig Kimbrel, auditioning for a spot in the bullpen, made his spring training debut Saturday. The potential future Hall of Famer exhibited a new cutter and allowed one run, one hit and two walks in one inning.
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.
