Jared Hughes sprinted his way to the New York Mets after a bout with COVID-19, which kept him out of summer camp. Hughes was often called into duty once he was on the roster, and unfortunately, it caught him to him by the end of the season.
The Jared Hughes Seam Shifted Wake Sinker. He threw a lot of them last night in another good outing. It's not falling, it's being pushed down like a curve ball (to a lesser extent). 1/ pic.twitter.com/3cE05I4z41
— ?????? ????? (@TheMagnusPI) August 19, 2020
Hughes is known for his tremendous bowling ball sinker, which produces plenty of groundballs. He was a good as any reliever in the Mets bullpen through the first day of September. Hughes had a 2.51 ERA; batters hit .173 against him in 14.1 innings.
In his last six outings of the season, Hughes had nothing left in the tank. He allowed eight runs in the same amount of innings and allowed over two baserunners an inning. Hughes’s lack of control outside the strike zone led to six walks, and in the zone, it led to a .368 average against him.
Sink to Win
Hughes was able to neutralize righties using that hard sinker, holding them to a .340 slugging. Lefties were much better, slamming a .541 slugging percentage against him. The odd part about his season was his ERA below 1.50 with zero or one day rest but over 4.50 with more days of rest. Hughes got more rest in September, which seems like being taken out of the groove of pitching consistently allowed the fatigue to catch up to him.
Hughes 5.6 BB/9 and 8.5 K/9 were the highest of his career. He also produced the most soft contact since 2011, which shows that if his control was right, he was a useful reliever. Hughes’s concerning part comes with his ERA, WHIP, and FIP, all being the highest of his career.
Hughes heads into free agency and is looking for another one year deal to latch on with a franchise. His sinker fell victim to some bad luck with a .346 average but only a .261 xba. Hughes had plenty of success with his secondary pitches, which makes him a good risk on the marker.
2020 Grades On 20-80 Scale (2021 Projection)
Sinker: 50 (60), The overall numbers did not look good, but the movement is still as strong as ever.
Curveball: 80 (80), Wipeout pitch with a 46.7% whiff rate and good horizontal movement.
Changeup: 55 (50), Only threw 59 but had success with them.
4-Seam Fastball: 40 (45), The one hit in three put in play was a home run
Command: 45 (50), The high walk rate was a blip on the radar.
Overall: 45 (55), Would not be a bad idea for the Mets to bring Hughes back.