Over the past ten days, the Mets have been able to avoid any significant issues with left-handed relief pitching since losing both A.J. Minter and Danny Young to season-ending surgeries.

Génesis Cabrera, who has a decent major league track record, was called up to serve as the team’s only lefty out of the bullpen for now, and he’s made just three appearances thus far. In all three outings, Cabrera entered the game with the Mets trailing, and to his credit, he hasn’t allowed any runs to score—despite the fact that he hasn’t struck anyone out yet.

Last year, Cabrera finished the season with a 3.59 ERA and a 5.13 FIP for the Blue Jays and saw lefties hit .242/.318/.442 against him, which isn’t great. Left-handed pitchers as a whole held left-handed hitters to a .237/.302/.366 line in 2024, and it’s the SLG that really stands out in a bad way for Cabrera last year.

Behind Cabrera, the Mets have some left-handed pitchers in Triple-A. Brandon Waddell, who acquitted himself nicely in his lone major league appearance this year, is starting and figures to continue doing so to serve as rotation depth. But Felipe De La Cruz, a 23-year-old whose 13.2 strikeouts and 2.0 walks per nine earned him a quick promotion from Double-A Binghamton to Triple-A Syracuse, has made his two most recent appearances out of the bullpen.

Syracuse also has lefties Anthony Gose, who signed a minor league deal over the offseason, and Colin Poche, who signed one last week after getting DFA’d by the Nationals, in the pen. And the Mets recently signed Brooks Raley, who underwent Tommy John surgery just shy of a year ago, in anticipation of a potential return to game action in the relatively near future.

Maybe all of that is enough for the Mets to stand pat. Their 28-15 start has certainly afforded them the luxury of figuring out what they have before making any moves, but it doesn’t hurt to take a quick look around some left-handed relievers who are on expiring contracts and pitching for teams that are going nowhere this year.

The Rockies, who are on pace to lose even more games than the White Sox did last year, have 35-year-old lefty Scott Alexander in their bullpen. He’s set to hit free agency after the season, and he has a 5.25 ERA and 6.02 FIP through 12.0 innings. He has a 3.86 ERA on the road and a 6.14 ERA at home thus far. Last year, pitching mostly at sea level, he threw 38.2 innings for the A’s with a 2.56 ERA and a 3.89 FIP.

As we’ve seen over the past couple of nights, the Pirates aren’t a good team right now, either. They have three lefties in their bullpen right now, two of whom are set for free agency at the end of the season: Caleb Ferguson and Ryan Borucki. Having spent most of his career with the Dodgers, Ferguson split his time last year between the Yankees and Astros and finished the season with a 4.64 ERA and a 3.74 FIP. His career numbers are better than that, but his strikeout rate is way down to start this year through 18.0 innings of work, and he’s sporting a 5.00 ERA.

Borucki broke into the big leagues as a starter with the Blue Jays in 2018, but he’s pitched exclusively in relief as a major league player since 2020, and he has a 3.94 ERA and a 4.30 FIP since then. While he’s had major home run issues in the past, he hasn’t allowed any yet this year, and he has a 2.55 ERA and a 2.25 FIP in 17.2 innings of work in 2025.

While the White Sox have improved upon their putrid pace from 2024, they’re still a bad team. Unfortunately, having really torn things down, their trio of left-handed relievers on the big league roster are all under team control for the foreseeable future.

The Orioles have gotten off to a 15-24 start, which has them in last place in the American League East and second-to-last in the American League, one spot ahead of the White Sox. It’s likely too early for them to give up on the season, but they do have some left-handed relievers. Gregory Soto, who has a 4.85 ERA and a 2.41 FIP in 13.0 innings, will be a free agent after the season. And both Keegan Akin (3.12 ERA, 3.80 FIP, 17.1 IP) and Cionel Pérez (9.00 ERA, 5.77 FIP, 15.0 IP) are under team control through the end of the 2026 season. Of those two, Akin is the more appealing option, as he has a 3.28 ERA in 96.0 innings since the start of the 2024 season.

The Angels’ only lefty on an expiring contract is Brock Burke, and he has a 5.63 ERA this year coming off a 5.82 ERA season last year. The Nationals have Andrew Chafin, who they signed to a minor league deal just before the Mets signed Colin Poche, and you’d figure that the Mets would’ve just signed Chafin themselves if they had seen him as a fit. And the Marlins’ lefties have minimal major league service time, leaving them under Miami’s control for years to come.

There’s still time for other teams to become clear-cut sellers—and perhaps for one or two of the teams named above to get back into the Wild Card mix. But if the Mets were to swing a low-cost deal for one of the better fits out there in the near future, it might not hurt to have some help in the fold now. If not, several of these names figure to pop up in trade rumors closer to the deadline.