Mets Shatter MLB Record Using 46 Pitchers—What’s Behind This Unbelievable Strategy?

Throughout the bulk of a typical MLB season, teams are capped at 13 pitchers on their active roster. Yet, there are moments when that limit feels almost laughably modest compared to real-life chaos on the mound. Take the New York Mets in 2025, for example. On a bustling Wednesday, they introduced their 46th pitcher of the year—an eye-popping number that shatters the record previously set by last year’s Miami Marlins. This historic milestone came courtesy of Dom Hamel, who stepped onto the mound for his major league debut and delivered a flawless sixth inning, even though the Mets fell 7-4 to the Padres.

Trailing just behind the Mets are the Atlanta Braves with 44 pitchers, followed by the LA Angels at 41, and the Arizona Diamondbacks tallying 40. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Cardinals stand out for their restraint, having used only 24 pitchers as per Baseball Reference.

Now, piling up the highest number of pitchers isn’t exactly a badge of honor. For the Mets, this unprecedented turnover underscores how their pitching staff unraveled, forcing president David Stearns into a frantic scramble to fill innings wherever possible. This isn’t just a case of deep bullpen rotations—it’s a tale of a pitching corps rotting at the core. After yesterday’s promising 89-win campaign and an NLCS run, the Mets’ approach—like starting former Yankees closer Clay Holmes as a starter and banking on projects like Frankie Montas and Griffin Canning—has fizzled disappointingly.

Holmes, credit where it’s due, has held his own. But aside from him, only David Peterson has cleared 120 innings—and his stats took a nosedive with a 6.99 ERA since August started. Throw in a demoted Kodai Senga, a Canning sidelined by a ruptured Achilles, Sean Manaea’s move to the bullpen amid a 5.40 ERA, Montas’s UCL injury, and Megill stretching out with an elbow sprain since June, and you get a blueprint of pitching misery. Oddly enough, the Mets’ bullpen has been relatively okay—ranking 17th with a 4.08 ERA and seventh in innings pitched. Desperation called for fresh legs, leading to the late-season debuts of rookies Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat, and Jonah Tong, none of whom had seen MLB action before August.

As the calendar turns, the Mets find themselves clinging to the third and final wild-card slot, with rivals like the Diamondbacks and Reds breathing down their necks, less than two games back. This, coming from a team that boasted MLB’s best record as recently as June and clung to the NL East lead in early August—talk about a fall from grace.

David Stearns certainly has his work cut out—not just for the remainder of this season but for the bumpy road ahead. LEARN MORE

For most of the season, MLB teams are prohibited from carrying more than 13 pitchers on their active roster. So it’s quite a feat when one team manages to use three-and-a-half times that number in a year.

That team would be the New York Mets, who used their 46th pitcher in 2025 on Wednesday to break a record held by last year’s Miami Marlins. The record-setting pitcher was Dom Hamel, who made his MLB debut with a scoreless sixth inning against the San Diego Padres in a 7-4 defeat.

The Atlanta Braves are right behind them with 44 pitchers used, followed by the Los Angeles Angels (41) and Arizona Diamondbacks (40). The team with the fewest pitchers used this season: the St. Louis Cardinals, with 24 per Baseball Reference.

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Using the most pitchers in MLB history isn’t a good thing. In the Mets’ case, the “feat” reflects a season in which nearly their entire pitching plan has blown up in their face, leaving president of baseball operations David Stearns scrambling for innings wherever he can find them.

It has been a case where the pitching staff rots from the top of the rotation. After an 89-win season and an NLCS berth last year, the Mets made some curious gambles like signing former New York Yankees closer Clay Holmes and making him a starter, plus reclamation prospects like Frankie Montas and Griffin Canning.

Very few of those plans have worked out. Holmes has actually been fine, all things considered, but the only other Mets pitcher to post more than 120 innings has been David Peterson, who has posted a 6.99 ERA since the start of August. Those struggles continued Wednesday before Hamel entered the game, with six earned runs in five innings.

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Kodai Senga just accepted a demotion to Triple-A. Canning ruptured an Achilles tendon in June. Sean Manaea, who signed a three-year, $75 million deal last offseason, has a 5.40 ERA and just moved to the bullpen. Montas also got moved to the bullpen and is now out for the season with a UCL injury. Tylor Megill has been out since June with an elbow sprain.

The Mets’ bullpen actually hasn’t been that bad by comparison, ranking 17th in MLB with a 4.08 ERA and seventh with 585 innings pitched. With so little going right, the Mets have recently relied on a a trio of rookies in Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong in the rotation, with mixed results. None of them had appeared in an MLB game before August.

All of that has left the Mets sitting in the third and final wild-card spot as of Wednesday, with the Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds fewer than two games behind them. This is a team that had the best record in MLB in June, and the NL East lead as recently as Aug. 2.

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That leaves Stearns with plenty on his to-do list, both for this season and the future.

Every pitcher the Mets have used this season

1. David Peterson (167 1/3 innings pitched)

2. Clay Holmes (155)

3. Kodai Senga (113 1/3)

4. Griffin Canning (76 1/3)

5. Tylor Megill (68 1/3)

6. Edwin Díaz (57 1/3)

7. Huascar Brazobán (56 1/3)

8. Reed Garrett (55 1/3)

9. Sean Manaea (55)

10. Ryne Stanek (53 1/2)

11. José Buttó (47)

12. Frankie Montas (38 2/3)

13. Nolan McLean (37 2/3)

14. Max Kranick (37)

15. Brandon Waddell (31 1/3)

16. Paul Blackburn (23.2)

17. Justin Hagenman (23 2/3)

18. Tyler Rogers (21)

19. Brooks Raley (20 1/3)

20. Gregory Soto (19)

21. Chris Devenski (15 2/3)

22. José Castillo* (15 1/3)

23. Blade Tidewell (15)

24. Ryan Helsley (15)

25. Rico Garcia (12 2/3)

26. Brandon Sproat (12)

27. Jonah Tong (11 2/3)

28. Kevin Herget (11)

29. A.J. Minter (11)

30. Dedniel Núñez (9 2/3)

31. Austin Warren (9 1/3)

32. Danny Young (8 1/3)

33. Génesis Cabrera (7 2/3)

34. Justin Garza (6 2/3)

35. Richard Lovelady (6 2/3)

36. Alex Carrillo (4 2/3)

37. Ty Adcock (3)

38. José Ureña (3)

39. Tyler Zuber (2)

40. Zach Pop (1 1/3)

41. Dom Hamel (1)

42. Travis Jankowski* (1)

43. Luis Torrens* (2/3)

44. Colin Poche (2/3)

45. Jonathan Pintaro (2/3)

46. Jared Young* (1/3)

* denotes a position player pitcher