PORT ST. LUCIE — Mets fans would be forgiven if they don’t remember much from what was a lost September last season.
But at the end of a rough season, maybe Phil Bickford was a find.
The Mets grabbed the righty reliever in what seemed to be a forgettable deadline trade with the Dodgers that served to fill out a suddenly depleted bullpen.
Bickford, twice a first-round pick (first out of his California high school and then the College of Southern Nevada) who had not panned out with the Giants, Brewers or Dodgers, was brought in to eat innings and see if the Mets could tap into potential that others hadn’t.
After Bickford added a changeup, the 28-year-old showed enough to at least become an option for the 2024 Mets bullpen.
Bickford, who has a career 4.43 ERA in parts of four major league seasons, struggled initially upon joining the Mets.
But he allowed just one earned run in 12 September games after adding a changeup as a third weapon to complement his four-seamer and slider.
Bickford had tinkered with a changeup for years but never felt comfortable with the pitch. He worked with the Mets’ pitching minds and picked up a grip he had not yet tried.
“We were just messing around with it in a throwing program and in the bullpen,” Bickford said. “Everybody liked it. They were just like, ‘Do you want to throw it in games?’ Why not? Just kept getting used to it.”
For the final month of the season, Bickford held a 0.84 ERA while mixing in a changeup that mostly meant he was throwing fewer sliders.
Continuing to get comfortable with the changeup has been an early focus of camp for Bickford, who is competing for a spot in the Opening Day pen.
Bickford, who was tendered a contract this offseason and will earn $900,000 after winning his arbitration case, no longer has minor league options.
There appear to be a few spots up for grabs in the bullpen, Bickford competing among the likes of Michael Tonkin, Shintaro Fujinami, Nate Lavender and Sean Reid-Foley for roster spots — but if Bickford loses, the Mets would risk losing him on waivers.
Bickford hopes that figuring out a third pitch will help him stick and remind of the potential he had as a top prospect.
“Everybody’s got their own journey,” Bickford said. “It was just the timing of it all. When we started to throw [the changeup] in the games it had good results, and that’s the best way to kind of see what can work and all of that. Just kept throwing it.”