Lefty Loup, who never wanted to go, could be part of solution for bullpen
ANAHEIM, Calif — If the Mets wanted to lure Aaron Loup back to Queens, it sounds like the lefty reliever would more than consider it.
Loup waited and waited for the Mets to negotiate with his camp last offseason, but he couldn’t get any answers from the club’s wavering front office before he signed with the Angels on a two-year, $17 million deal.
“It took a little bit to get [the Mets] on the phone,” Loup said. “I had to stall [the Angels] for a little bit, as long as I could. And then eventually, everything we asked for [the Angels] kept giving to us. Couldn’t wait around any longer.”
Loup was honest about his disappointment that it didn’t work out with the Mets.
“I’m not going to throw a better season than what I had last year,” he said. “In a way, you’d love to run it back. At the same time, [the Angels] wanted me about as bad as I’ve ever been wanted over the course of my career. I can’t complain.”
At the time, the Mets were deep into their seemingly
never-ending search for a president of baseball operations. Loup and his agents were trying to negotiate with Mets team president Sandy Alderson and his son, Bryn Alderson, who also plays a role in the front office. In November, the Mets finally pivoted from their intention of hiring a president of baseball operations and instead named Billy Eppler as general manager. Loup signed with the Angels three days later.
“They had a lot going on, which I understood as well,” Loup said. “It was kind of like, I know you guys are interested and probably
want me back, so I was trying to stall, and stall. It got to the point where I couldn’t anymore.”
Loup, 34, had a career year with the Mets in 2021. The lefty posted a 0.95 ERA in 65 relief appearances and 56.2 innings. He quickly became a fan favorite, not just because of his exceptional numbers, but also because of his warm-up song, “Unapologetically Country As Hell” by Hardy that blared through Citi Field speakers, and most notably, his postgame interviews that almost always featured a Busch Light beer nearby or in his hand.
On Friday at Angels
Stadium, Loup’s clubhouse setup included a mini refrigerator stacked with at least 15 Busch Lights adjacent to his locker.
“That’s been here from Day 1,” Loup said of the mini frig. “It’s the one thing I carried over. Hopefully, it’s still got some good luck in it.”
The journeyman reliever hasn’t yet found the same success with his new team that he enjoyed last year in Queens. Loup, who was drafted in the ninth round by the Blue Jays in 2009, has a 4.43 ERA in 24 relief appearances for the Halos this season. The Angels entered Saturday having won just one game in their last 15, and Loup’s last outing was over a week ago.
The Mets (39-21) do need a lefty reliever sooner rather than later, and if the Angels continue spiraling, Loup should be up for grabs. But he would have to step up and find some real success in the next several weeks before this year’s trade deadline to make such a scenario worth it for Eppler and the Amazin’s.
And Loup alone likely wouldn’t solve the bullpen’s weaknesses.