PORT ST. LUCIE — December was a star-studded month for the Mets, one by which the rotation got rebuilt and the team re-signed the very best center fielder on the free-agent market.
Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana and Brandon Nimmo all arrived (or in Nimmo’s case, returned).
Way down on the list of transactions was the addition of David Robertson on a one-year contract price $10 million. A month later, Adam Ottavino returned on a two-year deal price $14.5 million.
Those less-trumpeted signings now loom among the many Mets’ largest, no less than if the team plans to compete for a World Series title this season.
Edwin Diaz’s likely season-ending right knee injury, sustained within the on-field jubilation Wednesday night because the All-Star closer celebrated Puerto Rico’s victory over the Dominican Republic within the World Baseball Classic, has modified the Mets’ entire bullpen dynamic.
Robertson owns loads of big-game closing experience and sure will receive the lion’s share of the duties in Diaz’s spot. But Ottavino can slide into that spot as needed, giving the Mets a workable dynamic.
Robertson is the more intriguing selection based on a resume that features loads of winning teams and high-pressure situations with the Yankees, Cubs and Phillies. And there may be this: The correct-hander has been as effective against lefties as against righties through the years. Last season, that meant holding right-handed hitters to a .629 OPS. Left-handed hitters owned an excellent paltrier .550 OPS against him.
Ottavino is more the classic late-inning flamethrower, who, like Robertson, knows plenty about acting on a giant stage, following stints with the Yankees and Red Sox.
Diaz is near irreplaceable, but Robertson and Ottavino can perhaps give the Mets a probability in that closer’s role.
The larger issue for the Mets shall be attempting to determine who replaces Robertson/Ottavino within the setup role.
The Quintana alternative plan
Tylor Megill was thrust into the Mets’ Grapefruit League game against the Marlins earlier this week — sending Max Scherzer to a back field to get in his work — since it was deemed vital he stretch out against major league hitters.
The Mets are going to want Megill a technique or one other this season, but Jose Quintana’s impending bone graft to cover a benign lesion on his fractured fifth rib on his left side has left the team with a long-term emptiness within the rotation.
By general manager Billy Eppler’s timetable, Quintana’s absence will last beyond July 1.
As much because the Mets like David Peterson for his solid work last season filling in, there may be substantial considered giving the job to Megill, even on the expense of getting a lefty within the rotation.
Remember, the Mets were to employ an all right-handed rotation last season of Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco. Then deGrom got injured in spring training, and the job went to Megill. But Megill began along with his own injury troubles in May, resulting in Peterson’s regular involvement.
Megill probably has the upper ceiling among the many two pitchers based on his filthier stuff, at the same time as he looks to preserve bullets by not throwing every pitch as if it’s his last.
That isn’t to attenuate what Peterson meant to the club last 12 months, when he began 19 games and pitched to a 3.86 ERA in that role. That’s definitely acceptable for a back-of-the-rotation starter.
But Mets officials even have a snapshot of Megill’s work that is tough to disregard: a five-game stretch in April by which he pitched to a 1.93 ERA and appeared worthy of holding deGrom’s spot within the rotation.
If the Mets consider Megill is all the way in which back from the shoulder impingement that sidelined him after a lat strain, it’s probably price exploring whether he can pick up where he was early last season.
Patience isn’t at all times a virtue
After the Mets announced Quintana could be lost for no less than half the season, Buck Showalter commented that the left-hander’s return could be like a trade deadline acquisition for the Mets.
Predictably, that created a stir on social media.
Mets fans, specifically, have grown weary of such talk — a throwback to the previous ownership regime, which rationalized not taking over a giant contract on the trade deadline because Player X could be coming back from the injured list to offer that very same boost.
But this can be a recent era under Steve Cohen, so it probably behooves fans to view Showalter’s comments as just attempting to put a positive spin on a nasty situation. Ideally, Quintana will return and contribute in the course of the season’s second half.
The past two seasons, the Mets have received mixed results from their “trade deadline acquisitions” that were coming back from injuries.
Last 12 months, deGrom’s season debut occurred on Aug. 2 in Washington. The correct-hander began 11 games, and went 5-4 with a 3.08 ERA with 102 strikeouts in 64 ⅓ innings. The ace’s return definitely provided a lift to the rotation.
In 2021, Carrasco debuted for the Mets on July 30 — he had been sidelined since spring training due to a torn hamstring — and went 1-5 with a 6.04 ERA over 12 starts. After the season he had a bone fragment faraway from his right elbow.
It wasn’t much of a “trade deadline acquisition” for a team that unraveled over the ultimate two months of the season.
Max-ing out the WBC
Scherzer raised the concept of playing the WBC in the course of the season when asked this week in regards to the event’s timing. Scherzer is among the many pitchers not participating out of fear of injury from ramping up too quickly in spring training.
“Would there be a format where if the WBC was in the course of the season, I feel you’d get more pitcher participation,” Scherzer said. “And more importantly, I feel it will be more exciting for the fans because you’d even have starters built up. You wouldn’t have guys on pitch counts. You’d even have real guys going out and it will be an actual game.”
An idea: Skip holding an All-Star Game every fourth season and play a condensed version of the WBC over per week. That’s, take a four-day All-Star break and switch it into eight, allowing for a smaller tournament that features higher pitchers.
Adam Wainwright has enjoyed a high quality profession, but the very fact he was the Game 1 starter for Team USA within the tournament — and never a Scherzer, Justin Verlander or Gerrit Cole — only underscores the event’s shortcomings.
“I’m not able to step right into a quasi-playoff game at once, physically,” Scherzer said. “I feel like if I try this, I’m rolling the dice with my arm. If I am going on the market and take a look at to do an excessive amount of early in spring, it really could affect me throughout the season.”
Francisco Alvarez’s time is coming
Francisco Alvarez is receiving high marks for his work behind the plate this spring.
It still could be surprising if the 21-year-old is placed on the Opening Day roster — the Mets have Omar Narvaez and Tomas Nido — but expect to see Alvarez in some unspecified time in the future over the summer.
“He’s got a whole lot of aptitude and he puts a whole lot of effort into convalescing,” catching instructor Glenn Sherlock said. “He’s at all times on the lookout for feedback and looking out at video. He’s a really conscientious kid.”