Q and A - Mike Pelfrey

Photo by Mack Ade 

Mark Mokris asked:

Hi Mack,   Just wanted to wish you and your wife and family a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.  I do have a few questions for your site.  Which of Mike Pelfrey, Bobby Parnell, Justin Turner and Mike Baxter is the oldest player?  The amazing part of this question is that they were all born in 1984.  I think this illustrates a point that Mets fans sometimes forget.  For all of flashes of brilliance followed by the bewildering inconsistency that Pelfrey brings to the table isn't it amazing that he was born in same year as Parnell who most Mets fans give more leeway to learn on the job?  I think that Mets fans forget how quickly that Pelfrey made it to the majors.  Pelfrey I believe is the classic type of pitcher who comes back from Tommy John surgery with an extra 2 or 3 miles per hour on his fastball.  I would like the Mets to resign him if they can for a reasonable price.  I don't like the idea of putting him in the pen.  I understand that everyone is different but there are two problems that I think we saw with Mejia being thrown in as a reliever after TJS.  First, after TJS every day is different.  Sometimes a pitcher can warm up and get loose without any problems but there are days when their arm just can't get loose and it's my opinion that after TJS it is easier for a pitcher to get loose as a starter where he can take as much time as he needs to get warmed up and can change the amount of time to warm up from start to start or month to month depending on how his arm is feeling.  A relief pitcher just can't do that.  Secondly, the throwing motion that players are taught while rehabbing is often not their normal arm angle and therefore there is a timetable to get back to their pre-injury arm slot and this of course impacts the motion on their off speed pitches.  We saw that with Jenrry Mejia who lost the nasty sink on his fastball and secondary pitches.  We also know that the last thing to return after TJS is location.  It seems to me that putting Pelfrey into the bullpen would be a huge mistake and we haven't talked about Pelfrey's fragile ego.  Am I totally off base here?

Mack:  Hey Mark… I love short questions J

Boy, I’m glad you brought up Mike Pelfrey. We’re coming down to the end of the month where the Mets have to make a decision on whether to tender him. If they do, it will cost them in the $5mil range, so I really don’t see it happening. That will make Pelfrey a free agent and able to sign with whatever team he wants to. Pelfrey loves being a Met and is a big fan of the other key players in the locker room (a deciding factor on whether or not he would come back for less money could be whether or not David Wright is extended) and I can easily see him signing for a one year deal with a lot of incentives. I also agree that he’s not pen material. Pelfrey is a starter and always will be and you know what I always say… you can’t have enough great starters.

Lastly, both TC and Sandy Alderson want him back so my guess is he will not be tendered, but will sign around a $2mil, 1-yr deal, with possibly a second year team option. You could see both he and Zack Wheeler entering the rotation at the same time.

Exciting shit.