The Jon Niese injury only adds to the lack of left handers
in the Mets organization that can start. Right now, the only options would be:
John Lannan – Really the only option. Lannan is
major league tested, will pitch 2014 as a 28-year old, and is only a couple
years away from pitching 184.2 innings (2011: 10-13, 3.70).
Steven Matz – Yes, Matz is on the 40-man and yes,
he will pitch most of 2014 as a 23-year old, but he’s far from ready. His best
season was last year… in A-ball: 5-6, 2.62, 1.17 and 121-K in 106.1-IP.
Darin Gorski – The 25-year old did make it to AAA
(1-1, 6.59, 4-G), but it was in Binghamton where he did his best work last
season: 6-1, 1.83, 0.86
Mark Cohoon – The 25-year old had a decent season
for Binghamton (4th season there!), going 9-5, 3.99, with 89-K/28-BB
in 119.2-IP
I looked and I looked
and, frankly, I couldn’t find a left hand starter still out there on the free
agent market.
Lannan may be the only
Met option if Niese goes down for the season… or, look for a possible trade of
a major chip (like Rafael Montero) for a lefty.
6 comments:
Who says they even go with a lefty in the rotation o.O
This may open the door for Montero to START the season with the big league club.
I wouldn't panic yet as it really could just be a dead arm from trying to crank it up too quickly....lets wait for some word out of the NY docs
Have we EVER got good news from one of their NYC Docs?
Gorski's case always intrigues me. In his two healthy seasons he dominated but the injury bug (which also coincided with his brief, horrid stint in AAA) seems to have obliterated everything he's accomplished (including being bumped from the 40-man roster). At 25 and still in AA it doesn't scream out "prospect" but you'd think they'd at least look in-house first. Then again, it's the Mets.
Gorski was pretty invisible when he played in Savannah. His FB barely hit 90-91. He then added some up to 94 in Lucy, but he has never been considered a prospect.
Scouts tell me a LHP at 94 translates into a 97 mph RHP... '
To Mack's point, this ends up ALWAYS being bad news for the Mets, but in actuality this is very common this time of year for everyone, not just pitchers, but obviously more so for pitchers. In the u likely event Niese does have a serious injury, I'd still rather the Mets stay in house with the options we have (Lannan, Mejia, Dice K, Montero, Syndergard, de Grom, etc. ) for the SP4 & SP5 roles.
Otherwise, here are the remaining starting pitcher options still on the market:
Odrisamer Despaigne (27)
Jon Garland (34)
Jair Jurrjens (28)
Jeff Karstens (31)
Jason Marquis (35)
Jeff Niemann (31)
Clayton Richard (30)
Ervin Santana (31)
Johan Santana (34)
Joe Saunders (33)
Barry Zito (36)
I wouldn't mind signing one of these guys to a minor league deal. Johan isn't going go be ready for a few months, so I wouldn't look at him, but besides Ervin Santana, you could make a depth signing for any one of these other guys and possibly get a decent return from them.
Considering the prevalence of left handed hitting in the NL East, particularly on the Phillies, it would certainly help to have at least one lefty in the rotation. (I feel the same way about a second lefty in the pen.) For that reason, I would think Lannan has a leg up on a spot if Niese is unable to start the season. I view Gorski as one of our many left handed bull pen pieces in the pipeline, and possibly a pretty good one. Cohoon is an enigma, and I wouldn't want to rely on him at all. Matz, of course, is a future rotation piece with a very high ceiling, but way too far away.
There are still a few quality lefty starters still on the free agent market. Clayton Richard is a southpaw that dePodesta should know all about from his Padre days. Joe Saunders is a veteran with a good pedegree. And although he is unlikely to be ready until mid-season, I've heard that Johan Santana is a pretty good lefty.
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