The baseball gods have called a pop quiz on the Mets. The subject? Starting pitching depth.

Carlos Carrasco, who was the other guy in the Francisco Lindor deal, is going to be out for 6-8 weeks with a torn hamstring. It seems as if every hamstring injury is referred to as a “strain”, when in reality all strains are actually tears, to varying degrees. So for a team to come out and actually call a hamstring torn, you know it’s bad news.

The good news is that if this had happened last season, the season would have been over. And it basically did happen last season, only it wasn’t an injury but it was Marcus Stroman opting out. The Mets couldn’t handle a development like that, as it brought Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha to the forefront and … you know the rest. This time around, the Mets have Stroman loaded for bear. They also have David Peterson. But most importantly, they got themselves some starting pitching depth this winter. It’s all we heard about lately, how the Mets have depth in the rotation like they haven’t had in years. Taijuan Walker is a huge part of that, as he will most likely step into the third slot in the rotation. Jordan Yamamoto has had a good statistical spring, even if he has seemed a little wild at points. Joey Lucchesi is a possibility to be a swing guy between the rotation and the bullpen. Gone are the days of being one incident away from Walker Lockett and Chris Flexen.

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