Reese Kaplan -- Can the Starting Pitching Really Be Any Worse?

As we continue the first week of September baseball the Mets starting pitching is at best a house of cards on a very windy street.  Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea and David Peterson are all looking at best a 1-3 inning outing before disaster unfolds.  Isn’t it ironic that the two hurlers the club can count on best to help them overcome this dismal and dangerous trend have four games and one game of major league experience between them?

Oh, it could get worse.  Or better.  Trevor Megill was cruising along in rehab until he hit what should have been his final rehab start before returning to Queens.  Unfortunately in that game he pitched more like vintage Megill rather than the one who had appeared often to be dominant in the earlier part of this year before the injury hit. 

Then there is a third rookie in Brandon Sproat who has put together now a string of nearly 10 games where he was pitching like a proverbial ace, not like the end-of-the-climb Sproat who seemed to have topped out in AAA even as recently as earlier this year.  No one knows which Sproat would show up upon promotion but at this point it’s a gamble surely under very serious consideration.

Right now everyone knows that Kodai Senga is a hollow shell of his former self.  Whether it is health related, rhythm related or health related no one is entirely sure.   It really doesn’t matter.  The fact is you can’t hand him out to opponents every 5th or 6th day to do his best Frankie Montas impression. 

David Peterson has been up and down with far more of it being up.  For awhile he looked as if he was true ace material as he finished 2024 under 3.00 in ERA and until recently was doing the same in 2025.  Read the same list from above regarding the cause for his sudden collapse.  His track record is longer in the positive so it’s unlikely they are as anxious to make a change here as they would be with others.

The Clay Holmes starter experiment started off superbly but no one knows if his arm is overtired or whatever the cause, but his control is all over the place and at his best he’s a 5 inning pitcher.  At his worst he’s in the same rankings as Senga and Manaea. 

Speaking of which, Sean Manaea started the year late due to injury.  He showed some flashes of competence this year but lately his game is highly questionable as well.  In 2024 he was a never saw it coming success story which lead to his return engagement for 2025 (and 2026).  Right now he is also simply not getting it done. 

Personnel wise, the Mets need to make some moves.  There has been a lot of discussion about sending Senga to Syracuse to get him out of the spotlight to work on whatever is going wrong for him while also exercising a player-approved demotion as he has options. 

Clay Holmes could move into the bullpen to help provide some of the strength that David Stearns thought he had acquired in August before the huge meltdowns by the three new relievers.  It would also significantly reduce his workload in that the number of innings asked of him would be just 1-2 per appearance.

It would seem that these changes would reinforce the belief that Peterson and Manaea are actually better pitchers than they have shown and you’d be leaning on experience while hoping for the best.

These two moves would open up spots in the rotation for both Megill and Sproat.  While never a big fan of Megill, he’s surely a better option than the proposed first two on this list right now.  For Sproat, well, he’s a great unknown but the 9-10 game streak he’s controlled suggests he is worth a look though relying on a September push with three rookies in the starting rotation is surely an option no one would ever have envisioned before the awful August eclipsed the June swoon.

Something’s got to give.