Reese Kaplan -- If Not for Injuries, It Wouldn't Be the Mets

It wouldn't feel normal to be a Mets fans unless injuries were threatening to curtail the planned offseason maneuvers before the season even began. While most folks were coyly smiling when news revealed that Jacob deGrom was already ailing and the Mets were not paying his salary, it appeared that the self satisfied grin ensured that retribution would be swift.

This past week it was revealed that starting pitchers David Peterson who took a batted ball off his foot (thus far no broken bones and just a big fat bruise), and newcomer Jose Quintana scratched for tightness in his left side during the game was revealed to have a stress fracture in one of his ribs.

Anyone doing math can see that the Rangers having temporarily lost one starting pitcher was countered by the Mets losing one and then losing another one counted upon to be the first call-up to replace the first missing starting pitcher. Yup, let's go Mets!

So where does that leave Jeremy Hefner and Buck Showalter until both players are deemed healthy enough to play once again?

Well, the next pitcher in line for a starting assignment was last year's super sub, Tylor Megill. Now Megill was a most pleasant surprise when the 2022 season began and the aforementioned deGrom was once again unable to take the mound. Megill didn't exactly have an eye popping minor league record to predict major league success, but for the first several starts he was pitching more like a Cy Young candidate than an unknown youngster filling in for a multiple Cy Young award winner.

Injuries then hit Megill and his great pitching performances crumpled under his ailing body. Then as other pitchers began to return to health to take spots in the starting rotation Megill was transitioned unceremoniously into a bullpen role where he was average at best. It could have been recovery causing the issue, adjusting to middle innings support, or maybe it was simply him pitching below expectations after having done so well above them.

For a brief look at the numbers, Tylor Megill is a minor league veteran of a career 3.68 ERA. That's certainly not bad but it isn't the type of performance that suggested sub 3.00 stuff in the majors. His best attributes were his high strikeout rate of 12.1 per 9 innings pitched to go along with an average 3.1 walks. His WHIP was a pretty good 1.179 but he only earned a 9-10 record spread over parts of three seasons.

As he ascended out of necessity to the majors, the strikeout and walk numbers remained good but he was a bit more hittable. His ending numbers with the big Mets were not good. He had a finishing record of 4-2 with 5.13 ERA after having delivered slightly better in 2021 at 4-6 with 4.52 ERA.

So, if not Tylor Megill, who else is in camp that is a possibility?

The next on the pitching food chain would be the now healthy Joey Lucchesi. The now 29 year old has the southpaw thing in his favor as well as a longer major league history of parts of four seasons pitching to a record of 19-24 with a 4.24 ERA for his career. The club hasn't gotten much out of him other than 11 appearances in 2021. Consequently his record is pretty clean and he hasn't left the management team with a checkered end of his 2022 season when he didn't play at all. With fellow lefty David Peterson currently unavailable, it could open the door for a short term assignment.

Next on the replacement roster would be Jose Butto. While his lackluster appearance last season won't fill anyone with confidence, as a minor leaguer his numbers were on par with what Megill had done. He owns a career record of 20-25 with a 3.44 ERA striking out better than 1 per inning. It may be that the club wants him to pitch more regularly in Syracuse.

Then there's former Miami Marlins hurler Elieser Hernandez. The 27 year old has a poor major league record thus far of 10-21 with a 5.08 ERA with some strikeout ability. 48 of his 90 major league games have been as a starter, but instead of working to demonstrate to the Mets staff what he's capable of doing by taking up innings in Port St. Lucie, he will instead be representing the country of Venezuela in the no-one-cares World Baseball Classic. 

It would appear that given the sudden need for more arms he's logistically made himself virtually invisible (which, given his career numbers, is not exactly a major loss).

Most of the other pitchers in camp for the Mets are career relief pitchers who could theoretically be recast as starters, but just as Megill wilted going from starting to relieving, it's entirely possible the same could happen to the more experienced support pitchers asked to take the ball to begin the game. 

 Fortunately for the Mets David Peterson's injury is not nearly as serious as the one facing Quintana, so whomever is selected for the first period of need every 5th day shouldn't be as big a long term issue as it would be if there were no alternatives to test out.

Whatever way the club chooses to go with a temporary starter, here's hoping that they don't feel pressure to rush the healing processes of either Peterson or Quintana. That Wilponian approach would just set them both back further and necessitate the substitutes being used quite a bit longer which won't fill anyone with confidence when two of your other starters are at or near the age 40 mark and the other two starters have also experienced some health issues in their careers.

Slow and steady wins the race (or so they say).