The New York Mets are just 5-5 over the last 10 games, entering Tuesday’s action, but a 17-9 mark in April has them atop the National League East. Of those 26 potential starts, 25 have been made by the finally healthy together quintet of Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler. The lone remaining start was made just last weekend by left-hander Jason Vargas, who was making his season debut after suffering a hand injury late in spring training.
With Syndergaard starting Tuesday night, it’s now 26 of 27 starts made by who the Mets have long-expected to have as their primary starters, but have rarely had available all at once.
Upon the news of Vargas’ looming return to action, there was going to be an odd-man out in the Mets’ starting rotation. Wheeler was easy to point to as the guy on his way to the bullpen (or Triple-A?), particularly with how he initially reacted to Vargas’ signing when it happened. But Wheeler has pitched well enough (4.09 ERA, 8.6 K/9, 21:8 K/BB ratio over 22 innings) to stay in the rotation, and Harvey wound up being demoted to the bullpen after posting a nice round 6.00 ERA over four starts.
Matz got knocked around a bit in his last outing, allowing seven runs (three earned) on five hits to the St. Louis Cardinals over 3.1 innings, and he has not lasted more than 5.1 innings in any of his five starts thus far. But Calloway remained committed to keeping the young left-hander in the starting rotation. Then it was reported on Sunday that Matz is dealing with some back stiffness, perhaps not coincidentally on the heels of his last outing, and Syndergaard was bumped up to start in his place Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves. Matz may have been due for a skipped start anyway, now that Vargas is in the mix, but he is still scheduled to start this weekend at home against the Colorado Rockies.
Callaway: Matz was “tender” yesterday and won’t be available out of the bullpen today (which had been a possibility). He’s still scheduled to start Saturday.
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) May 1, 2018
As could have been expected, Vargas showed he has some kinks to work through in his season debut last Saturday against the San Diego Padres. Just 55 of his 84 pitches went for strikes (65.5 percent), as he allowed nine runs on nine hits (two home runs) over 3.2 innings. But this is a guy that won 18 games for the Kansas City Royals last year, and has four seasons with at least 187 innings pitched (two seasons over 200 innings) on his resume. Vargas is not an ace, but he doesn’t have to be anything close to that as long as Syndergaard and deGrom are healthy and pitching to their ability.
If Vargas can take the ball another 25 times or so reliably over the rest of the season, and deliver solid outings in the majority of those, he’ll deliver value for the $8 million he’s making this year and the Mets will be happy. In an otherwise right-hander heavy starting rotation, Vargas can bring some southpaw balance too.
The common refrain in baseball, and it can’t even be labeled as a cliché, is you can never have enough pitching. Injuries haven’t been the issue for the Mets this year, knock on wood through the first month, but even with better health, some extra depth is already proving to be helpful.
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