Your intrepid columnist has been watching the pair of League Championship Series pretty closely. Both are terrifically riveting sets of games – as of this writing BOS/DET is knotted at 2, LA/STL sees the Cards up 3-2 – and both Series have proven the hoary point that “pitching wins pennants.” The roll call is pretty intimidating: Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Adam Wainwright, Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, Zack Greinke, Clay Buchholz, Michael Wacha, Anibal Sanchez… The names read like four squads of All-Stars.
The Mets are trying to drive the same road as these. They are stockpiling pitching talent in its raw form; after all, the guys mentioned above were rookies once, too, you know – some still are! Step one, of course, was the drafting and maturation of Matt Harvey. Then came the acquisition of Zack Wheeler, with Noah Syndergaard soon to follow. Meanwhile several promising arms started to bubble below the surface of those big names: Jacob deGrom, Jenrry Mejia, Rafael Montero, Jeurys Familia, etc. These pitchers are the foundation of the rebirth of the Mets’ farm system and who we as fans look towards to delivering a brighter-than-bright future. These pitchers were the basis of pinning our hopes to the magic year 2014.
But Harvey got hurt.
Since Harvey’s decision to have Tommy John surgery effectively eliminates his 2014 season, the fan base, the media and some parts of the front office have been wringing their hands and mopping their brows with worry over how to replace Harvey’s production. Scribes and scouts alike have been poring over free agent lists to see who would be available and up to that task. Names like Bronson Arroyo and Josh Johnson have been bandied about, as well as possible return appearances from Daisuke Matsuzaka and Aaron Harang. For a variety of reasons – Arroyo’s age, Johnson’s injury history, etc. – none of these options seem particularly appealing from this vantage point and raises the question, “Why do they need to go outside the organization?”
Why, indeed? From over here, it looks like the Mets have enough within the system to take up the slack Matt Harvey’s absence creates. As it stands right now, the top three starters at Citi Field for 2014 will be Jonathon Niese, Dillon Gee and Wheeler. Odds are that one of Carlos Torres or Jeremy Hefner returns to takes the number four spot. That leaves the fifth slot open for Mejia, Montero, Syndergaard or deGrom. Why not throw open the competition – six guys for two spots — from day one of Spring Training? Six weeks is plenty long enough to see what you have on hand. All these pitchers are team controlled for the next number of years and cost-effective for 2014, at least. The savings would allow Sandy Alderson to splurge on some power bats in the outfield as well as a legitimate shortstop without breaking the Wilpons’ meager bank.
How can the Mets replace Matt Harvey? The simple answer, of course, is that they can’t. But if these kids can prove themselves legitimate Major Leaguers, think of the wealth of arms when Harvey returns.
Hoo-boy!
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Don’t bring in expensive outside pitching. Play the prospects already in the system. The Cards are doing well with a young staff.
Ummm, Hefner is out for 2014. Syndeergard and Montero will not start the year in the majors in order to gain an extra year of team control.
That leaves Torres, Meija and deGrom as the only real possibilities for 2 spots with all 3 being big wild cards.
Considering the regular season is won by consistent SP, your chances are not good if you have 2 unknowns in your rotation from day 1.
Is that confirmed about Hefner?
He had TJ surgery in late August.
From Adam Rubin:
Jeremy Hefner offered this update on his Aug. 28 Tommy John surgery. Hefner is expected to miss most, if not all, of 2014.
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/category/_/name/jeremy-hefner
All surgeries are different. Chad Billingsley had his TJ surgery in late April and is on track for the start of Spring Training – which is quicker than the 12-month time frame that you normally hear.
Gotcha. I hadn’t heard that.
Yes, Hefner had TJ surgery and is also out for 2014.
Do the Mets pick up a pitcher from the scrap heap in mid season after the kids reach their innings limit? Or could they sign someone being released before the trading deadline.
The Mets only need to keep a minor league pitcher off the major league roster for 20 days (4 starts) in order to gain one full year of free agency. Torres or a NRI could fill that role. If the Mets decide to keep major league ready players off the roster to avoid Super 2 status then that only makes sense if it is deemed by the front office as a “rebuilding” year. Eventually,IMHO, if you are going to compete, then Super 2 status should have no bearing on the thinking.
Niese, Gee, Wheeler and Mejia should be a lock. Montero, deGrom, Gorski, Mazzoni and Syndergaard can compete for the fifth spot and the winner can come up in late April. Spend the money on the offense.
I don’t think it is worth it to hand out a 3 yr deal to someone like Arroyo at $10-11 mm per when we can bring back Harang and Dice-K fr a fraction of that and let them duel it out for the #5 spot along with whatever other bargain vet he can find. In a perfect world, Mejia steps up an takes the #4 slot and then you just have to hang on for a couple months till Montero, DeGrom and Syndergaard are ready. I’d rather he allocate the money towards hitting, particularly with Harvey and Hefner due to return in 2015. Don’t forget Cory Mazzoni as well who might be ready by mid-season. Where we’d be in trouble is if there are more injuries, which is undoubtedly likely to happen, but I’d rather make due with bargain bin veterans than spending huge on a veteran who will take up a rotation spot for multiple years at the expense of buying offense when we have all these young pitchers on the horizon.
Mazonni is the wrong AA arm to look at. Take a peak at Gorski.
The Mets WILL sign two pitchers. It’s almost a given that they will get an innings eater and either a scrap heap bargain or a risk/reward pitcher. By June when Montero and Syndergaard start to factor as call-ups there will be room for them.
David is correct Sandy will sign a pitcher for the starting rotation but the one name I have not seen mentioned is Scott Kazmir? He pitched well at times last year and he is a lefty and
it would nice to have two lefty’s starting and he won’t cost anywhere as much as Arroyo! When
he pitched against the mets this year Howie Rose raved about him the whole game and couldn’t believe how well he was pitching with a fast ball that hit 95 mph most of the time and he had
really good off speed pitches as well! Pick up the option on Harang and invite him and dice k
to spring training and along with Mejia(who did not have TJ surgery so he should be ready)and
let them all compete for the remaining spots in the starting rotation!
The Mets will probably have to move some of these arms to get some hitting to in a few months this list or topic can be totally different.
Plus there will be innings caps on the newbies. We will need to sign someone(s) to eat the innings.
Aaron Harang and Dice K should be the guys signed, then let Mejia, Torres and Gorski compete with them for those last two spots in the rotation.
I say sign at least one scrap-heap pitcher to a very cheap one-year deal and then fall back on the young guys.