Roundtable: Who should be the Mets’ fifth starter?

Recently, I asked my friends in the blogosphere the following question:

If the decision was entirely yours on who would be the 5th starter to open the season, who would you pick and why?

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Jason Fry – Still rues his decision to get Anne Murray painted on his denim jacket in 1979
Jenrry Mejia. See, I believe the children are our future, and we should teach them well and let them lead the way, starting by showing them all the beauty they possess inside … oh wait, those are the lyrics to a Whitney Houston song. Well, this is awkward. No, it’s still Mejia. He’s got a great arm, he’s had some success as a starter, and I’d rather watch some kid try to figure it out than ponder the mysteries of Veteran Leadership (TM). Plus the Mets did Mejia wrong by letting Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya screw him up as they tried to save their skins. They owe him one. So give him the ball every fifth day, which isn’t even every fifth day till May or so. If he’s great, flip him as part of a deal for a bat, or just enjoy. If he’s not great, try him as a reliever, send him down to Vegas for another go-round, or flip him for a lottery ticket.

Howard Megdal – Thinks LeBron James made the worst decision of all time
Jenrry Mejia. This team needs his upside, and you can stow Dice-K at Triple-A and Lannan in the bullpen for a while.

Mack Ade – Wishes he decided to take the blue pill rather than the red one
I’ve always been a ‘youth first’ guy, and I’m not a big fan of TC surrounding himself with pitchers with great pasts but questionable futures.

I have no problem with Lannan in the pen but Dice K and Valverde represent a period of this game that has past them by.

For me, the pecking order begins with Jenrry Mejia and, if he was to falter after 5-6 outings, I would first promote Rafael Montero and then Noah Syndergaard.

The ‘super two’ theory makes no sense to me. I thought Super Two meant Seaver and Koosman.

John Coppinger – Firmly believes that once you make a decision the universe conspires to make it happen
Christy Mathewson.

Well if decision were, in fact, entirely mine, I’d crack the secret of time travel, go back to 1908 and tell Mathewson “look, I read up. You’re not beating the Cubs. So come with me and help out for a year while Matt Harvey recovers from Tommy John surgery.” He’ll inevitably ask me who Matt Harvey is … along with asking me who Tommy John is. And why the Giants are in San Francisco. And if there’s still gold in California. But there’s no time to explain. Because Daisuke Matsuzaka is getting warm in the bullpen, and we have to get to Port St. Lucie before Brian Cashman appears with a contract for a bazillion dollars. And I think I just saw Bill Preston and Ted Logan fly by with Charles Comiskey, so we’ve gotta move fast.

(Seriously, if I have to sit through a Daisuke Matsuzaka start every fifth day in 2014 I’m going to be forced to stab myself with hot pokers until I don’t feel pain anymore. So please, Jenrry Mejia, win this job.)

Jon Springer – Thinks if he chooses not to decide he has still yet to make a choice
There’s a lot of energy expended on these kinds of decisions every year, and every year, for one reason or another, they turn out to be not nearly as momentous as they initially seem. What will happen is, someone will get hurt, or there will be a rainout that alters the rotation, or there’s a trade for a shortstop, and we’ll hardly notice it before the 6th, 7th or 8th guys in the initial pecking order have ascended to the regular rotation, at least for a little while, and what order they arrive in will be largely irrelevant in the end. With that out of the way, if we’re assuming that Wheeler, Niese, Colon and Gee are there for the first four starts, I probably go with Matsuzaka sooner than Mejia for the fifth one, if only because there are seemingly fewer questions about Matsuzaka’s health and readiness (this also assumes their respective performances in spring training are comparable). I’d certainly have Dice-K on a shorter leash than the other 4. In the bigger picture it’s nice to be debating which of the 5th starters are better, especially when you’ve got some options if and when *they* don’t work out. As Yogi Berra famously remarked, “you can’t have enough pitching until it’s over, so when there’s a fork in the road, take it.”

Michael Geus – Constantly regrets his decision to say hello to JP
I have to quantify my response. Using the assumption that I have power over this decision and nothing else I would pick Meija. The reasons are obvious enough. But if I was making decisions overall it could be Syndergaard or Montero. Because I would never work as a baseball man in the New York market and make my decisions based on expense management 101. That’s not a knock on Alderson, I’m sure his hands are tied. What I wanted to point out here is that the mess that is the Wilpons affects every decision.

Chris Walendin – Baffled by the decision not to fight when 54-40 wasn’t achieved
Jenrry Mejia should be the Mets’ 5th starter and it isn’t particularly close. First off, he’s got more stuff than Matsuzaka or Lannan. Secondly, giving him first crack preserves your depth, since he can be sent down if he struggles a few weeks in. Lannan and Matsuzaka can only be sent down prior to the start of the season. And on top of that, Mejia’s under team control for four more seasons after 2014, while the others are free agents. Mejia is the only one of the trio who could factor into the Mets’ future. Yes, his injury history is a giant bright neon red flag. It’s a legitimate concern. But if he breaks apart again or approaches some internal “innings limit”, well, you cross that bridge when you come to it. So long as he’s healthy, which he appears to be, Mejia’s the clear pick in my eyes.

Or you could give the job to one of the “known quantities” that couldn’t find a big league contract as a FA this winter. Y’know, whatever.

*****

The vast majority of us want Mejia as the fifth starter. Isn’t it just a tiny bit surprising that the decision makers are bending over backwards to make sure that doesn’t happen? It almost feels like Rafael Montero has a better chance of being the guy than Mejia. It’s just so … curious.

*****

Thanks to Jason, Howard, Mack, John, Jon, Michael and Chris for participating!