Like it or not, Jenrry Mejia may be ticketed for the bullpen after all.
Reports are surfacing that the New York Mets are strongly considering the idea of promoting either Rafael Montero and/or Jacob deGrom and using one of them in the rotation while pushing Mejia to the bullpen and possibly grooming him to be the closer. Then again, maybe Montero or deGrom will be used in the bullpen.
At this moment, it’s a very fluid situation and it’s mostly just speculation about who goes where and when. Make no mistake, though, help is probably on the way.
Maybe Mejia belongs in the closer role. He has been sensational to start games, as the first two times through an order he is masterful. It’s when he gets his pitch count up and deep into games that he breaks down-almost predictably.
Sure, Mejia wasn’t a hit in the bullpen when he first went there in 2010, but that was a foolish plan from the start. For a guy who has been around the block for a few years, maybe this is where Mejia finds his stride.
On the other hand, perhaps it’s still a little too early to dictate if he should head to the bullpen. However, if his late-inning troubles persists, the Mets will be left with little choice. Safe to say, he is skating on this ice.
With the Mets having a deep crop of steady pitching especially with Montero, deGrom and Syndergaard only a call away, perhaps it’s time to kill two birds with one stone and call up either Montero (who is more likely to get the call if they need a new rotation member) or deGrom. This way you still put an elite arm in the rotation and upgrade a huge weakness (fortifying the bullpen) in the process.
With such a deep and talented stable of arms (especially young and tantalizing ones), what exactly do you do? If proponents of Mejia want to keep him in the rotation, what do you decide to do with Las Vegas arms? Because, it’s sounding as if they’re ready and why delay it any longer?
I suppose keeping Mejia in the rotation and having him overcome his struggles could up his trade value, so there is some logic there. Even if the Mets do move Mejia to the bullpen, and call up Montero and put him in the rotation, they still basically have (including Daisuke Matsuzaka) eight pitchers that could be part of this year’s staff and 10 (when you include Matt Harvey and Jeremy Hefner) for next year.
With that glut of pitching, you almost certainly have to be thinking trade at some point.
In the meantime, though, this is move that just may have to happen out of necessity.
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I have been an advocate of Mejia starting but I always thought that his innings cap for the season was around 140. Well, yesterday Ricco said it was in the low 100’s. If that is the thinking then the sooner the transition the better.
The Mets are 16-17 and Wright said they need to stop the slide now, not have it turn into weeks like in past years.
The Mets promoted Flores today but why stop there? Mejia to the bullpen, deGrom up and to the bullpen, Montero up and into the rotation and Rice demoted or DL and force TC to manage without a lefty. Do this now and send the message to the team and fans that the Mets are not going to tolerate losing and are going to be proactive in trying to win. It is a better message than the True New Yorker Memo !!
None of these sound bad, but all of them worry me. I’d love for Mejia to figure things out as a starter, but facts are that we have too many guys in line for 5 spots. A trade of someone is coming, and the most likely candidate of the MLB squad is Mejia. I rather it was Colon, but nobody wanted him at $20 million, so the Mets would have to either pay a ton of that, or get virtually nobody in return.
If we are concerned with Mejia’s late inning “struggles” then I guess Wheeler is a lock to go to the bullpen.
Seriously, though, it’s 2 freaking games. Against the 2 highest scoring offenses.
He was fine 3rd time thru the first 4 starts and the 5 starts last season. (combined line of 13-45 10k,4bb)
Whatever Met personnel (was it Terry?) who started this rumor that Mejia “struggles” late in the game is just stupid and is making a baseless accusation.
Let him go into long relief…Colon has looked terrible at times so he would have plenty off opportunities to redeem himself.