With the MLB regular season starting in a week, the Mets finalized their starting rotation. Along with Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Sean Manaea and Adrian Houser, the Mets named Tylor Megill as the final piece in their current rotation.
Megill is certainly no stranger to Mets fans. He has been in the majors since 2021 and has had some moments on the mound.
While he’s also gone through some rough patches, Megill’s solid moments have shown what kind of pitcher he can be.
At the start of 2022 with ace Jacob deGrom sidelined with injury, Megill was placed in the rotation. He started Opening Day and shut out the Washington Nationals through 5 innings. He had a strong April and was a big reason for the Mets fast start that year. In five April starts, Megill threw shutouts in 3 of them. Along with the Opening Day shutout, he also started the Mets combined no hitter on April 29 vs the Philadelphia Phillies and threw 5 shutout innings.
Megill suffered a right biceps injury in May and was never the same in that 2022 season.
The following year in 2023, Megill had an up and down stretch and was sent to the minor leagues in July. He was brought back in August and finished that season strong. In his last six starts, Megill finished with a 2.45 ERA, showing some of the form in in his strong start a year ago.
Megill has been sharp overall this spring and finished with a 3.45 ERA in 15.2 innings. If not for a rough outing in his last start, Megill’s ERA would’ve been much lower.
Despite Megill’s inconsistent career so far in the majors, when he’s on, he’s shown some ace-like quality starts, like his outings in April 2022, filling in for deGrom. And his overall stuff can propel him to future dominance as a starting pitcher.
Megill has always thrown a hard fastball in the upper 90s. This spring, his fastball topped out at 97 mph. Along with that, Megill has been developing a splitter or split changeup, which can make him even more unhittable and unpredictable. He started developing that pitch. By using a similar grip to Kodai Senga’s ghost forkball pitch, which dominated hitters last season. He has tried using his splitter pitch in his Spring Training starts and we have seen some of his dominant potential.
So along with his upper 90s fastball, developed splitter as well as some of his other secondary pitches, Megill certainly has the stuff to be a very good pitcher. At his best with his stuff, Megill certainly can reach ace-like status. He already has strikeout potential with his fastball. If he can lower his walks and go deeper into games, the pieces are there for him to be in the Mets rotation long term.
Mets fans have seen Megill at his best at the start of 2022 and the end of 2023, along with his strong Spring Training this year. With his improved stuff and perhaps better mechanics, don’t be surprised if Megill is a future No. 1 starter in the rotation, and he’s only 28 years old as well.
Wish you were right David; but I’m a bit more of a pessimist, so I doubt it.
I will say that all of the Mets starters have something to prove in 2024. In a rosy world view scenario, Severino will be an ace again (and he’ll depart afterwards), Quintana will be solid (and he’ll depart afterwards), Manaea becomes the steal of the year (pitching staff wise), Senga will return as good as new in May, and Houser/Butto will be excellent depth pieces and replacement plug ins when injuries strike.
Aahhh…….Wish it was so!
Megill will break down after 8-10 starts.
A future #1 starter? Doubtful. I like Megill but he’s a #3 at best. This is an important year for him to put up or shut up. The Mets do not have an ace on this staff and that will come back to haunt them. I’d like them to make a two year offer to Montgomery who also isn’t an ace but a lot closer to being one. If Senga come back sooner than later, they will have their ace and some very interesting pieces, all of whom are playing for their next big contract. Kudos to Cohen for not getting trapped in the overpriced multi year free agent signing game as they retool for next year’s free agent class. And for signing Martinez when our other DH candidates stunk up spring training.
This was an optimistic article. I don’t think a pitcher with a career ERA 4.72 will be a future ace. There were 2 months of 12 that is was pitching good. That is inconsistency. Megill should hope that he might be a future rotation place when Senga is healthy. That is the ceiling of expectations for Megill based on the past.
Perhaps Mr. Hong knows something we don’t.
This reminds me of a few years back, when I commented that it was hard to imagine why Amed Rosario has such an enormous alleged upside that he should remain a starter, year after year, despite mediocre numbers.
Brian pointed out that Amed was considered the #1 prospect in baseball at one point.
I remarked that it was hard to believe, but not that I thought Brian was lying or hallucinating.
It was merely hard to believe.
Regardless, Brian pointed out the article where Amed was so highly rated
Regardless, it was still hard to believe
So, my question is: Did anyone and/or organization ever think very highly of Megill?
Heading into the 2021 season, the one he ended up making his MLB debut, Megill ranked 23rd on MLB Pipeline’s Mets prospect list. Butto ranked 17th
https://www.mlb.com/prospects/2021/mets/
Wow, and I thought I drank most of the Kool-Aid…. David, I hope McGill is a Montgomery type, solid 2-3 type starter. An ace has four pitches that he has mastered and keeps hitters off balance (Verlander, Scherzer, Burnes, DeGrom), but McGill doesn’t have that.