Lots of good ML SPs started their career in a ML BP when first called up. It may be that Mejia eventually winds up in the BP but I’d like to see them give him every opportunity to make it as a starter first.

but as a starter he will get a better opportunity to work on his off-speed stuff.

As a reliever he will be able to throw harder which will give him the strikeouts he wont see as a starter. He will need to adjust to the new role and after a few months in AAA with a cameo in September and a full offseason, he should be ready to become the closer in waiting in NY…

Would much rather see him transition now, take what he learned for the last few months of this season into the offseason where by ST, he should be all set.

The Mets currently have two young starts in Dillon Gee (26) and Jon Niese (25) locked up and both are on pace for 200+ IP and 200+ SO. You then have RA Dickey who is not going anywhere and Johan Santana for this year and next. In the minor leagues you have Zach Wheeler and Matt Harvey that are considered better prospects and will both be in the NY Mets rotation, barring injury, 15 months from now.

The Mets made a decision based on their current situation that Mejia would be better suited to be groomed as their future setup man/closer (where the scouts believe he will wind up anyway) instead of a mid rotation starter…

I think he’s seen the big leagues and you can see players like him just get bored with the minors. I think if he was called up today to be in the pen, you’d see a different pitcher out of the Mets pen than what Bison fans are seeing.

1. No team makes it through a full season with only 5 starters.
2. Dickey’s phenomenal and I hope he keeps this up. he’s the surest thing.
3. Another year older and that shoulder worry me when it comes to Santana.
4. Gee and Niese are showing signs of growth and improvement, I hope it continues. But there’s no guarantee it will, or that someone else can’t pass them.
5. My point is I would’ve exhausted all possibilities in June-August, so Mejia gets SP innings and development time. To me, I’d trot out Hampson, Beato, heck even Acosta. I’d look at Edgin and maybe Cabrera too. All…before looking to Mejia in the pen.
6. I get that MLB wins matter and that 2013 rotation looks crowded, but no one ever has enough SP. The Braves are the perfect example. Coming into this year many believed they had 8-10 MLB options in the rotation. Injury, ineffectiveness, and baseball…has proved most of us wrong.

Think ahead to next year’s starting rotation is there any scenario aside from major loss to injury where Mejia is put into the rotation?

2013 projected starters are:

Santana
Dickey
Niese
Harvey
Gee or Pelfrey (if they give him Arbitration)

Add to that the possibility that Wheeler will be an option mid season and quite possibly Familia if he ever gets his crap and control together…

I agree somewhat that he has more value in trade as a starter than a reliever but considering how little Bullpen we have, How little good Bullpen is going to be avaliable and how little you might get in return on any trade for Mejia himself it makes sense that they are looking ahead to thier 2013 possibilities and preparing Mejia for a usefull role then where if the pitching improves even more than it is today will place us in a very dominating position next season.

Also, I don’t buy the well Texas did it so can we. Please Ogando has been yo-yoed and he’s injured. Feliz is a stud, but he’s been yo-yoed and is now on the injury bug. I thought the yo-yoing was supposed to stop. Promote Hampson (he’s earned it), or Beato (is he starting to get bored down there), or Cabrera, or any of the other RELIEVERS who’ve earned it. Develop your starting pitching, don’t sacrifice it to come and save the 6th inning.

You can’t have a guy going from the normal slow get ready proccess of a starter to the Hurry Up and get ready proccess of a Reliever!
You basically throw them off thier routine!

This should have been expected when they decided to put him in the pen!

And truth is some guy are just NOT SUITED for that hurry up and get ready routine no matter how used to doing it they are!

What the concern might be is if Mejia is unhappy about being made a reliever and not doing well in hopes they put him back as a starter…It’s happened with guys before! But they don’t realize that all they accompish there is being taken out of consideration for the MLB altogether…

Lets hope thats not the case here…

He will probably need a month to get into the reliever timeline, and truth is beato is probably the best first choice to come up anyway since what we need the most is middle relief (6th, 7th and 8th). Beato is probably better for that role.

I will point out that Beato exhibited some of the same problems I pointed out above when he was up here…
Some days he was on and others you could see he was off from the very first pitch.
Being able to prepare quickly is one of the hardest things a reliever must face and be able to do to be effective.
Which could explain why the guys we have been using so far seem to be better when they start an inning as opposed to having to get up quick and face runners on because the Starter got pulled quickly as opposed to having a half an inning of warnups while we are at the plate.

More time to prepare better performance when it comes time to pitch!