28
2012
Cash-Strapped Mets Will Unveil Wheeler In 2013, Just Not On Opening Day
An article by 
Wheeler made 25 starts and pitched 149 innings in 2012. He went 12-8 with a 3.26 ERA.
Aside from What many Mets fans believe, Zack Wheeler will not be in the starting rotation come opening day in 2013. The team is in no hurry to rush the youngster because we are not in prime position to win just yet. On Wednesday fellow MMO writers Mitch Petanick and Joe D. weighed in on why they believe he will arrive sooner than expected, I’m here to to tell you why that will not be the case.
The Mets are still reeling from their financial “crisis”, even though they are out of the woods in regards to the major money they were almost on the hook for. They still owe money, and still need to have a season where they make a profit and pay that money back before they can start spending like we were accustomed to seeing. Hopefully this time it will be spent in a much smarter way.
Now let’s get back to Wheeler. There are no doubts about Wheeler’s talent and skill set. The 22-year old phenom shot up the ranks this season. He started as MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo’s 35th overall prospect to start the 2012 season, but since Mayo revised his list last week, Wheeler has moved up to number six. Yes, top prospects such as Harper and Trout have moved off the list since making their MLB debuts, but jumping 30 spots to the fringe of the Top 5 really shows how good this kid is.
Wheeler’s 2012 numbers do warrant some serious consideration to leap frog Triple-A. He allowed just 115 hits over his 149 innings pitched and only allowed four home runs all year, while tossing two complete game shut outs. His walks, which were his Achilles heal, also took a nose dive. His BB/9 in 2010 was 4.1, followed by 3.6 in 2011, and dropped even further to 3.3 this season.
The driving force regarding the delay of Zack Wheeler’s MLB debut in 2013 will be strictly a financial decision. The Mets will look to avoid him gaining a 4th year of arbitration by avoiding a potential super two status.
Super Two status following the 2012 season will require two years and 134 days of MLB service time. MLB players have six years of service time before they become free agents, and generally the final three years all players become arbitration eligible.
However, if a player plays more than two years and 134 days over his first three seasons he becomes eligible for a 4th year of arbitration. In simple terms, the player gets four years of arbitration out of six, instead of the average three out of six.
This is typically why you see MLB teams delay the call-up of top prospects until June or July so that they avoid having to pay the extra year of arbitration.
The Mets did this with Harvey this season, and will look to do the same with Wheeler. In an interview on WFAN with Mike Francesa a few months ago, Alderson said that the both Harvey and Wheeler’s development was independent of need. Meaning that if a starter goes down they will not call-up Wheeler and rush him to fill a need. He will be called up when he is ready, end of story.
If the Mets bring up Wheeler at the start of the 2013 season his arbitration clock will start from that day. Wheeler’s numbers may warrant a possible competition for an opening day spot on the roster, but there is no reason to rush him. The Mets will wait, save some money, and give us something to look forward to as his long awaited Major League debut will come in late June or early July.
About the Author: Dan Valis
I am a staff writer for Mets Merized Online. I am a Mets team analyst with a focus on the minor league system, as well as the major league club. I am a lifelong New Yorker who was born and raised to be a Mets fan. The ups and downs of being a Mets fan is what makes following this team so much fun, but at times so frustrating. You can follow me on Twitter @BgAppleMetsTalk.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 41 | 28 | .594 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 34 | .500 | 6.5 |
| Phillies | 33 | 37 | .471 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 39 | .391 | 13.5 |
| Marlins | 21 | 47 | .309 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/16/2013
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I agree.. Good piece dan.We should not be in any hurry to bring him up, however, if he’s on fire in triple A and the SP is not good in the majors, how do you justify to the fans not bringing him up? I mean, after all, i think this is NY and we’ve been playing small market for too long already. If that’s the case, they will have no choice BUT to bring him up early June.. Unless the mets start as they did this year again, Wheeler will be with us early june imo…
“how do you justify to the fans not bringing him up?”
Simple: he’s not there yet. That is what Wheeler’s promotion should be about. Is he ready to pitch for the big club? Not: who do we send out tomorrow?
If Wheeler is at a point where there is nothing left to prove at AAA, then you look for a way to get him up.
But, if you need a pitcher because your starters are underperforming, you look elsewhere.
Harvey wasn’t there yet either. Alderson said so himself, and then five days later he was in Flushing. I think it was because of the fans. You probably could still find quotes from him on the web about that, he was specific in that he still needed to work on several areas. Also after that audition, the one that was televised, DePodesta also said pretty much the same thing, and yet a week later he was on the Mets. I remember there was a lot of talk about it by GKR during games saying that there was a lot of fan pressure to bring him up, and then just like that here he was. It was a nightly discussion about in ever game until he was promoted.
Harvey was further along than Wheeler is right now.
They also gave Harvey 2 more starts in which he did well. They probably figured whatever he did have to learn, the International League hitters weren’t going to teach it to him.
Nice try he went from not ready in an audition start to even worse in the next and then got called up!
Its not the flat numbers. How many times does this need to be stated?
They know what they are looking for from each prospect before they promote someone. We don’t. They may have just seen what they were looking for.
Donal, to be fair. it seems this guy have no idea how to evaluate players.. what metsie is stating is true. He shi*** on harvey and called him a not ready prospect, 2 weeks later he was dominating major league teams.. and we’ve seen their evaluation knowledge being put to the test by their acquisitions of eamus, hu, beato, ramirez and torres etc…
you’re all over the map.
Saying a prospect is not ready to be promoted is not starring on him. If you really think he has something more to prove, it is an honest statement. Harvey got 2 more starts and they changed their minds.
“and we’ve seen their evaluation knowledge being put to the test by their acquisitions of eamus, hu, beato, ramirez and torres etc…”
If you really think that these are apt comparisons, you aren’t ready for a conversation like this.
Do you know the difference between a prospect with the potential to be a 1/2 type pitcher vs a couple of journeyman fill ins and roll players? Because it is quite large.
He got bombed in his last start!!!!!! he allowed 6 runs, 7 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings!!!!!!!! Are you this stubborn and stupid!?!!? You meant to tell me him having no other option and the fans moaning and groaning about that POs hefner and batista getting spot starts had nothing to do with harvey’s promotion?? the season was quickly spiraling out of control and fans were tuning out, in comes harvey and it gives fans some sort of satisfaction.. Maybe HARVEY PROVED THEM WRONG too…
“He got bombed in his last start!!!!!! he allowed 6 runs, 7 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings!!!!!!!! ”
Why? What happened between his starts?
“You meant to tell me him having no other option and the fans moaning and groaning about that POs hefner and batista getting spot starts had nothing to do with harvey’s promotion??”
Aren’t you one of the ones who goes on about how arrogant and out of touch Alderson is? If that were true, why would care about the whining and moaning?
As for Hefner and Batista…yes, they had something to do with it. They proved there was room for him when he was ready.
” Maybe HARVEY PROVED THEM WRONG too…”
Perhaps he did. You just don’t know about what.
Aren’t you the one who claims Sandy is a good Evaluator and is smart to NEVER listen to the IGNORANT fans?
He won’t get it Alex because he refuses to live in the same reality the world operates.
I never said Harvey wasn’t ready his boy Sandy did! In fact I said Harvey SHOULD be brought up to replace Gee before Sandy came to that conclusion!
Point is if what Sandy saw in the audition was not enough to say he is ready what happened in that next “even worse” start to change Sandy’s mind?
We are supposed to believe this guy can evaluate and has a plan yet his plans never seem to last more than a week and his evaluations have been constantly wrong on almost everyone he has decided to give an opinion on!
they did not say he was not ready. They said he could get by at least, but they wanted to give him a little more time in the minors to address specific issues, since they could. The only thing that really changed was the situation (opening up the spot for him to stick in)
and what he gave up in his next AAA is pretty much irrelevant, especially if they had him doing certain things differently.
being eady is not just about #s, it is about how a guy is getting them, and projecting what he is doing to the big leagues.
otherwise, you should be championing guys like Hefner or Mchugh, that put up good numbers in AAA, to be in the rotation, right? after all, the #s were good, so he must be ready?
You guys are stepping right around the point at hand….
Sandy said one thing one week and then CHANGED HIS MIND!
How many times did that happen just this year alone?
circumstances changed. They adapted. common sense.
Way to respect Joe’s wishes Alex.
PERSONALLY I BELIEVE BOTH HARVEY & WHEELER WLL ULTIMATEY BE BROUGHT UP “WHEN READY” & “WHEN NEEDED” AS THE ‘SANTANA REPLACEMENT OPTION.
I BELIEVE IT’S ONLY PRUDENT TO PLAN & ANTICIPATE FOR ONLY A STRONG FIRST HALF FROM JOHAN, WHILE JUST AS HE FADES OUT, THE BRIGHTNESS OF HARVEY ILLUMINATED CITI’S SEATS IN 2012 SO WILL WHEELER SLIDE IN MAKING SANTANA’S FADE-OUT A STATISTICAL, NON SEASON CHANGING FOOTNOTE AS IT WAS NEARLY IMPERCEPTIBLE BY FANS THUIS SEASON.
I disagree…and just a side note, when a pitcher’s BB/9 drops, that is a good thing, not a “nosedive.” He is walking less batters now than he did two years ago, and has improved every year on this metric…why is that bad?
But it went up when he went to Triple A. Why rush him when that’s clearly a part of his game he’s still working on? Let him work on it in Triple A, and then sometime in midseason when he’s shown clear improvement, call him up.
This is certainly A reason why Wheeler will not be up on opening day, but just one of several.
“The team is in no hurry to rush the youngster because we are not in prime position to win just yet.”
Not really the message the team should want to be putting out there when they have two guys they need to sign who have made noise about the direction of the team before they will do so.
As for Harvey I have no issue with him starting in AAA to start the season. That should be the plan until he convinces them he is ready and I don’t think you can count looking ready in Spring Training as proof. Pitchers are always ahead of batters in ST.
But no matter when they decide to bring him up it’s all for naught if they don’t get the rest of the team ready to win once he gets here.
Most of the competitive eggs have been laid in Harvey’s basket and if this team sucks then it actually makes more sense to leave him down in AAA for the entire year and hope all that Bay and Santana money can buy him a team he can with with so his confidence isn’t shaken and he turns into another Pelfrey.
nonsense. So a bad club should never bring up a top prospect, because it might hurt their confidence? Really?
more like, every prospect has an adjustment to the majors (some bigger than others), but they need to get that out of the way as the final step of their development. So, perfect time in a season to bring him up to get his feet wet, and used tot he majors. So in a year or 2 when maybe the team is better, he is ready to produce.
Thats not what I said Stick but I see you are in full Sandy Defense mode today so I will explain….
If Wright and Dickey are gone there is no point in keeping Harvey and Wheeler at all!
All your going to do is wreck thier value! And in the proccess could wreck thier confidence and force them to try and do too much to be a winner that can’t make up for the lack of team and ruin them altogether….
SO truth is if we are not going to win and we don’t keep Wright and Dickey might as well trade Harvey and Wheeler too which means no sense in promoting Wheeler next year just leave him where he can put up gaudy numbers so you can trade him for more stuff!
If they are not going to have a winning team then better to leave him down where his value won’t go down as much as it will in the MLB.
This is, quite possibly, one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read on the internet. If Wright and Dickey were to leave, that would put us in full-throttle rebuilding mode like the Astros are in. When you’re in that mode, it generally isn’t very wise to surrender your top prospects. You keep them and hope that they’re part of the turnaround. Honestly, this needs to be explained to you?
Hahaha!
“If Wright and Dickey are gone there is no point in keeping Harvey and Wheeler at all!”
Could anything sillier even be conceived?
If you trade Wright AND Dickey, you may get 3–4 top prospects, and you BUILD around them and then the hopeful future anchors of a potentially great staff in Harvey/Wheeler/Niese.
This place is the number 1 source for aggressive baseball ignorance in the universe.
I visit 1-2 times a month, and it never fails!
Ok to both of you…
Did you get 2 or 3 Prospects for Reyes Beltran and K-Rod combined?
Where were you when people wanted to trade Davis and suggested Murphy?
WHy would Harvey and Wheeler be any different?
Will we win with them more if Wright Dickey and Davis is gone?
Or will the same excuse you guys use to trade Wright Dickey and Davis apply!
We never won with them so why not trade them?
Who in the hell suggested trading any of those guys? You’re putting words in our mouths to support your ridiculously stupid argument. It’s quite simple, but I’ll try to break it down so that you can understand it: were Wright and Dickey to leave, the Mets would be bad. Really bad. Bottom five teams in the league bad. The hope would be that in a few years, they would be better. Therefore, you’d want to keep good prospects like Harvey and Wheeler, so that they’ll be around and in their prime when the team would be in a position to win. Do you understand it now? Do ya? Or do I need to make things even more simple for you?
Read articles here over the last month…
Read the story about Ike staying out late and is uncoachable therefore tradeable…
You don’t live under a rock do you?
Yes, I’m aware that the idea has been brought up, but you implied that I had said I supported them when I never even hinted that.
You seemed to be fine with Tradng Dickey and Wright though…
Add 4 years to harvey and Wheeler dealing with the losing and whats the next logical step in this REBUILD!
Same story as used to get rid of Dickey and Wright!
Cause the rebuilders are ALWAYS about 4 years from now and to hell with everything in between!
No, I do not want them to get rid of either. This is a hypothetical situation about what to do with Harvey and Wheeler in the event that they did leave. And again (I seriously cannot believe I’m explaining this to you again), the hope would be that Harvey and Wheeler would still be here when the team becomes good again, and that they would be a part of that.
Well Superhero if they leave then there is no reason to keep the pitchers either!
Whoever you get for Wright and Dickey are 3-4 years away
MAY but no guarantees (and odds say you NEVER get more than you gave in kids.)
Harvey and Wheeler will no longer be prospects will they? They will be like the Ikes people have talked about trading…
It’s an endless cycle!
You rebuild when you have NO ONE not now and not three years from now either.
Thats not the situation here! We have two pitchers about to start thier career and you seem ok with getting rid of the guys who could make them winners…
Imagine trading Keith Hernandez the year Gooden and Darling came up…
Pretty much what you guys are proposing in this hypothetical isn’t it?
Bottomline is if we were going to rebuild it should have been done last season.
Too late now even if Sandy sells off the best guys we have he will never live to see the end of it play out!
And with no stars to play everyday Harvey and Wheeler will be traded to “FILL ALL THOSE HOLES” everyone says exist but didn’t until we traded away our Closer our CF out RF and soon to be our 3B Ace and maybe even 1B!
…I honestly don’t know what to say. You’re not comprehending what I’m saying at all. That’s it. I give up. Your stupidity wins. Congratulations.
Well first you replied to me and called me stupid…
Second YOUR the one who isn’t getting what I’m saying…
You say you don’t want to get rid of guys but then say you want to get rid of Wright and Dickey
I suggest you go back to Mets Blog and when you get yourself all sorted out and can have a clear point come back and we will talk…
But I don;t HAVE to get what your saying!
You replied to me dumbass!
Holy crap dude, how many times do I have to say that I don’t want to get rid of Wright and Dickey before it gets through to your tiny little brain? But no, clearly I’M the dumbass…
Nice explanation of the super 2.