Saturday night in Atlanta, Jason Vargas took the mound for his second start of the season, and boy did he struggle. The lefty threw just 36 pitches and recorded only one out before being pulled in the bottom of the first.
In total, he allowed four runs on two hits while walking three. On the young season, Vargas is now 1-0 with a 14.21 ERA, 2.67 WHIP, and 6.96 FIP over two starts and one relief appearance.
Postgame, Mets manager Mickey Callaway told reporters including Anthony Dicomo of MLB.com that the Mets are considering skipping Vargas’ next start. Though Callaway did stop short of saying the team has imminent plans to replace the veteran lefty in the rotation.
However, Mike Puma of the New York Post notes that Callaway did go on to mention that if the team does ultimately decide to make a change in the final spot of the rotation, both relievers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman are certainly on the table as potential options.
Both righties have had their fair share of struggles out of the bullpen thus far, but have pitched better of late. Gsellman allowed a run last night, but prior to that he had tossed three consecutive scoreless outings. Over nine innings of work, he has a 4.00 ERA, twelve punch outs, and just one walk.
Lugo tossed a pair of scoreless innings in relief to close out the Mets 6-2 win over the Braves on Friday night. He lowered his ERA to 6.23, and has eleven strikeouts and a 3.84 FIP over 8.2 innings.
If this were the case, the Mets could bump one of the two relievers to the rotation, and look to potentially sign free agent closer Craig Kimbrel to fill help the void in what’s been an already very shaky Mets bullpen.
