New York Mets pitching coach Dave Eiland was on the teams Facebook account answering fan questions alongside bench coach Gary DiSarcina and hitting coach Pat Roessler with Howie Rose as the host.
One of the questions that was asked by a fan was if the Mets would be implementing a six-man rotation in 2018 and Eiland answered, “I hope not, it’s not something we’ve talked about internally.”
“You never say never, we will see how it goes. Our goal is to have five healthy starters. We haven’t talked about doing it, doesn’t mean we won’t at some point if need be.”
The Mets currently have just Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Jason Vargas as the locks to anchor the rotation. Then you have the group of Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler as the likely guys battling for the last two spots.
Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo and Rafael Montero are the final three candidates that are more likely to find themselves in the bullpen or in the case of Gsellman and Lugo it could be Triple-A.
A few weeks ago Mets manager Mickey Callaway said there was a chance they would use a six-man rotation.
“We may go to a six-man rotation at some point to give guys a break when we can. I pitched over in Asia, and when you start pitching every sixth day, it is a hundred times easier. It really is. I think we have enough depth to make those adjustments.”
Callaway then said, after the signing of Vargas, that it was unlikely that they would use a six-man rotation in 2018.
