Mets pitching prospect Steven Matz was his usual electrifying self again on Thursday night allowing just one first inning run and then shutting down the Reno Aces the rest away while striking out 12 batters in seven innings in the process.
Matz toyed with the Aces using his 95 MPH fastball for nine of his dozen punchouts. In his previous start, the Mets lefty took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against this same Reno squad. He owns them. Actually Matz owns the entire Pacific Coast League.
In five starts this season, Matz has tossed 29.1 innings while flashing an incredible 1.84 ERA and 1.09 WHIP while holding PCL hitters to a .184 batting average.
It’s becoming very apparent that Matz is ready for the challenge of pitching in the major leagues and that he has nothing left to prove in Triple-A.
Sandy Alderson said on Thursday that in the event the Mets need another spot starter from the minors, the team could turn to Matz or right!hander Noah Syndergaard.
However, unless the front office is concerned with the Super 2 cutoff in mid-June, I really believe they need to act real soon and get Matz into the rotation as soon as they can.
All Spring long, both Sandy Alderson and even manager Terry Collins kept saying that this season was going to be about “the best 25.” I would argue that Matz right now is better than either Dillon Gee or Jon Niese.
Don’t get me wrong, I like both Niese and Gee, and in no way am I suggesting giving either of them away.
But with starting pitchers going down all over baseball like some sort of bubonic plague, Alderson should ramp up efforts to create a spot for Matz who is as MLB-ready as any other player in minor league baseball.
I believe that a rotation fronted by a top three of Harvey, deGrom and Matz would be something special and only enhance our chances of winning a postseason spot.
With Colon anchoring the number four spot and one of Gee or Niese in the fifth, the Mets might have one of the top three rotations in the NL if not all of baseball.
However as long as we keep sitting on Gee and Niese, Matz will continue tossing gems in Las Vegas instead of Flushing.
We don’t need Matz for a spot start in June, we need him pitching every fifth day behind Harvey and deGrom.
