Terry Collins told reporters that Dillon Gee or Bartolo Colon will get the ball on Opening Day if Jon Niese isn’t ready to go.
Niese made his first start of the spring today against the Cardinals and got roughed up for four runs in his two innings of work.
Niese said his shoulder felt good, but there was some concern with his velocity after registering 79 mph with his fastball during the first inning. He looked better during his second inning, but wasn’t where he needed to be.
“I looked up. I hit 89 miles per hour,” Niese said. “I don’t know if that’s down, for the first outing. It took a little while for me to get going, get back into the competition. But I felt good. I kind of started off slow and was able to gradually build up.”
Adam Rubin writes that if Niese cannot use his next three Grapefruit League starts to convince the Mets he can give them a credible performance on Opening Day against the Washington Nationals, Collins would turn to Colon or Gee for the March 31 assignment at Citi Field.
I’m sure Niese will be okay, but I’m shocked that Collins didn’t mention Zack Wheeler who has looked strong this Spring and has strung together eight scoreless innings.
Youth is but a curse for a Mets player these days… Let’s go with the pitchers who have the 5.40 ERAs and just ignore the kid with the 0.00 ERA who is part of our future core…
