Jordan Yamamoto Deserves Another Starting Opportunity

Just over a month and a half into the 2021 campaign, almost every organization across the major leagues has experienced an outbreak of injuries and that’s something the New York Mets have been plagued by as of late, as they currently have 12 total players on the injured list.

Players on that list include Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco, Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto, Luis Guillorme, Dellin Betances, Seth Lugo, J.D. Davis, Albert Almora, Jose Martinez and Brandon Nimmo. Safe to say, that’s a fairly talented group of injured major leaguers.

Most recently, pitcher Taijuan Walker was forced to leave Monday’s game after just three innings due to left side tightness. Making matters worse, manager Luis Rojas revealed this is an injury Walker has been dealing with over his last few starts, although the team is hopeful he’ll be able to battle through this discomfort and avoid being placed on the IL.

While the Mets are optimistic the 28-year-old won’t miss any time, he’s experienced a major decline in velocity recently, which has seen his sinker’s average velocity drop down from 94.0 mph at the start of the season to just 91.8 mph during his latest start.

In addition, the 6′ 4″ hurler’s fastball has also taken a significant hit and has slowed down from 95.4 mph to 93.2 mph.

Along with this concerning development regarding Walker’s velocity, he’s also been playing it safe in the batter’s box and hasn’t swung at any pitches over his last handful of plate appearances. Combining all these factors, placing the right-hander on the 10-day IL might be the best route to take moving forward, especially if missing a few starts will help him completely rectify this injury.

But considering the former Seattle Mariner currently owns the seventh-lowest AVG (.162), is tied for the 10th-highest fWAR rating (1.3), tied for the 10th-best ERA (2.05) and is tied for the 14th-best FIP (2.85) among all qualified starting pitchers, according to FanGraphs.com, losing him would leave a massive hole within the Mets’ starting rotation.

If Walker indeed requires an IL stint, there aren’t many available arms this team will be able to call upon to fill in as his replacement, as Jordan Yamamoto and Thomas Szapucki are the only healthy starting pitchers currently on the 40-man roster.

Due to a lack of healthy bodies, one of these two hurlers will likely earn a promotion to the majors if an open spot becomes available.

After spending the first month of the season at the club’s alternate training site in Brooklyn, Yamamoto was recalled to serve as the 27th player during a doubleheader on May 5th. Though the right-hander came out of the bullpen during the second inning, he pitched respectably over his 2 2/3 innings of work, allowing just four hits, one run and also struck out one of the 12 batters he faced.

While Yamamoto probably deserved another outing in the majors at the time, he was assigned to Triple-A Syracuse following this relief appearance and has continued working on his craft ever since then. Making a pair of starts in the minors, the former 12th-round pick has only compiled 7 2/3 innings, but is coming off an impressive outing against the Worcester Red Sox.

Following his first minor league start of 2021, where he surrendered four hits, three runs and two walks, without making it out of the fourth inning, Yamamoto bounced back in his second start last Friday.

Showcasing his ability to generate plenty of swings and misses, the young righty recorded a season-high eight strikeouts, with five of them occurring in the first two innings. Yamamoto allowed four hits, three walks and one earned run in his 4 1/3 innings pitched.

Even though Yamamoto has struggled with his command at times this season, resulting in five walks and one wild pitch, he’s already proven he can provide some length in the majors and is capable of striking out a solid number of batters as well. Given that he also owns nearly 100.0 innings of experience in the major leagues, it seems he’d be the ideal candidate to serve as an injury replacement for Walker.

As for his competition, Szapucki has yet to make his major league debut and is coming off a rough outing against those same Red Sox, as he experienced his worst start of the 2021 campaign. Despite throwing 5 1/3 innings, the 24-year-old allowed seven hits, five runs (4 ER), one home run and one walk, earning him his first loss of the season.

In total, the former fifth-round selection has surrendered 11 hits, four earned runs, four walks, one home run and a wild pitch over nine innings at Triple-A Syracuse in 2021. Having said that, the left-hander has also struck out 10 of the 39 hitters he’s faced during that same span, resulting in a 25.6% strikeout rate.

While Szapucki still needs to correct a few things in the minors, particularly focusing on reducing the amount of contact and free passes he allows, his outstanding ability to induce a high number of whiffs is something that could earn him a promotion to the majors before the regular season concludes.

Considering Yamamoto hasn’t thrown beyond the fifth inning so far this season, it’d make plenty of sense to use an opener in front of the young hurler or piggyback him with someone like Sean Reid-Foley, who owns a 0.96 ERA, 0.13 FIP, 43.8% strikeout rate and a 0.5 fWAR rating over 9 1/3 innings.

This way, the Mets would only be forced to utilize two pitchers to possibly work five or six innings rather than burning through three or four relievers to reach that mark.

However things play out with Walker over this next stretch, there’s no question the Mets are going to need some of their young depth pieces to start producing in larger roles or it could become extremely difficult for this team to remain on top of the NL East division without most of their regulars in the lineup.