I know. It was just a few days ago that I said the Mets don’t necessarily need a five-man rotation of lights out pitchers and that they would be just fine getting by on the backs of Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard. But the Mets of course, being the Mets, had to go and tease us with something great on the horizon.
After Steven Matz‘s strong start on Monday, and Matt Harvey‘s strong 5 1/3 innings pitched against the Cardinals yesterday afternoon, it’s easy to get your hopes up. If Zack Wheeler can jump that one last hurdle and give us one final good start, that dream rotation might just be a reality.
After his start yesterday, Harvey was quoted saying:
“When you can do that and you can trust your fastball and trust your offspeed stuff to throw for a strike, that’s kind of a good indicator that the work that’s gone into this Spring Training has paid off. I guess yeah, you could say that I’m ready to go.”
We already know how eager Syndergaard is.
Time seems to run slower the last week of Spring Training. ⏳
— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) March 20, 2018
It almost feels like Jason Vargas‘ injury was fate and as though this was the rotation that was always supposed to be. That somewhere, written in stone, these five pitchers were supposed to lead this team in 2018.
After last year’s injury parade, I don’t think any of us ever thought this day would come. It was a lot easier to just let that dream die and stay realistic about what the Mets’ pitching set-up actually looked like.
But in the last few days, everyone seems to be trending in the right direction. I can’t remember the last time I saw Matz strike out nine batters, or saw Harvey make it through the third round of the batting order without absolutely imploding.
Maybe the Mets needed the magic touch of Dave Eiland to really get this rotation to where it needed to be. Maybe he was the last piece that was missing to allow the pitching staff to finally put it all together.
Eiland knew what he was walking into and what was expected going forward.
“I’ve been here before. I know what the expectations are here. I embrace those expectations. I know how good it is to win here. It’s something I want to feel again.”
Mets fans everywhere would probably give their left foot to know that feeling again. Especially when we came so close not that long ago. It’s definitely too soon to know whether or not these arms will hold up through the rigors of a long season, but for the first time in awhile, coming out of the spring, I really like our chances of putting it all together.
