The Mets once again will revert from a six-man rotation to the normal five-man rotation. For now.
Noah Syndergaard who pitched the 2nd half opener on Friday, will next pitch on Wednesday vs the Nationals on regular rest after Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom go on Monday and Tuesday respectively.
“We were not ready to commit to anybody just yet as a spot starter,” said manager Terry Collins. “With the days off coming shortly after that, this will be one time where Noah is going to have to pitch on regular rest, and he’ll miss the Dodgers series, but we’ve got a day off, so it’s going to give him an extra day anyway. So it’s one time where we thought it might work.”
The Mets went with the six-man rotation twice. The first was when Dillon Gee came back from the DL. The second was when Steven Matz was brought up from Triple-A. Each time, it failed to last more than one turn in the rotation.
“I’m trying not to have any more Tommy Johns. I’m trying not to have any more sore shoulders,” Collins said after announcing the first six-man rotation. “We looked at every scenario. We mapped it out. We burned a lot of trees with a lot of paperwork, and this is what we’ve come up with. And we’ll just see how it goes.
Initially, the main reason for the six-man to give the young arms, like Harvey, Syndergaard and deGrom, extra rest in order to preserve them for September if the Mets are still in the playoff chase.
However Matz went on the DL last week with a torn left lat and with the Mets not strongly interested in bringing Gee back, there were hints that they would go back to the five-man rotation.
The Mets are still planning to control the workload of their young starters by using spot starters in order for the innings to not pile up.
“We looked at it, and if we went with a five-man rotation throughout the year, they’d border on right where they better be, but that’s also estimated at seven innings a start, too,” said Collins. “We know some of them will go some more and some less, but I also think you’re going to see some spot starts from some guys, so they’ll end up being just fine.”
- Noah Syndergaard: 2014/133.0 IP – 2015/96.1 IP – On pace for 190 IP
- Jacob deGrom: 2014/178.2 IP – 2015/113.2 IP – On pace for 207 IP
- Matt Harvey: 2014/TJS – 2015/111.1 IP – On pace for 205 IP
The innings limit for Harvey is at 180, and using their usual methodology, Syndergaard would be capped at about 160 innings. Sandy Alderson has expressed less concern for deGrom who is 27 and should be fine with 200-215 innings pitched. Collins mentioned that Gee or Logan Verrett would be candidates for spot starts.
