With the Mets putting Steven Matz on the disabled list with a mild strain in his rotator cuff, the Mets are promoting Robert Gsellman from AAA Las Vegas.
The 23-year old Gsellman was the Mets 2011 13th round draft pick out of Westchester High School in Los Angeles, CA. He started the year with AA Binghamton, and he worked his way up to AAA. Gsellman has combined to go 4-9 with a 3.99 ERA and a 1.252 WHIP. In his nine AAA starts, he has gone 1-5 with a 5.73 ERA and a 1.479 WHIP.
In 2015, Gsellman was the Sterling Organizational Pitcher of the Year after going a combined 13-7 with a 2.89 ERA (46 earned runs/143.1 innings) in 24 starts between St. Lucie (A) of the Florida State League and Binghamton.
Gsellman has been better lately with a 3.72 ERA in his last six Las Vegas starts with 35 strikeouts in 38.2 innings during that span. He was ranked as the Mets number 6 prospect according to Baseball America in their midseason update.
The plan is to move Gsellman to the bullpen. In his professional career, Gsellman has come out of the bullpen only 12 times but half of those were piggyback starts. The other half were in his first pro season as the Mets were limiting his innings. The plan is to go with Jon Niese and Seth Lugo in the rotation.
With Niese and Lugo having recently been in the bullpen, Gsellman should be insurance for either one of them not being able to go deep into games.
