Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Jacob deGrom injured, Max Scherzer injured, Tylor Megill injured and the Mets had to dip into their pitching depth a little deeper for a starter on Wednesday against the Giants. To say it didn’t go well, would be a massive understatement.

Thomas Szapucki, making his first big league start, only recorded four outs and gave up a whopping nine runs in the Mets’ 9-3 loss to the Giants. He gave up three doubles and four home runs before Buck Showalter had seen enough. Buck was hoping to get five innings out of Szapucki a day after Mets’ starter Chris Bassitt allowed eight runs in his start vs the Giants.

Starter/reliever/longman Trevor Williams did follow with 3 2/3 scoreless innings to give the Mets length out of the pen. But, that strong outing from Williams came four days after he allowed four runs in four innings as a starter for the Mets.

Luckily for the Mets, lefty David Peterson has stepped up in a big way pitching to a 2.19 ERA so far this season. And the trio of Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, and Bassitt have been mostly good in 2022. Still, they’re starting to struggle to get consistent, quality innings from the back of the rotation.

Szapucki had only pitched 22 innings in Triple-A following ulnar nerve transposition surgery that ended his 2021 season. I’m sure the Mets would have preferred that he not pitch in the big leagues this early in the season, but they don’t have a ton of healthy options right now.

Let’s just take a look at the next four scheduled starters for Triple-A Syracuse:

Zastryzny, 30, clearly has the best ERA of the group, but his peripherals (1.46 WHIP) are not good and his longest outing of the season is 4 1/3 innings.

The best starter of the group has been right-hander Conner Grey, who just pitched on Wednesday. He tossed six scoreless innings and extended his scoreless streak to three starts spanning 17 2/3 innings. The 28-year-old was signed by the Mets last season out of Indy Ball. Grey had a 4.03 ERA for Syracuse in eight outings. During that span, he has struck out only 28, walked 13, and has a 1.31 WHIP. Grey sits in the low-90s with a good vertically breaking curveball as his best secondary.

The options aren’t great in Triple-A right now, which is why the Mets signed veteran right-hander Trevor Cahill last week. Cahill posted a 6.57 ERA (4.06 FIP) in 32 innings for the Pirates last season. He has not been added to an affiliate roster yet.

So, let’s keep digging. Next up is Double-A Binghamton. Here’s their current starting rotation:

Butto, 24, is one of the Mets top 10-15 prospects and is on the 40-man roster, but he’s struggled to a 6.23 ERA over his last five starts and I’m sure the Mets would prefer he isn’t called up before he’s ready.

Chacin, 25, has made only four starts since being promoted to Double-A, though he’s certainly impressed with a 3.00 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 18 innings. The Mets signed Chacin as a minor league free agent early last year, much like the aforementioned Grey. Chacin has shown great command since joining the Mets system last year, but he only has 18 innings of Double-A experience and is certainly not big league ready.

Chacin is one of those guys that throws the kitchen sink at you, manipulating his fastball in a lot of different ways and throwing multiple breaking balls. He also throws a changeup that could be his best pitch. Four-seamer tops out at 94 mph.

That’s it, folks, those are the Mets options. Most of the Triple-A rotation does have major league experience, albeit without much success and their best starter was in Indy ball to start last season.

Obviously, it’s pretty early to trade for a Frankie Montas or Tyler Mahle –both pitchers the Mets have reportedly scouted this season– but the Mets need to be as active as possible in search of a starter. Whether it’s players on waivers, plucking a veteran out of Triple-A, or getting a bad team to sell early on a rental, the Mets badly need better starting pitching depth.