Mickey Callaway had his first Spring Training press conference as the new Mets skipper and he had some very interesting stuff to say.
One of the more intriguing things he said, though, was this about the pitching staff:
“I’ve got to sit there and watch some bullpens in the last week and I’ve never seen anything like that. The amount of very good arms and quality stuff we have in this Mets organization, I promise you nobody else has that. I have been around some pretty good arms and this is the best group of arms and stuff that I’ve ever seen, from top to bottom.”
For a Mets pitching staff that ranked 28th in all of baseball in staff ERA last season, this is certainly an extremely great compliment.
That being said, everyone knows just how talented this bunch can be when healthy, as seen by their run in 2015. However, the rotation is coming into camp with a lot more question marks entering the 2018 season.
Nobody in the organization has any clue what to expect from Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, Zack Wheeler, Robert Gsellman, or Seth Lugo. In fact, the only pitchers that most will be confident in coming into the season are Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard.
He went on to further complement the pitching staff:
“I have been around some pretty good arms and this is the best group of arms and stuff that I’ve ever seen, from top to bottom. It’s really amazing.”
That is some extremely high praise from the former-Indians pitching coach, as he got to work with the likes of Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and Danny Salazar in Cleveland, which could be easily argued as being one of the best pitching staffs in the game.
Kluber is arguably the best pitcher in the American League, as he has finished in the top-10 in Cy Young voting the last four seasons, and won the award twice in that span.
Now, obviously, despite this great praise from the manager, it should not be taken too seriously yet. These pitchers need to go out there and actually back-up these words.
However, it is nice to hear this high praise from the 42-year old. Everyone knows this team has the talent on the pitching staff.
It is going to be a matter of keeping them healthy and getting them prepared to handle a long season, which Callaway stressed in the interview that you can watch here.
The point is, the sky is the limit for this pitching staff; they just got to go out there and reach for the stars.
