After trading for Oakland’s Chris Bassitt on Saturday night, the Mets have one of the more formidable rotations in baseball. The righty-heavy group of pitchers is full of workhorses who can carry the team through the regular season with some viable backups in case injuries surface.

The Mets’ rotation can be broken down into three sets. Let’s talk about them.

The Best Pitchers In Baseball (1-2)

There’s Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, then the rest of the field. Over the last five years, there really isn’t a better pitcher in baseball than either one of these two. (Gerrit Cole has an argument, but he’s the only one.) The Mets have both of them starting two of every five days.

To be honest, we don’t need to spend a lot of time here. If these guys are on their A-game in 2022, or even their B+-game, they’re probably the best duo in baseball. The next group of guys is what helps the Mets’ rotation stand apart on paper.

The Solid Mid- And Back-End Starters (3-5)

Chris Bassitt is the Mets’ new No. 3 starter. The righty, who will be a free agent after this season, has pitched to a 3.23 ERA (3.82 FIP) over the last four seasons (412 innings) since recovering from Tommy John surgery. Bassitt’s results compare similarly to Carlos Carrasco pre-2021, which may not inspire confidence in Mets fans. But Carrasco was a pretty safe bet prior to 2021 when injuries affected his first season as a Met. Let’s hope lightning doesn’t strike twice.

Carrasco, on the other hand, gets to start the season as the Mets’ fourth option–a fair spot for him to be in after missing the first four months of the 2021 season due to leg issues and ending the season needing elbow surgery. Carrasco will start the 2022 season with lowered expectations, but his peak is performing like a No. 2 starter while having the expectations of a back-end guy. That’s a fine position to be in. The Mets couldn’t end this offseason with the questions of Carrasco looming over their rotation if he ended up as the second or third starter, but they’ve aligned themselves where he’s not expected to be a top-line guy. If he is? Great.

Then comes Taijuan Walker–the surprise of the first half of the 2021 season. In fact, with Walker, deGrom, Scherzer and Bassitt, the Mets have four starters who were All-Stars just last year. It’s fair to assume Walker hit a wall last season after pitching more than he had the previous three seasons combined, but being the fifth starter in a deep rotation gives Walker the opportunity to ease back into a heavy workload (unlike 2021) and overperform rather than being expected to be the surprising savior he was through the first half of last season.

The Depth (6-10)

For the first time in probably a half-decade, the Mets have some decent starting pitching depth at the Triple-A level. Here is a reasonable Opening Day rotation for the Syracuse Mets after the Bassitt trade:

  1. Tylor Megill
  2. David Peterson
  3. Thomas Szapucki
  4. Jordan Yamamoto
  5. Trevor Williams

Joey Lucchesi could join the fold later in the year after Tommy John recovery. That’s not a bad group of guys to make spot starts, and Megill and Peterson could both enter the rotation should a long-term injury force any of the first five guys out for an extended period of time. Those are two guys the Mets relied on at the major-league level last year. They can be great depth in 2022.

While the team isn’t likely to make any more trades for the starting rotation, there’s always the chance the team reconnects with the Reds on Tyler Mahle. At that point, they can make a decision on if Carrasco or Walker would be better off in the bullpen.

On top of that, the team can still sign players to minor-league deals and let people like Szapucki develop in Double-A.

No matter what else happens before spring training games start this week, the Mets have fewer questions about their starting pitching rotation and depth than they have since they last made it to the World Series. They might even have the best rotation in baseball.