Steven Matz is the left-hander from East Setauket in Long Island who grew up a New York Mets fan and became one of the best prospects in the Mets’ system three years after dealing with Tommy John Surgery that cost him his first 2 1/2 seasons.

When he finally reached the majors in 2015, six years after he had actually been drafted, it was one of the most special moments Mets fans had ever witnessed. His debut was right in front of his family, with him performing not only on the pitching side, but offensively as well that day against the Cincinnati Reds.

While Matz battled through injuries that year only making six MLB starts in the regular season after being called up, the lefty was given the ball three times in the playoffs and pitched pretty well, giving Mets fans hope that they might have the best and deepest rotation in baseball with Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, and Steven Matz  leading the way going into the 2016 season with further possibility that they would also have Zack Wheeler return by the midway point of that upcoming season.

However, that dream was never fully realized at any point.

That failure to reach that greatness honestly is not so much the fault of Matz as some of the other pitchers. Harvey got surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome in 2016 that might have ruined his career. Wheeler didn’t end up returning until the 2017 season and really only excelled starting in June of the 2018 season. Syndergaard has not nearly maintained his dominance since the 2016 season, while also dealing with injuries on multiple occasions.

Matz, though, is an interesting case. He didn’t actually have a reason completely for not reaching his full potential. Sure, he definitely has dealt with injuries too, having only made 30 starts in a season once in his career, but the bigger issue is he might never have been the pitcher that the team heralded him out to be.

When he was called up, there were scouts and people within the organization under the belief that Matz was going to be the best of the five pitchers developed in the farm system, with one lofty comparison that to Clayton Kershaw, provided by then-pitching coach Dan Warthen.

The reality is, though, that Matz was possibly never truly the best pitcher on this team at any point even when the Mets were doing well in 2015 and 2016. At some points, Matz was a below average starter at risk of losing his rotation spot, which is what might have happened in 2019 with the team giving him some bullpen work before the All-Star break.

Is the bullpen potentially a permanent place for Matz long-term?

Maybe, given his 4.95 ERA as a starter in 2019 and 4.15 ERA in that role for his career. However, his 7.46 ERA in the first inning of work doesn’t bode well for someone looking to do well in a position where one inning determines your value on a given night.

In the two appearances Matz has made out of the bullpen this year, he has allowed three hits to a grand total of six batters.

Could he make significant adjustments if given the chance to succeed out of the bullpen? Sure, but there is no reason to believe right now that would work.

So, the scenario that needs to be pursued is this: the team is going to need to hope that he can figure things out in the rotation down the stretch and if he can get his ERA down to near 4.00 or lower, he might regain some trade value.

Is he going to net you multiple top-100 prospects? Absolutely not.

But, if he were to pitch well down the stretch, he could possibly net you one and then some ancillary pieces in a package.

Matz would come with two years of control if dealt in the offseason, which in this day in age, is extremely crucial when talking about trades.

While this is a risk on the Mets part in that they need him to perform, it’s one they want to get something back for him and make a good decision in a bad situation.

Could they keep him if he performs? Of course, but the Mets know what he is and that is a very inconsistent pitcher who has shown flashes of what they saw in him. More often than not, though, they see a pitcher who hasn’t put all the pieces together and at this point, realistically might never do so.

One left-hander that came with similar hype around him was Derek Holland with the Texas Rangers.

In his first five seasons, he compiled a 4.36 ERA, 4.20 FIP, and 1.332 WHIP in 782 innings of work to go along with a averaged 7.6 SO/9.

Meanwhile, Matz has a 4.14 ERA, 4.39 FIP, and 1.316 WHIP in 469 2/3 innings in that span to go along with 8.5 SO/9.

Obviously, Holland was much healthier in that stretch of time throwing reaching 175 innings or higher three times in that span.

The point still rings true, though. The Rangers held onto him until he became a free agent after the 2016 season and despite showing brief flashes of his potential like he did in 2013 with a 3.42 ERA, he was mediocre to below average for much of his tenure as he finished his Rangers career with a 4.35 ERA.

Now, that is actually much more respectable in the American League than in the National League as pitching happens to be much better in the NL largely to due to the lack of a DH. There is actually an argument to be made that Holland has been more successful due to his ability to eat innings and the fact that his stats might have been bloated partially because of the league he was in.

So, essentially, they pretty much are equal in this regard and if Holland’s history at all translates to Matz, it’s a sign to move on from him as soon as his value peaks back up so they don’t get swallowed up in admiration of his peaks when in reality they are more often than not going to be dealing with valleys.