The New York Mets are entering the 2023 season with one of the most talented starting rotations in all of baseball.they were rated by your obedient servant as rotation number 1). However, no rotation is without problems, and the Mets certainly have them.
To combat age and injury issues, in addition to the Mets planning to use a six-man rotation at certain points in the season. It won’t be a permanent move, but Athletic reports that whenever the Mets play games for more than 10 days in a row, they will fixate on the sixth man.
This makes a lot of sense. Let’s go over the five starters and why they might need an extra day here and there:
- Justin Verlander is 40 and Tommy John had surgery in 2020. In his first season back, he played 175 innings in 28 regular season starts and then made four more playoff appearances, last taking the ball on November 3. t has made 30 or more starts in a season since 2019.
- Max Scherzer is 38 years old. Last year he limited himself to 23 starts. Although his arm appears to be bionic, he has had injuries to his back and sides in recent years. He hasn’t scored 180 regular season innings since 2018.
- Kodai Senga is the youngest here, he is 30 years old. He spends his first season in the US, and in the NPB it is customary to throw once a week. Last season, he threw 148 innings after 111 1/3 in 2021. His career high of 180 1/3 came in 2019.
- Carlos Carrasco turns 36 before the start of the season. Last year, he managed 152 innings, but since 2018, there have not been more than 80.
- José Quintana is 34 years old. He played 165 2/3 innings last season after just 63 in 2021 and 10 in 2020.
As noted, there’s huge potential here, but it’s easy to see workload issues, especially with all five starting players avoiding injury and every scheduled start in September. Switching to a six-man rotation in heavy sections of the schedule is a smart way to tweak things and extend the life of every starter this season.
In addition to keeping those five starters throughout the season, the Mets’ ultimate goal is to win the World Series, which means possibly having to deal with a wildcard round in addition to five games in the NLDS, seven in the NLCS, and seven in the World Series. Even though the Astros missed the wildcard round and won the Divisional Series and the ALCS, Verlander still made 20 more innings in the playoffs last year.
Small picture, this news means starting spots for the likes of David Peterson, Tylor Megill and maybe even Eliezer Hernandez and Joey Lucchesi. However, overall, this is the Mets’ way of giving themselves a good chance to get the best versions of the Verlander, Scherzer, Senga, Carrasco and Quintana when they need it most.
Source: www.cbssports.com
