Porcello’s Debut Raises Question of Mets Rotation

Scott Long

When Rick Porcello signed with the New York Mets this offseason to a one year $10 million deal, the 2016 American League Cy Young Award Winner was told he would be in the starting rotation.

However, a few days earlier the Mets signed former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha to a one year $3 million deal, and also told him he’d be in the rotation. The problem here is the Mets already had four starting pitchers under contract entering the off-season, and there are only five spots in a starting rotation.

Jacob deGrom’s spot in the rotation is secure following his back-to-back Cy Young winning seasons, as are Noah Syndergaard’s and Marcus Stroman’s. The storyline for the Mets this Spring Training is which one of Porcello, Wacha, and Steven Matz fails to make the rotation, and gets demoted to the bullpen.

Porcello got off to a bit of a rocky start in his Mets Grapefruit League debut, giving up one run and two hits in only one inning in the 5-3 loss to the Miami Marlins. Despite the rocky start the belief around the industry is that Porcello has the inside track on a rotation spot due to his past success.

"I'm here to be in that rotation and be out there every fifth day,” Wacha told reporters during his press conference upon signing with the Mets. In order to get that spot though, Wacha will have to outperform Matz and/or Porcello. Wacha’s coming off of a down year where he finished 6-7, with 4.76 ERA over 126.2 innings pitched, but he’s had success in the past, which drove the Mets to sign him to a prove-it 1 year deal at a team-friendly salary.

Unlike Porcello and Wacha, Matz is not a newcomer, as he’s spent his entire five year career in a Mets uniform. Additionally, Matz has something on both of them, he’s left handed, which is huge considering he would be the only southpaw in the Mets rotation, if he were to win the job. “I heard I'm coming in as a starter and right now that's really all we have,” Matz told SNY reporters.

Whoever doesn’t win a rotation spot will be moved to the bullpen, which doesn’t mean they won’t have a huge impact on the team, instead it’s just going to be different from what they are accustomed to. Barring an injury during Spring Training one of these three will ultimately join the likes of: Seth Lugo, Dellin Betances, Justin Wilson, Jeurys Familia, Brad Brach, and Robert Gsellman in the bullpen come Opening Day. The hope for the Mets is that this group will help their bottom 10 bullpen from last year see some significant improvement.

In the end though, it’s likely that all of these guys see at least some action on the rotation at some point this year, as the New York Mets have proven year in and year out that injuries are commonplace, particularly for starting pitchers.