The Mets announced that today’s scheduled starter, Max Scherzer, was scratched due to neck spasms. Left-hander David Peterson was recalled to start tonight instead. Right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis was placed on the 15-day injured list with a left quad strain, which opened a roster spot for Peterson and allowed the lefty to return less than 15 days after being optioned.
The issue with Scherzer appears to be minor, as he was not placed on the injured list, but it is at least somewhat concerning that he’s not at full health. The 38-year-old hasn’t quite seemed himself so far this season, seemingly unable to get into a good groove. He allowed eight earned runs in his first two outings but came back with five scoreless frames in his third. It was in his fourth start that he was ejected for excessive stickiness on his hands, which also led to a 10-game suspension. He showed a bit of rust after serving that sentence, allowing six earned runs against the Tigers last week.
All told, he has an ERA of 5.56 thus far, a significant difference from last year’s 2.29 mark. The severity of this neck issue will likely become more clear in the coming days but it appears to be yet another speed bump for a rotation that has seen many. Justin Verlander started the year on the injured list due to a teres major strain and just returned last week while José Quintana has been there all year due to rib surgery and isn’t expected to return until July. Carlos Carrasco began the year healthy but landed on the IL after just three starts due to a bone spur in his elbow. All of those hurdles are part of the reason the club has limped out to a 17-18 start and is seven games back of Atlanta in the NL East.
It remains to be seen whether Scherzer will just need a few days of extra rest or a significant stretch of time off. Peterson will likely be quickly optioned in the former scenario but could also stick around in the latter, joining Verlander, Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill and Joey Lucchesi in the improvised rotation. Scherzer seems to be on the optimistic side of things, telling Tim Healey of Newsday that he’s expecting to miss just a couple of days and take the ball against the Nationals this weekend.
In a bit of good news, Carrasco seems to be working his way back as well. The Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies announced that the veteran will be making a rehab start for them tonight as he tries to get back to the major league team. He was initially planned to start his rehab on the weekend but those plans were pushed back when he fell ill. It seems he’s recovered and the train is back on the tracks. He had a 3.97 ERA for the Mets last year but struggled to an 8.56 mark this year before the bone spur put him on the shelf.
If the Mets get a bit of luck, both Scherzer and Carrasco will be healthy and pitching well soon, which will likely nudge out Peterson and then one of Lucchesi or Megill. The former has a 4.43 ERA through four starts while the latter is at 4.33 in seven outings. Peterson hasn’t been able to fare well in his time this year, currently sporting a 7.34 ERA in his six starts.
When “Mad Max” couldn’t take the ball 2 yrs ago in the playoffs for the Dodgers, I knew he was done.
His ’22 season and 170 ERA+ disagrees.
But not his ’22 playoffs!
Small sample size!
I agree. I was just teasing a bit.
In fairness he choked in atl that caused the whole collapse. IMO you pay pitchers big $$ for the big spots, and in those spots in recent times he’s choked pretty bad.
If you pitch enough playoffs games, there are going to be games where a HOF-caliber pitcher is going to be off. Fans said that about Kershaw for years. Andy Pettitte was one of the best postseason performers but he’s not perfect. Rivera blew a game 7.
You would think an “mlb fan” would be aware of Scherzer’s terrific season last year.
36 games in and only 20 have been started by pitchers who were actually expected to be in the rotation.
The two highest payrolls in Baseball reside in New York where they are a combined 36-35…
In MLB, having a lot of money is nice and helpful, but having a well stocked, well run, consistently yielding farm system is even BETTER. If anyone doubts this, just ask the last couple of World Series winners, the Astros and the Braves.
Or the Rays. Now if only they had some money.
I have to believe that Cohen will ultimately build a system that identifies and develops talent like the Rays. There is no spending limit for off the field talent, and Cohen is smart enough to use that to his advantage.
Stros and Braves spend a ton too. 7th and 8th total payrolls in 2022. The Rays would have been a better example, but they never won the big one. No one has without spending decent money.
Online it shows the Astros/Braves as 8th & 9th highest spending teams from last year at 145 and 143 million. That’s almost 90 million less than the top 2 or 3 spending teams from last year. ANY major League team could afford to run similar payrolls if they wanted.
And most can spend more too. I also think spending and developing don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Braves and Stros have done both really well.
VonPurpleHayes, I’ll give more credit to the Braves who have maintained a strong farm system while continuing to win. The Astros had to endure years of 90-100 loss seasons to be able to draft well enough to prosper, and the deep talent in the minors from those high drafts may have already been tapped this year. Tjey are a little thinner covering their injuries this year than in any year in the last
I agree with your take.
EasternLeagueVeteran;
The Astros talent from those early drafts were gone 2-3 years ago. They still have been developing talent in the minors, as well as making players on their major league roster better. Yordan Alvarez was gotten from the Dodgers for a long-forgotten relief pitcher. Currently I’ve watched Yainer Diaz catch. The Astros got him from Cleveland in the Phil Maton for Myles Straw trade. The rap on Diaz was that he hit well but was a bad catcher. I’ve watched him play some games the past 2 weeks. Can’t believe it’s the same guy. Maldy can be transitioned to a part-time catcher ahead of retirement. Diaz has thrown out 6 of 11 base stealers – 55%. Amazing pop time, accurate and strong arm. Catches all of Hunter Brown’s games.
Point being the Astros started a bit weak, but they’re still developing impact players while the national baseball media don’t care for their farm system. Short of extended injuries to a few key players, they will be in the playoffs in 2023 and should be competitive. ….in 2024 as well.
All that, but also important, you have to make the right picks in the draft and not get taken to the cleaners in every trade. Al Avila will never run a franchise again. He wouldn’t even get the keys to a t-ball team. He was one of the worst ever to run a professional sports franchise.
Werent the astros and braves also both caught in major scandals at around the same time? So what your saying is get caught doing something really negative and you will have a world series a few years down the road?
“If you’re not cheating, you’re not really trying” – Jim Rome.
@mlb fan: Why is it an either/or situation? Also, it should be noted that currently, the Braves and Astros have poorly ranked farm systems, with both appearing near the very bottom at the moment. I’m sure they’ll restock, though. Braves don’t necessarily need to dip into the farm right now, anyway, since they’ve locked up a lot of young talent.
Forget LOLMets. The new joke is LOLMax. Crapped the bed last year in the two biggest starts of the year. Now he can’t pitch without excessive sticky stuff (SWEAT AND ROSIN!!! SWEAT AND ROSIN!!!) and now more physical maladies. Hey Max, maybe you hurt your neck watching all those hard hit balls screaming past in the last start.
#LOLMax
#LOLCohen
#LOL86Mets
No need to LOL anything else when LOLmets shall endure.
Yet Manfred is working on developing a tacky ball so pitchers won’t do anything illegal like sweat and rosin. Dude should be impeached.
At this rate, the Mets are gonna be on the hook for Max’s salary next year.
Older players get hurt more often and take longer to heal when
they do.
At the end of the season the teams fans always say: “But for the injuries we had…”.
The Mets owner tried to buy Carlos Correa for $315m and lucked
out by hiding behind medical data to get out from under the
contract. With the season a bit over 20% complete Mr. Correa has
a .193 / .271 / .378 line with a 79wRC+ and a 0.1 fWAR.
Along with the Padres owner, Mr. Cohen won the offseason.
Mets trying to one up the Braves.
The Mets will be MLB’s first ever $350 M 3rd place team
I would love that, but it’s May. Mets will certainly get their act together. I’m not proclaiming they’ll win the division or anything, but they’re far from done. We see teams stumble out of the gate every season.
You can’t buy team chemistry. It either develops or it doesn’t.
Some of the greatest players could never play together when assembled. A lot of NBA teams have proved that also.
The 1977-’79 “25 guys, 25 cabs” Red Sox won 97, 99, and 91 games. Sometimes chemistry helps, sometimes it doesn’t really matter.
Plenty of teams with great chemistry stink too. It’s just one of those intangible things that people say about good teams. “This is a great clubhouse. We’re a family. Great chemistry…etc.”
The ’78 Red Sox? They had the Yankees dead and buried in July only to famously choke it away.
Chemistry does help sometimes. =)
It definitely helps, but I think more teams have it than don’t, and plenty of teams stink.
Do you really think they can make 3rd?
I love the fact that both NY teams and the Padres so far are proving that you can’t simply just buy a team. Veteran guys regress and banking on rotations full of decrepid but still good pitchers can backfire. At least the Mets have decent enough depth but still.
holecamels35: Once again, I must bring up George Steinbrenner who collected just about every top player (Reggie Jackson, Rich Goaage, Catfish Hunter, etc.) he could and bought himself two WS titles.
Only two?
Holecamels35: at least neither NY team sunk money into deGrom ( or Cole Hamels. as a matter of fact). DeGrom may yet be the first pitcher to be paid a million dollars per strikeout, if not this year maybe one of the next 4.
Max Scherzer is right there with him.
I kinda love the photo they used for this article
What photo?
I meant Gossage.
Mets are now 7-14 with Baty
Where are all the people that were criticizing me for saying the Mets would be worse with Baty than Escobar
They were 10-5 with Escobar
You can’t prove a direct correlation.
You’re another mindless low IQ type. You don’t have a clue what’s going on
Bottom dwelling intelligences like yours are the reason the country is in the shape it ia
@Camden453: Now that’s a mature response. You can’t prove a direct correlation and have nothing intelligent to say, so why not resort to name-calling and put downs?
The irony of someone like you saying others have low IQs is quite rich.
@naron You’re a schizophrenic, mentally imbalanced type who totally ignores subjective factors like a fool
Intelligent people balance both the subjective and objective
You’re part of a huge league of morons that don’t have any idea what’s going on
As for the evidence and ‘proof’ low iq people like you worship , what more proof do you need?
They’re 7-14 with Baty and 10-5 without him. All of this I predicted the day it was announced he was called up
I even said, with Baty in the field, they’ll make more errors. The mentality of the team will be different. Everything I predicted has come true
Yes there *are* mental makeup factors involved in addition to the data
@Camden453: That’s good. Keep piling on the name-calling and put downs as if you actually are qualified to judge anyone, digging a deeper hole to feel better about yourself.
The thing about people like you is that you haven’t learned that it’s better to keep your piehole shut and let the rest of us think you might be an ignorant fool than to open it, spew your nonsensical BS, and confirm our suspicions in spades.
Yes. It’s all Baty’s fault for hitting a 119 OPS+ vs. Escobar’s 55 OPS+. What were the Mets thinking playing a better offensive player who has singularly tanked their record? Your comments are all so patently ridiculous.
Laughable. Another clown cites stats
Get a clue at some point
People like you have no idea what’s going on
They went from 10-5 without Baty to 7-14 with him. Just as I said would happen
Did your crystal ball, tarot cards, or ouija board tell you that or was it all on your own?
Might have something to do with the injuries and suspensions on the pitching staff. Don’t recall you predicting how Baty was going to cause that to happen.
Ignoring mental factors completely is just as foolish as ignoring data and analytics completely
I said the day he was drafted Peterson was a losing pitcher. Hes terrible.. Just like I said he would be
All the physical analytics check out but mentally he’s not able to execute
It used to be they only looked at subjective qualities and didn’t look at data and analytics. Now they only look at data and analytics
You need to use them both
You’re like Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, and Bill James with a sprinkle of Oprah all rolled into one.
Yes, one guy who is an out of place cog in the machine can tank the whole team
I’m not saying it’s Baty’s fault, but they’re 7-14 since he’s been there
Maybe they adjust, but exactly as I predicted, they started making more fielding errors and not hitting since he’s been there
If you’re in a unit at your job and you bring in a new guy you either can’t get in a good rhythm with him or it takes a while
This has nothing to do with Baty, this is all about when Carlos Carasco went down. They lost the game they he was put on the injured list and then from what would have been his next turn in the rotation is when the downward spiral started. They cant win at all without the cookie there.
Spend 40 million on a 40 year old pitcher and act surprised when they have to miss starts.
SI.com is reporting that that the Mets will play the Phillies in London next summer. How do you say LOLmets in British?