Jon Niese’s season looks to be over, as the left-hander will undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. The injury likely brings to an end Niese’s second stint with the Mets — one that will be remembered as considerably less successful than his first tenure.
Since being acquired from the Pirates in a one-for-one trade that sent struggling lefty Antonio Bastardo to Pittsburgh, Niese has yielded 14 runs on 13 hits and nine walks with 12 strikeouts. That 11.45 earned run average continued what was a dreadful season for Niese with the Bucs, and his 2016 campaign looks like it will come to a close with a 5.50 ERA over the life of 121 innings between the two teams. Per DiComo, Niese has been dealing with discomfort in his knee since June but has attempted to pitch through the pain he felt. The Mets project a recovery timeline of at least four weeks, which would seem to make it quite unlikely (though not impossible) that Niese is able to rejoin the club in late September.
Niese’s career-worst season comes at a poor time, as the 29-year-old lefty has a $10MM club option on his contract, but the Mets will assuredly elect to pay him a $500K buyout rather than lock in that salary. Niese will enter the offseason, then, as a buy-low candidate for clubs in need of pitching. Despite this season’s poor results, he worked to a 3.65 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 50.4 percent ground-ball rate in 697 2/3 innings from 2012-15. With that type of track record under his belt, Niese should draw interest on incentive-laden one-year deals as he looks to re-establish himself as a useful mid-rotation piece. If he’s able to do so, he could once again test the open market the following winter prior to his age-31 season.
Sorry he’s hurt but this is better than watching him pitch again this season.
Good pick for the A’s… They resuscitated Rich Hill’a career as front line starter anyway…
Well, admittedly Hill got that contract with the A’s off the back of a late resurgence in Boston. He continued that brilliance in Oakland. Niese could be an A’s kinda guy.
I foresee a minor league deal with a big league invite in his near future. I mean, if you can’t be successful in that massive park in Pittsburgh, where can you be successful? Maybe he will get lucky and get just the right team, but it will be an uphill climb no matter where he goes.
A Pitcher with a bum knee will have troubles on the mound. If he were pitching healthy, then I would agree with you. He put up decent numbers after a horrible 1st start for the Pirates until after the start against the Mets on 6/7 Maybe that is when his knee gave out? If you don’t have your legs as a pitcher, you are doomed.
Cardinals would take him on a one year, production laden contract. Start him off in long relief and a back of the order starting pitcher after he’s proven himself healthy.
Nah, the Cards don’t need or even have room for this kind of guy. They’ll have Wainwright, Martinez, Wacha, and Leake back next year, along with Lynn returning from TJS, top prospects Reyes and Weaver on the cusp, as well a few other starting / long relief options returning from injury in Lyons, Cooney, and Gonzales.