Tylor Megill

José Quintana Out Until At Least July Due To Rib Surgery

By Darragh McDonald | March 14, 2023 at 2:15pm CDT

March 14: Eppler today provided reporters with more information, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Quintana will undergo bone graft surgery on his rib and isn’t expected back until July at the earliest.

March 13, 3:15 pm: General manager Billy Eppler tells reporters, including Tim Britton of The Athletic, that the report of the three-month shutdown is “premature.” They are still talking to doctors about next steps.

1:30 pm: The Mets are planning to shut down starter José Quintana for the next three months, reports Mike Puma of The New York Post. The left-hander had recently been diagnosed with a stress fracture in one of his ribs and was sent for more imaging. It seems the injury is significant enough that he will miss roughly the first half of the season. However, Andy Martino of SNY has a slightly different viewpoint, reporting that the club is still considering different scenarios and will decide what to do in the next few days, with the three-month shutdown being one of the options being considered.

Quintana, 34, has long been a steady and reliable big league starter, primarily with the two Chicago clubs. From 2012 to 2019, he tossed 1,485 innings between the Cubs and White Sox with a 3.72 ERA. Outside of his rookie season in 2012, he made at least 31 starts and reached the 170-inning mark in each of those campaigns. That was followed by a couple of frustrating seasons, with a thumb injury holding him back in 2020 and the lefty struggling to get back on track in 2021. However, he finally got back into a good groove last year, tossing 165 2/3 innings between the Pirates and Cardinals with a 2.93 ERA, 20.2% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46.4% ground ball rate.

The Mets were facing a great deal of rotation uncertainty this winter, with Jacob deGrom opting out of his contract while Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker each declined options. With all three of those hurlers reaching free agency and eventually signing elsewhere, the Mets spent aggressively to rebuild their rotation around incumbents Max Scherzer and Carlos Carrasco. They gave Justin Verlander an $86.67MM guarantee, $75MM to Kodai Senga and $26MM to Quintana, the latter on a two-year deal.

That gave the Mets a strong on-paper rotation but one with risk. Four of those five starters are over 34 years of age, while the 30-year-old Senga is going to be transitioning from a once-a-week throwing schedule in Japan to the five-day cycle of North American ball. We’re still not through spring and the Mets are already going to be turning to their depth options with Quintana set to miss significant time. Whether Quintana is ultimately shut down for three months or not, he’s likely facing an extended absence either way. Assuming Quintana is back to health in three months as planned, he will return to the mound in June. But he will then have to effectively redo his Spring Training, taking a few weeks to build back up to a starter’s workload, meaning the Mets will possibly have to look to other options until July or so.

Fortunately, the Mets have some solid depth options to turn to, such as David Peterson or Tylor Megill. The left-handed Peterson made 19 starts and nine relief appearances last year, posting a 3.83 ERA while striking out 27.8% of batters faced, walking 10.6% of them and getting grounders at a 49.4% clip. However, Puma reports that the club appears to be leaning towards Megill taking the rotation spot at this time. His 5.13 ERA from last year isn’t terribly impressive at first glance, but it’s possible that injuries played a role in that. As the Mets were dealing with injuries to start last year, they gave Megill a rotation spot and he posted a 1.93 ERA over five April starts. However, he allowed three earned runs in his next start and eight in the one after that, lasting just an inning and a third in the latter. He went on the injured list for biceps inflammation after that, came back for a couple more rough outings and went back on the IL for a shoulder strain.

Regardless of whoever ultimately gets the job, the Mets are now moving down their depth chart with this Quintana injury. It’s extremely rare for any team to get through a season without an injury like this, so the Mets surely anticipated having to call upon Peterson or Megill at some point. Still, it’s always unwelcome news when it actually comes into play. The club is set for what should be another tight divisional race this year, likely jockeying for position with Atlanta and Philadelphia for the top spot in the NL East, with the Mets already facing a significant hurdle in their path.

The Mets’ Options If Jose Quintana Misses Time

By Steve Adams | March 8, 2023 at 10:57pm CDT

The Mets entered spring training with a deep but revamped rotation. Gone were longtime ace Jacob deGrom and steady right-handers Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker. In their place, the Mets signed future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander, NPB star Kodai Senga and veteran lefty Jose Quintana, who had a resurgent campaign between the Pirates and Cardinals this past season.

That the first injury of the season for manager Buck Showalter’s club came from the typically durable Quintana is both unexpected and unwelcome news. The 34-year-old southpaw logged 32 starts between Pittsburgh and St. Louis in 2022, logging an excellent 2.93 ERA with a 20.6% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46.4% ground-ball rate. It was a vintage Quintana showing, hearkening back to his peak years in Chicago — and it was impressive enough to land him a two-year, $26MM contract (13 times larger than the one-year, $2MM guarantee he received from Pittsburgh one winter ago).

Quintana will be out for a yet-to-be-determined period of time, however, owing to a stress fracture in his rib. There’s no sense running wild with speculation as to whether that’ll amount to weeks or months at this juncture, but at the very least, Opening Day doesn’t appear to be in the cards. Quintana exited after just one inning in his most recent Grapefruit League start due to discomfort, so this isn’t likely to be an injury he can just pitch through.

If there’s a silver lining for the Mets, it’s that even through all of the turnover in the rotation, they’ve managed to maintain a solid amount of depth beyond the projected Opening Day quintet of Max Scherzer, Verlander, Senga, Quintana and Carlos Carrasco. There were times when the team appeared open to moving Carrasco, but the early setback for Quintana highlights the importance of retaining him and so much of the other depth from which they could’ve dealt.

To that end, with what looks to be at least a short-term vacancy in the rotation, let’s run through the Mets’ options to fill the spot.

The Two Favorites

David Peterson, LHP, 27 years old

About as overqualified a sixth starter as you’ll find in the league, Peterson was the 20th overall pick in the 2017 draft and has spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues with the Mets: two of them good and the middle one (2021) quite bad. The lefty sandwiched an ugly 5.54 ERA between a pair of sub-4.00 efforts, with the end result being a solid 4.26 ERA (4.18 FIP, 4.14 SIERA) in 222 innings at the big league level.

Peterson leaned more heavily on his four-seamer and slider than ever before in 2022, dropping his sinker/two-seam usage from 26.3% in 2021 to 12.3% last season. He posted career-best totals in swinging-strike rate (12.8%), opponents’ chase rate (31.2%) and opponents’ contact rate (71.2%). It’s tempting to think that some of those gains might be from working out of the bullpen for a spell, but while Peterson had similar ERAs as a starter and a reliever, he had better strikeout and walk rates while working out of the rotation.

Fresh off a season that saw him toss 105 2/3 innings of 3.83 ERA ball with a 27.8% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate and 49.4% grounder rate, Peterson is the ostensible front-runner to take any early starts that Quintana might miss. Other clubs surely had interest in him this winter — particularly once the Mets had signed all three of Verlander, Senga and Quintana — but the decision to hold onto him is already paying off.

Tylor Megill, RHP, 27

If Peterson is the favorite, Megill might not be all that far behind. He made 18 respectable starts in 2021, pitching to a 4.52 ERA with more impressive strikeout and walk rates (26.1% and 7.1%, respectively). In 2022, when the Mets needed a starter, Megill stepped up and took the ball on six occasions from April 7 through May 4, pitching to a sterling 2.43 ERA with a gaudy 36-to-8 K/BB ratio in 33 1/3 innings of work. His fastball, which averaged 94.7 mph in 2021, was up to nearly 96 mph on average in 2022, and Megill suddenly looked like far more than a band-aid on an injury-marred starting staff — at least until the injury bug bit him, too.

The Mets placed Megill on the 15-day injured list with biceps inflammation on May 12, just days after he was tattooed for eight runs in 1 1/3 innings against the Nationals. He returned on June 10, made a pair of starts that lasted 3 1/3 frames apiece (yielding a combined six runs in the process) and went back on the IL just seven days after being activated — this time due to a shoulder strain. The absence proved far more substantial this time around. Megill was transferred to the 60-day IL just 10 days after his original placement, and he remained sidelined all the way until Sept. 19.

In his career, Megill has overwhelmed right-handed opponents with a power fastball/slider combination, but his changeup has been generally ineffective, leaving him susceptible to left-handed batters. That bears out in his alarming platoon splits. Righties have been downright flummoxed by him, batting only .202/.247/.331. Lefty bats, however, have absolutely clobbered Megill at a .307/.368/.568 clip. He’ll have a chance to win the job, but if he’s going to find long-term success, he’ll need to find a better offering to neutralize opponents in platoon settings.

Longer Shots Who Could Start At Some Point In 2023

Joey Lucchesi, LHP, 29

Acquired from the Padres in the three-team deal that sent Joe Musgrove from Pittsburgh to San Diego, Lucchesi made 11 solid appearances for the Mets in 2021, serving in this exact type of sixth starter role that’s now resurfaced in Queens. Eight of those appearances were starts, and the former fourth-round pick worked to a decent 4.46 ERA with a more-impressive 3.40 FIP and 3.79 SIERA. Lucchesi punched out a strong 26.1% of his opponents against a similarly strong 7.1% walk rate. He might’ve held that role down the stretch — and into 2022 — had he remained healthy, but a late-June diagnosis of a torn ulnar collateral ligament led to Tommy John surgery. Lucchesi missed the remainder of the 2021 season and all of the 2022 campaign.

Early in his career with the Friars, Lucchesi looked the part of a solid fourth starter, pitching to a 4.14 ERA in 56 starts and 293 2/3 innings from 2018-19. He’s thrown just 44 innings since that time, due primarily to injury, but he owns a 4.24 ERA in 337 2/3 big league innings. He still has a pair of minor league options remaining, so the Mets can send him to Triple-A Syracuse to stay stretched out and monitor his workload if they go another route in the rotation. Given that he missed all of the 2022 season, Lucchesi is likely to have his innings capped this season, which probably works against him — especially in the early stages.

Elieser Hernandez, RHP, 27

An offseason acquisition made with an eye toward bolstering the pitching depth, Hernandez came over alongside reliever Jeff Brigham in a deal sending minor leaguers Franklin Sanchez and Jake Mangum to Miami. He’s fresh off a tough 2022 season, but the former Rule 5 pick — the Marlins selected him out of the Astros organization in 2017 — was once a promising member of the Marlins’ young core of arms. From 2020-21, he pitched 77 1/3 innings of 3.84 ERA ball with plus strikeout (26.3%) and walk (5.7%) rates.

Home runs and injuries have been a problem for Hernandez throughout his career, however. His breakout 2020 campaign was shortened by a lat strain, and his 2021 season was interrupted both by a strained quadriceps and inflammation in his right biceps. He’s only shown glimpses of his potential in the Majors, but Hernandez also sports a stout 2.86 ERA, 32.4% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate in 129 Triple-A frames spread across parts of four seasons. He has a minor league option remaining, but he could also make the club as a long reliever.

Jose Butto, RHP, 25

Butto, who’ll turn 26 in less than two weeks, made his big league debut last year when he tossed four innings but was knocked around by the Phillies, who scored seven runs against him at Citizens Bank Park. It wasn’t a great first impression, but Butto nonetheless had a strong year in the minors, logging a combined 3.56 ERA in 129 innings between Double-A and Triple-A.

Scouting reports at each of Baseball America, MLB.com and FanGraphs laud Butto’s plus changeup and above-average heater, but he lacks a third offering, leading to plenty of speculation that he’ll ultimately settle in as a long reliever or swingman. There’s more upside here if he can improve either his curveball or his slider, but he’d be hard-pressed to leapfrog the names ahead of him for starts early in the season. Still, he’s already gotten his feet wet in the Majors and had success in the upper minors, so with some improvements to his secondary pitches and/or a big early performance in Syracuse, Butto could find himself making some starts at some point this year, as injuries on the big league roster necessitate.

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As far as non-roster options go, the Mets are generally light on MLB-ready starting pitching in the upper levels of their system (beyond the 40-man names already covered above). Recent trades have thinned out some of that depth, with both J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller going to the A’s for Chris Bassitt, while Thomas Szapucki went to the Giants as part of the Darin Ruf swap. Most of the Mets’ very best prospects are position players, and the top-ranked pitchers in their system are generally multiple years from MLB readiness.

The presence of Peterson, Megill, Lucchesi, Hernandez and Butto gives the Mets ample depth from which to draw, particularly given how solid both Peterson and Megill looked at times last year. Still, pitcher performance is volatile and injuries are inevitable. If the Mets want to further cultivate some depth, there are a handful of recognizable veteran names who’ve yet to sign — Michael Pineda, Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy among them. Whether that trio, or any of the other remaining starters on the market, is willing to take a minor league deal remains to be seen.

Failing that, the Mets can perhaps keep an eye on other veterans around the league who are currently on minor league/non-roster deals. Many of those pitchers have opt-out opportunities if they don’t make their current club’s roster or upward mobility clauses that allow them to leave the current organization if another team is willing to offer an immediate 40-man roster spot.

For the time being, it doesn’t appear particularly crucial for the Mets to make another addition, but a second injury in the rotation would start to leave an otherwise strong staff looking vulnerable, and there’s little harm in stockpiling depth to the extent possible.

Quick Hits: Narvaez, Gallo, Monfort, Tatis Jr., Mets

By Simon Hampton | February 4, 2023 at 1:20pm CDT

Omar Narvaez signed a one-year, $8MM deal (with a $7MM player option for 2024) with the Mets just before Christmas, and Will Sammon of The Athletic shed a little more light on the market for the veteran backstop before he eventually wound up in New York. Sammon notes that the Giants strongly considered a move for Narvaez while the Twins, Tigers and Reds all had varying levels of interest.

The Giants have since inked Roberto Perez, the Reds are set with the trio of Tyler Stephenson, Curt Casali and Luke Maile while the Twins signed Christian Vazquez to the position. The Tigers are an interesting one though, as they’ve only added Triple-A backstop Donny Sands in a trade with the Phillies. They’re set to use some combination of Eric Haase, Jake Rogers and Sands in 2023 but it’s interesting to hear they were at least interested in a higher profile addition there this winter. If they do still look to add an external catcher, Gary Sanchez, Robinson Chirinos and Kevin Plawecki are the remaining notable catchers on the market.

Here’s some more bits and pieces from around baseball:

Joey Gallo could be set to see a bit of time at first base in 2023. As Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic noted in a recent mailbag, Gallo could well be the back up first baseman to Alex Kirilloff. That’s not to say Gallo will be on the bench, as the former Ranger, Yankee and Dodger will get plenty of reps in the outfield, but if Kirilloff’s struggles extend into 2023 the Twins could utilize Gallo a fair bit at the position. He rates well as a defender in the outfield, and has made just one appearance at first since 2018 but he’s also graded out solidly defensively at first in his time there.
Rockies owner Dick Monfort made headlines recently when he boldly stated he thought the Rockies could play .500 ball this season. That’d be a big ask in a competitive NL West, and the Rockies have done little to improve on their 68-94 record in 2022. Whatever record they wind up with this year, Monfort – in an interview with Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post – said they wouldn’t go down the rebuilding path: “I guess the connotation on rebuilding is you just get rid of everybody. You try to draft low, which we’re not [going to do]. We’re not trying to get the first pick. We’re not going to tank. We never have, never will,” Monfort said.
With the Padres adding Xander Bogaerts on a long-term deal and still having Manny Machado under contract for at least the next season, the left side of their infield appears set. Of course, that led to an expectation that Fernando Tatis Jr. would head to the outfield moving forward. That still looks to be the case, although the player didn’t commit to a position and said he’s been working out in both the infield and outfield this winter (via Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Tribune-Review). It’s been a challenging few seasons for Tatis, but he also added that he’s feeling “as close to 100%” as he’s been the past few seasons after dealing with wrist and shoulder injuries, and is expecting to be a full participant in spring training.
Sammon’s report in The Athletic also includes details on the Mets plans for Tylor Megill and David Peterson. Both players figure to be in and around the team at some stage over the course of the season, but Sammon reports that the team’s ideal scenario would be to have both players go to Triple-A to start the season and work as starters there, rather than starting the season in the big league bullpen. Of course, injuries in the spring could force one or both of them into rotation spots to begin the season anyway, but it seems the Mets are hoping to avoid using them in relief roles to begin the season.

NL Notes: Schuerholz, Braves, Astros, Mets, Dodgers

By Mark Polishuk and Drew Silva | January 29, 2023 at 5:50pm CDT

Before the Astros hired Dana Brown as their new general manager, the team also interviewed one of Brown’s co-workers from the Braves front office in special assistant of scouting operations Jonathan Schuerholz, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports. Schuerholz played six seasons in Atlanta’s minor league system (from 2002-07) before moving into a minor league instructor role for the next seven seasons, and then in front office since October 2014 in assistant director roles in the player development and scouting departments.

Houston’s search involved candidates with several differing levels of experience, ranging from at least one former MLB general manager in Bobby Evans to a former manager in Brad Ausmus, who has mostly worked in on-field roles apart from brief stints as a special assistant in the front office with the Angels and Padres. (Brown was the Braves’ VP of scouting, a role that won’t be filled since Nightengale writes that the team specifically tailored the job to Brown himself.) Schuerholz was one of the younger known candidates at age 42, though he comes from a noteworthy lineage — Schuerholz’s father John is a Hall-of-Fame executive known for his success in building World Series winners in Atlanta and Kansas City. The younger Schuerholz could well be a name to watch in future years as teams look to fill GM/president of baseball operations vacancies.

Mets Reinstate Max Scherzer, Tylor Megill

By Darragh McDonald | September 19, 2022 at 3:40pm CDT

The Mets announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game, reinstating right-hander Max Scherzer from the 15-day injured list and fellow righty Tylor Megill from the 60-day IL. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster for Megill but needed to open two spots on the active roster, doing so by optioning right-hander Stephen Nogosek and left-hander Alex Claudio.

Scherzer returns after just a minimum stay on the 15-day IL, which is surely a huge relief for everyone in the Mets’ world. Scherzer had missed about six weeks earlier in the season due to a left oblique strain and seemed to injure himself in the same area a couple of weeks ago. Scherzer and the club were hopeful that they had caught the issue early, referring to it as mere “fatigue” in the muscle. They had expressed optimism that the righty could return after a short breather on the IL, which has indeed come to pass.

When healthy enough to take the mound, the 38-year-old has been everything the Mets could have hoped for when they signed him in the offseason. Through 20 starts, he has a 2.26 ERA, 30.6% strikeout rate, 4.6% walk rate and 29.3% ground ball rate. Despite missing extensive time, he’s accrued 4.1 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs, ranking him 12th in the majors. He’ll now return to the rotation alongside Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker and Chris Bassitt, one of the rare moments this year when the club’s top five starters have all been healthy at the same time. That could potentially be a difference maker over the final two weeks of the schedule, with the Mets clinging to the top spot in the NL East but just one game ahead of Atlanta.

Earlier in the year, when the rotation was not fully healthy, the Mets turned to Megill to help fill in. He performed admirably at first, not allowing a run in his first two starts and holding onto a 1.93 ERA through the end of April. Unfortunately, he was hit hard over the next few weeks and then was placed on the IL in mid-June due to a right shoulder strain, only returning today. His ERA on the season jumped up to 5.01 during that rough stretch, though it’s fair to wonder if the shoulder issues were contributing to that. He has been rehabbing in the minors over the past three weeks but in single-inning relief appearances. That figures to be his role the rest of the way, though it has been previously reported that the Mets plan on returning him to a starting role next season. There’s a lot of uncertainty about next year’s rotation, since deGrom, Walker, Bassitt and Carrasco all have options or opt-outs, leaving Scherzer as the only one of the current group that’s guaranteed to return.

Mets Notes: Marte, Megill, Nogosek, Givens

By Mark Polishuk | September 17, 2022 at 7:56pm CDT

Starling Marte attempted to start some baseball activities a few days ago, but the outfielder told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) that the hitting and throwing drills were stopped since Marte’s fractured right middle finger “was still bothering me a good amount.” Since Marte’s injured-list placement was retroactive to September 7, he won’t be activated after just the minimum 10 days, and it isn’t yet certain when or even if Marte could be back before the end of the regular season.

For his part, Marte feels he will be able to play again, though manager Buck Showalter was more circumspect about the possibility. Naturally, getting Marte back onto the field as soon as possible would be ideal for all parties, especially if he can get some swings under his belt to ensure that his finger is fully healed heading into the playoffs. But, with a postseason trip all but officially assured, the team isn’t going to rush Marte back, since a re-aggravation of the injury could threaten his availability for October.

The Mets are trying to hold off the Braves for first place in the NL East, and the division crown carries even more importance given the new playoff format. While a late surge from the NL Central-leading Cardinals can’t be ruled out, the NL East winner is likely to finish with the second-best record in the National League, and will thus earn a first-round bye. That bye is valuable for countless reasons, including the fact that getting over a full week off would allow a team more time to get its players (like Marte) rested and recovered from injuries. Of course, not having Marte available will make it all the more difficult for New York to stay ahead of Atlanta down the stretch.

While Marte’s status is still a question mark, the Mets are at least getting some reinforcements back on the pitching side. Max Scherzer is tentatively scheduled to be activated from the 15-day IL in time to start Monday’s game against the Brewers, and Tylor Megill is also slated to be activated from the 60-day IL when the series begins in Milwaukee.

Megill suffered a shoulder strain in mid-June, and after starting all 27 games of his brief MLB career, the righty is being targeted for a bullpen role upon his return. Between his shoulder injury and another long-month IL stint due to biceps inflammation, Megill has barely pitched in 2022, with just 41 1/3 innings over his nine appearances. While his SIERA is an impressive 3.28 and his strikeout and walk rates are both above-average, Megill’s real-world numbers include a 5.01 ERA.

The Mets also welcomed righty reliever Stephen Nogosek back from the 15-day IL today, and played Mychal Givens on the injured list in the corresponding move. There was no stated reason for Givens’ placement, indicating that the right-hander has been placed on the COVID-related version of the IL. It isn’t known if Givens has tested positive for COVID-19, or is just suffering from symptoms.

Nogosek has missed the last four weeks due to an oblique strain. Now in his third MLB season, Nogosek has a career-high 19 1/3 innings, and a solid 2.79 ERA. New York has shuttled Nogosek up and down from Triple-A on multiple occasions this year, but with the Triple-A season almost over, Nogosek figures to stick in the majors and provide more depth in the Mets’ bullpen.

NL Notes: Megill, Suarez, Pomeranz, Bettinger

By Darragh McDonald | August 7, 2022 at 9:01am CDT

It was recently reported that the Mets are aiming to have Tylor Megill work out of the bullpen when he returns from the injured list, given that their rotation is healthier than it was early in the season. However, the team has told Megill that he will be stretched back out as a starter for next year, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.

The fact that the Mets still want to try Megill as a rotation candidate is fairly sensible, given that it’s possible they will face a huge amount of turnaround in that department in the coming months. Jacob deGrom has long maintained that he’s going to exercise his opt-out after this year, despite his lengthy injury battles. Chris Bassitt has a mutual option for 2023, which is unlikely to be exercised by both sides, as mutual options almost never are. Taijuan Walker has a $6MM player option with a $3MM buyout. Though he can increase the value of that option with incentives as high as $8.5MM with 175 innings pitched this year, he’s still likely to turn that down and find more money in free agency. The Mets hold a $14MM club option over Carlos Carrasco that will vest if he reaches 170 innings and finishes the year healthy.

It’s within the realm of possibility that the Mets begin the offseason with an on-paper rotation of Max Scherzer followed by depth options like David Peterson and Joey Lucchesi. Given all that uncertainty, it’s understandable that they’d want to keep Megill in the mix. He stepped up to fill in for deGrom earlier this season and posted a 1.93 ERA through April, though he then posted an 11.48 ERA after that as his shoulder injury seemed to catch up with him.

Other notes from the Senior Circuit…

The Padres reinstated righty Robert Suarez from the 60-day injured list yesterday, per a club announcement. The 40-man roster already had a vacancy, meaning no corresponding move was required in that regard. Fellow righty Steven Wilson was optioned to create room on the active roster. Suarez was signed in the offseason after a five-year stint in Japan and has thrown 24 1/3 innings for the Padres this year. His 29.3% strikeout rate is very strong though it also comes with a 13.1% walk rate, leading to a 3.33 ERA on the year so far. He’s been on the IL since early June due to knee inflammation.
The San Diego bullpen could soon welcome back another injured hurler, as lefty Drew Pomeranz has begun a rehab assignment. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Pomeranz is expected to pitch in at least two rookie ball games before deciding next steps. Signed to a four-year deal in late 2019, the southpaw had an excellent showing in the shortened 2020 season, throwing 18 2/3 innings with a 1.45 ERA and 39.7% strikeout rate, though he also had a 13.7% walk rate. He was putting up fairly similar numbers last year before undergoing surgery to repair an injured flexor tendon, a procedure he’s still working back from almost a year later. If he can come back in a form that’s anywhere close to what he showed in 2020 and 2021, he should provide a huge boost to the Friars’ relief corps, which also just picked up Josh Hader prior to the trade deadline.
The Brewers announced that right-hander Alec Bettinger has been released. The 27-year-old made his MLB debut last year, tossing ten innings over four appearances with an unsightly 13.50 ERA in that small sample. He lost his 40-man roster spot earlier this year, being outrighted in May. Though Bettinger had put up solid minor league number in previous years, he’s not fared well this season, registering a 6.49 ERA through 34 2/3 Triple-A innings. After posting walk rates around 6% in recent years, he’s more than doubled it here in 2022, jumping to 12.9%. His strikeouts have also vanished, coming in at a 12.9% clip this year after being in the 23-27% in prior campaigns.

Mets Plan To Activate Jacob deGrom On Tuesday

By Anthony Franco | July 30, 2022 at 8:02am CDT

The Mets are planning to reinstate Jacob deGrom from the 60-day injured list next Tuesday, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The two-time Cy Young winner will make his season debut against the Nationals.

deGrom hasn’t pitched in a major league game in just shy of 13 months. He was on his way to one of the most dominant pitching seasons in history last year, working to an absurd 1.08 ERA with a 45.1% strikeout rate through 15 starts. deGrom had a few injury concerns along the way, however, and he landed on the IL coming out of the All-Star Break due to a forearm/ebow issue. That eventually proved to be season-ending, with the righty’s final outing of the year coming on July 7.

New York anticipated reinstalling deGrom atop the rotation alongside offseason free agent pickup Max Scherzer to form the game’s scariest 1-2 punch. Just before Opening Day, deGrom experienced some shoulder soreness during a between-starts throwing session. He was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his scapula, an issue that cost him almost the first four months of the 2022 campaign.

deGrom has been building back to game action for a while, and he began a minor league rehab assignment at the start of July. He’s made four starts, topping out at four innings and 67 pitches. deGrom’s most recent appearance at Triple-A Syracuse came on Wednesday, so he’ll get a six-day rest before joining the big league club. DiComo writes that he’ll unsurprisingly be on a strict pitch limit for his first appearance, but the Mets anticipate he’ll gradually build towards a traditional starter’s workload throughout the second half.

The Mets rotation will be more or less at full strength for the first time all year. deGrom will step into an excellent starting five alongside Scherzer, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco. Scherzer has been his typically dominant self, while Walker has somewhat quietly posted a 2.67 ERA across 17 starts. Bassitt had a rough stretch between May and June, though the typically reliable righty has bounced back with a 3.20 mark this month. Carrasco is a more than qualified fifth option, posting a 4.07 ERA with better than average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates. David Peterson is a solid sixth starter. The Mets do remain without righty Tylor Megill due to a shoulder injury. Manager Buck Showalter told reporters yesterday the club was viewing Megill as a bullpen option for the rest of this season once he makes his return, which won’t be until at least late August (via Tim Britton of the Athletic).

The Mets are a virtual lock to make the postseason in some capacity, and the organization is surely anticipating running out three or four members of that group in a playoff rotation. The more immediate concern is holding onto a three-game lead over the defending champion Braves in the NL East, with the new postseason format’s first-round bye making it particularly advantageous to finish as a top-two seed in each league. It appears the National League’s byes will wind up going to the Dodgers and the East winner.

As for deGrom, he’ll have two months (plus any postseason action) to reestablish himself as the sport’s best pitcher now that he’s healthy. In spite of his absence, the 34-year-old has maintained he plans to opt out of the final guaranteed season of his deal at the end of this year. That’d be a no-brainer decision if he demonstrates he remains at peak form for the final couple months, particularly with one of the top impending free agent starters (Joe Musgrove) now unlikely to hit the market.

Mets Claim Kramer Robertson, Transfer Tylor Megill To 60-Day IL

By Anthony Franco | June 27, 2022 at 3:15pm CDT

The Mets have claimed infielder Kramer Robertson off waivers from the Braves, tweets Tim Healey of Newsday. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. That’s also true of reliever Colin Holderman, who was reinstated from the 15-day injured list and sent to the minors. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Robertson, the Mets transferred Tylor Megill from the 15-day to the 60-day IL.

A former fourth-round pick of the Cardinals, Robertson made it to the big leagues last month. He appeared in two games, picking up his first plate appearance, before being optioned back out. St. Louis designated the 27-year-old for assignment not too long thereafter, and the Braves grabbed him off waivers.

Robertson has spent 13 games with Atlanta’s top affiliate in Gwinnett. Despite playing quite well over that stretch, he apparently landed on waivers over the weekend. (The club didn’t announce his removal from the 40-man roster at the time). The Braves’ attempt to slip Robertson through waivers and keep him in the organization as a non-roster player was thwarted by their division rivals.

In parts of three Triple-A seasons, the LSU product owns a .246/.369/.398 slash line. He’s walked in a stellar 14.3% of his plate appearances at the minors’ highest level and can cover anywhere on the infield. Robertson is in his first of three minor league option years, so the Mets will add a flexible upper level depth option if they keep him on the 40-man roster.

Megill’s IL transfer backdates to June 17, when he first landed on the shelf. The right-hander suffered a shoulder strain and won’t begin a throwing program until around the All-Star Break, and he’ll certainly need weeks to build up arm strength even in a best-case scenario. It never seemed likely he’d be back before mid-August given that initial timeline, and today’s move makes that official.

Mets Notes: Scherzer, deGrom, Megill

By Anthony Franco | June 21, 2022 at 9:47pm CDT

The Mets co-aces each hit a milestone in their recoveries from injury today. Max Scherzer made a rehab start with Double-A Binghamton, tossing 3 1/3 innings and 65 pitches. It’s the first game action for the three-time Cy Young winner since he suffered an oblique strain in mid-May.

Jon Heyman and Mark Sanchez of the New York Post wrote over the weekend that Scherzer could return to the big league staff as soon as Sunday. Whether he’s back that quickly remains to be seen, but it’s possible he could beat the initial timeline. The club originally estimated his recovery at six-to-eight weeks; this Thursday will mark the five-week mark since the injury. Even if Scherzer does wind up requiring one more rehab start before returning to the majors, the Mets surely have to be happy with his current situation considering the initial expectations.

The team announced that Jacob deGrom threw a live batting practice session at their Florida complex (via Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). It’s the first time deGrom has thrown to hitters since he was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his scapula at the end of Spring Training. The four-time All-Star has been working off the mound for the past couple weeks, and he continues to progress toward an eventual return. A specific timeline for him logging game action is to be determined, and deGrom is expected to require at least three rehab starts before getting back on the Citi Field mound.

In addition to Scherzer and deGrom, New York will be without Tylor Megill for an extended period. The right-hander suffered a shoulder strain and landed on the injured list last week, with the club announcing he’d be shut down from throwing entirely for at least a month.

Megill only managed a 5.01 ERA through nine starts before the injury, but he struck out a quality 27% of batters faced against a 6.3% walk rate. He’s started all 27 of his major league appearances dating back to last year’s call-up, but the Mets have at least given some thought to using him in shorter stints. Ken Rosenthal suggested on this week’s Athletic Baseball Show that New York had some internal discussions about the possibility of converting Megill into a high-leverage setup role once Scherzer and deGrom returned to join Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, Chris Bassitt and depth starters David Peterson and Trevor Williams.

Rosenthal noted those hypotheticals were kicked around before Megill’s injury, which could throw a wrench into any plans. It seems likely he’d require less of a rehab buildup to work out of relief than as a starter, perhaps increasing the appeal of such a move though. Either way, Megill won’t be on an MLB mound for an extended period, and intervening events will no doubt affect the club’s course of action. He’s likely to be out through the August 2 trade deadline, and New York figures to explore the market for both starting and relief help over the coming weeks.

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