In trading David Peterson, the Mets have dealt from a position of weakness, as their starting rotation was already more or less in shambles. With yesterday’s poor performances from Nolan McLean and Sean Manaea, plus the demotion of Kodai Senga to the bullpen and Peterson’s departure, the Mets have to rebuild their starting staff mid-season, and there aren’t too many options.
What is known is that, at least for now, McLean, Manaea, and Freddy Peralta are going to hold down the top three slots of the Mets’
rotation. Peralta is coming off one of his worst starts as a Met, and McLean was left in too long against the Cubs yesterday, but both are as close to a ‘sure thing’ as the Mets have right now, even if that pains me to say it. Manaea has improved his velocity since rejoining the rotation, but he’s still a shakier third starter than the Mets would like.
Now here comes the tricky part. Reports are that the Mets are calling Zach Thornton to start on Friday in Peterson’s stead, but whether this is a spot start of an invitation to prove himself in the rotation remains to be seen. In 12 appearances (11 starts) across both Double and Triple-A, Thornton has a 4.25 ERA. In his one big league appearance, he went four and a third innings, giving up three earned runs and striking out three.
Replacing Senga in the rotation will be the returning Christian Scott, after serving time on the IL with a hip issue. Scott has been a rare bright spot on this club, putting up a 3.10 ERA across nine starts. His first start of the year was an abject disaster (5 earned runs in one and a third innings pitched), but since then, he’s settled in nicely.
With Clay Holmes likely not back until August (and being one of the best trade chips the Mets have, broken fibula or not), the Mets are going to need to make this group, or this group plus or minus Jonah Tong and/or Jack Wenninger, work for them. It looks like the Mets are likely out of the playoff race, and so players like the aforementioned Holmes and Peralta might be on the block. If that’s the case, the Mets’ rotation will get very young, but the results may even look, somehow, worse than they do right now.
