It’s May 16th and Met fans are wondering when Jason Vargas will be able to return to the rotation.
In rapid succession earlier this month, Jason Vargas and Steven Matz both went on the Injured List. The lack of depth in the pitching department was glaringly obvious to anyone with working eyes this offseason.
Anyone, that is, besides Brodie Van Wagenen apparently. In an interview with WFAN this winter, our General Manager had the following to say about our pitching depth.
“We feel good about it,” Van Wagenen said. “People like to talk about what we don’t have. I like to focus on what we do have. We added depth to the rotation by getting guys like Walker Lockett, Hector Santiago. That’s on top of the guys like Corey Oswalt, Drew Gagnon and Chris Flexen. I think we go pretty deep. Nobody can really absorb the adversity that comes with losing one of your aces, but we feel like we’ve added a number of guys that have no. 4, no. 5 potential to our roster.”
Fast forward to May. The Mets have given two starts to Wilmer Font, a pitcher designated for assignment by Tampa Bay who has a career ERA over 6. Going forward, at least in the short term, it looks like we’ll be in Flexen-Oswalt territory every fifth day.
Jason Vargas is not ready to rejoin the Mets just yet. He will need to make at least one rehab start for Binghamton. That means at least one more appearance from a list of names that includes Wilmer Font, Drew Gagnon, Chris Flexen and Corey Oswalt.
Do I need to tell you the Mets Win-Loss record in games they have started?
In lighter news, Steven Matz reportedly felt great after his bullpen session today and may be able to start Saturday in Miami.
It hasn’t been all doom and gloom regarding the pitching either. The Mets have the best bullpen ERA in May, thanks in large part to Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo. The starting rotation has been good too lately. Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard seem determined to make their struggles in April a distant memory.
Every fifth day though. Every fifth day is a question mark and no should be surprised.