Mets’ biggest rotation surprise and disappointment in 2020

The book on the New York Mets 2020 campaign has officially closed. It was a short, inconsistent and short season that was frustrating and frustrating, but the new ownership on the horizon makes it easier to feel hope for the future.

This year, despite the expansion of the field, New York was unable to play in October, which ultimately failed, but it was exciting. Finally breakout performance Michael Comfort,look Dominic Smith Become one of the best baseball batters, and Edwin Diaz It looked like a rescuer replaced by Mets in the first place.

However, the plus has a minus. For a team that finished 26-34, this is life. One of the biggest disappointments is in rotation. Outside Jacob deGrom I wasn’t overly excited about this area of ​​the roster as he was doing what he normally does. But if you say everything is bad, you will lie.

Before we touch on the biggest disappointment, let’s talk about the most enjoyable surprises of 2020 rotation.

The emergence of David Peterson

It dates back to February and March. Like 84 years ago At this point, the idea David Peterson Starting the big league every five days was a blink of an eye for many Mets fans. After all, in New YorkThe deepest rotation of baseballAfter signing Rick Porcello And Michael Wacha For a one-year contract.

afterwards Noah Syndergaard I needed Tommy John’s surgery. afterwards Marcus Stroman opt out. Second, everyone who wasn’t named deGrom struggled to achieve all sorts of consistency when towing slabs.

That was when Peterson’s music was played, and he stood up on the occasion. Besides spending a small part of the season in the bullpen, the rookie was one of the few glorious spots in the organization. He led the team with six victories, with 3.4 ERA, a 39.5% strikeout rate, a 11.7% walk rate and a 0.5 fWAR with 49.2 innings.

Of course, some advanced metrics weren’t very kind to Harler, who has a high pedestrian rate of not throwing so hard (average fastball speed of 92.1 mph). His 5.11 x FIP and 5.25 SIERA clearly portray a tougher situation for his first taste of big league action.

However, he managed this very well by having 76.8% of the runners sit on the base and limiting hard contacts to 31.2% clips.

Rotation is entering this off-season and there are many questions besides deGrom. Porcello, Wacha, Stroman are all free agents, how Thor recovers from surgery, or Seth Lugo It remains a starter to move forward. Regardless of some peripherals, Peterson had the opportunity to be considered a legitimate rotation option for 2021.

Steven Matz’s Lost Year

It’s finally this year Steven Matz He showed me what he could do! For me this is Several years in progress.. New pitching coach Jeremy Hefner Allowing Lefty to view the analysis in a way never seen before, Manager Luis Lohas The water was pumped to see the speed of the southpaw jump considerably.

Due to rotation injuries and absenteeism, Matz was awarded the pitching honor just behind the starting staff’s second spot, deGrom. His first outing with the Atlanta Braves was great as he allowed only one run with two hits, one walk, six innings and seven strikes.

Unfortunately, this was the only quality start he registered and was most of the batters he struck out in one all-season appearance. With 30.2 innings overall, Matz struggled with 9.68 ERA and -0.7 fWAR.

There was hope for some sort of breakout campaign in 2020, but he wasn’t expected to suddenly plunge into Cy Young’s conversation. It would have performed slightly better than the previous two seasons. Instead, the fWAR ended as the second worst mark in baseball among Harlers who worked at least 30 innings (Julio Teherán I got a suspicious crown of -0.9 fWAR here).

Even if you didn’t expect much from Mats At least a little more Than that. I mean, I was.

Everyone may speculate what will happen to the 29-year-old before the first day of 2021 due to the uncertainty brought about by the new ownership and the imminent major remodeling of the front office. After receiving a daily salary of $ 5 million this year, his modest performance doesn’t make him overpriced for him to maintain his roster during his last season of team control. But where does he fit? If you do not participate in the rotation, there are no signs of becoming an effective rescuer.

The only thing we certainly know here is that when the left-handed approached his platform year before he hit the free agency, he certainly didn’t like his own stock.

There may be a lot of unknowns about Mets’ rotation towards this winter, but there is at least one thing we all can comfort. Show with Wilpon in charge. And for that, we are all grateful.