Quick Hits: Dillon Gee Has Been a Whiz

With six innings of one-run ball this afternoon, Dillon Gee closed out an impressive June on the winning end of a 5-1 Mets victory. After a dreadful start to the season, Gee has steadily made a name for himself in what is already an above-average New York rotation.

June 29, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Mets pitcher Dillon Gee throws a pitch against the Washington Nationals during the game at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Munson/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

In his six starts since May 30 when he strolled into Yankee Stadium and shut down the Bronx Bombers, Gee has gone 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA, 1.116 WHIP, and .689 OPS against over 40.1 innings. Aside from his Subway Series start, Dillon’s second-best outing may have come on June 17, the only blemish in his record, in which he came two outs from a complete-game shutout only to see Freddie Freeman rob him in the middle of the night. The only real bad marks over that span came last weekend when he was shelled for five earned runs in Philadelphia, but not everyone can be Matt Harvey unhittable every time out, can they?

Gee’s progress is especially encouraging after his dreadful start to the season. Over his first 10 starts to open 2013, he went just 2-6 with a 6.34 ERA, 1.732 WHIP, and .909 OPS against in just 49.2 innings. His hard luck wasn’t all unexpected given he missed the second half of 2012 with a blot clot in his shoulder, and the Mets organization must have been relieved he was able to pitch again at all, but Gee came dangerously close to being the odd man out of the rotation following Zack Wheeler’s promotion.

Fortunately for Gee but unfortunately for his team, Jonathon Niese’s DL trip made rotation shuffling a moot point once Wheeler came up to much fanfare on June 18. But Niese won’t be missed too desperately because of the depth Gee and company give the Mets’ rotation already. Matt Harvey is Cy Young material and Zack Wheeler will get there, while the pleasant surprise Jeremy Hefner has been overshadows that of even Gee, and Shaun Marcum is far better than his 1-9 record implies. A Harvey-Wheeler-Hefner-Marcum-Gee lineup gives the New York Mets the chance to win every day, but more importantly, the top-to-bottom depth of the rotation means Sandy Alderson is going to have a lot of options in the near future. Once Niese returns and Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard ascend through the farm system, he’ll be able to sell off at least two, maybe even three starters to fill the holes in the rest of the major league ball club.

Will Dillon Gee be part of the Amazin’ future? If he keeps on this roll, it’s going to be hard for Sandy to say no.

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