New York Mets starting rotation options are plentiful even without Trevor Bauer

The next Mets pitcher that will get a chance to compete for a rotation spot is someone who the team is very familiar with. That player’s name is Jordan Yamamoto, who was traded to the Mets this offseason from the Miami Marlins.

Yamamoto, like Peterson, is very young and has not spent much time in the big leagues. He had an encouraging stint in 2019 and only had four appearances in 2020, most of which were not so great. Yamamoto is 24 years old, and he profiles as a four-pitch starter. He primarily deploys a fastball, curveball, cutter, and slider. In many ways, Yamamoto is cut from the same cloth as Peterson: He is not someone who relies on blowing by hitters with a near triple-digit fastball. Yamamoto’s fastball hovers at around 91 mph.

As a young player, Yamamoto is also a cheap, young, and talented asset. He is under club control until 2026. This means that the Mets, unless they choose to trade him, can hold onto him for a long time. Provided that Yamamoto realizes his potential, there is a strong possibility that Yamamoto could be a fixture in the team’s rotation a couple years from now.

Former Marlins pitcher Jordan Yamamoto is one example of Mets owner Steve Cohen’s commitment to rebuilding the club’s depth.

It is important to note that Mets owner Steve Cohen noted that he wanted to improve the team’s depth. He has been very consistent about this ever since he bought the team. One of his stated goals is to improve the team’s depth, which makes sense because the team’s lack of depth hurt them last year, particularly when it came to starting pitching. The trade for Yamamoto is indisputable evidence that the new ownership and front office is prioritizing quality depth.

With Yamamoto under team control through 2026 and having a minor league option, the Mets could send him to Triple-A without placing him on waivers. And that is what I believe the Mets will do.

Prediction: Yamamoto will start the season with Triple-A Syracuse, headlining the club’s starting rotation. If he performs well there, he will be the first pitcher called up if one of the Mets starters goes on the IL for a significant amount of time.

The next pitcher that the Mets will consider for the rotation is someone who has been with the Mets for the past few years, serving in a multitude of roles for the team. That player’s name is Seth Lugo. He has been called on to be a starter, reliever, and closer for the team. Lugo entered 2020 with the expectation that he would be one of the most important bullpen arms.

However, because of the ineptitude of the Mets free agent signings in 2020 (Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha), along with injuries and Stroman’s opt-out, Lugo was forced back into the starting rotation for a decent part of the truncated season.

Mets pitcher Seth Lugo could start, but his 2020 season suggested that would not be in his or the team’s best interests.

At first glance, Lugo’s 5.15 ERA in 2020 is alarming, but to be fair, that does not tell the whole story of Lugo’s season. Before he was thrust into the starting rotation, he made nine relief appearances, many of which were very good. At that point in time, he held a 2.03 ERA.
With the season being as short as it was in 2020, one bad start could severely inflate a pitcher’s ERA. And that is what happened to Lugo. He had two notably bad starts in 2020, one against the Philadelphia Phillies and the other against the Washington Nationals. The game against the Nationals in September was particularly damaging to Lugo. In that game, he allowed five runs and only got four outs before being yanked from the game.

As a result, Lugo had a 6.15 ERA as a starter and a 2.61 ERA as a reliever in 2020. And it should be noted that Lugo’s ERA ballooned when he was making the transition from reliever to starter. Although Lugo was used by the Mets as a utility pitcher, it would behoove the team to keep him in the position where he was most successful, and that is as a top reliever.

Prediction: Lugo will start and end the 2021 season as a key member of the Mets bullpen and have a bounceback year as a result.

The last Mets pitcher who is under consideration for a chance to start in the team’s rotation is Joey Lucchesi, a southpaw who the Mets acquired from the San Diego Padres. Lucchesi is 27 years old and does not become arbitration-eligible until 2022 at the earliest. This means that Lucchesi is another cheap and fairly young pitcher who contributes to the Mets new starting pitching depth.

Former Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi is in need of a bounceback year with the Mets after his patchy performance in 2020.

Lucchesi was taken in the fourth round of the 2016 MLB Draft by the Padres, coming out of a solid run at Southeast Mississippi State. He was heralded for his “churve,” as he threw a pitch that blended his curveball with his change-up. It is a pitch that was effective for him in college and with the Padres. However, Lucchesi has so far been unable to develop an effective third pitch outside of that pitch and his fastball. For him to solidify a spot in any team’s starting rotation, he is going to need to show that he has more than two pitches he can throw effectively.

Lucchesi, like Yamamoto and Lugo, also had a poor 2020 season. He finished the season with a 7.94 ERA and a 2.65 WHIP. Lucchesi’s biggest problem is that hitters hammer him the third time through the batting order. The San Diego Padres learned that over the course of the 2018 and 2019 seasons. With a career .943 OPS against him over his career thus far, it was no surprise, therefore, to see that the Padres refrained from having Lucchesi face hitters a third time at any point in 2020.

This is a scenario where the team allowed analytics to dictate how they utilized the young southpaw. As a result, Lucchesi did not receive an opportunity in 2020 to rewrite that narrative against him, but the problem was that he was ineffective at getting batters out the first two times through the order that he provided the Padres with no reason to give him that chance to go deeper in games. Simply put, he didn’t earn the right to pitch more innings, and with 2020 being a 60-game sprint that saw the Padres playing well, the team was not interested in showing patience with their young prospect.

Lucchesi will get an opportunity with the Mets to pitch. Whether he will start in the big leagues or in the minors will depend on what the team does during the rest of the free agency period. However, Lucchesi will have very stiff competition.

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Prediction: Lucchesi will begin the season as the Mets fifth starter (behind deGrom, Stroman, Carrasco, and Peterson) if they do not land another starting pitcher. If they do, Lucchesi will join Lugo in the bullpen, where he will be Lugo’s lefty equivalent, serving the Mets in various roles, including spot starter, long reliever, and even possibly as an opener.