Mets: Three burning questions that need answering this spring

2) Who will be the New York Mets fifth starter after Spring Training?

Where the Mets front office may have won the offseason in Mets fan’s eyes, outside of the blockbuster trade for Francisco Lindor, is the amount of pitching depth that was built. The Mets acquired a handful of arms that include, Joey Lucchesi, Jordan Yamamoto, Jerad Eickhoff, Sean-Reid Foley to name a few. These pitchers along with a few others will be potentially auditioning against left-handed starter David Peterson for the final rotation spot.

While Peterson should be considered the favorite to win the fifth starter slot that is up for grabs after his excellent rookie debut in 2020, it’s also important to remember that the 25-year old Peterson only threw 123 innings last season. Peterson also has never thrown more than 128 innings in a given season in his entire career, which makes you wonder if he may be placed on an innings limit this season.

Should Peterson have his innings monitored to begin the year and he does not head north with the Major League club, there will be no shortage of options for Manager Luis Rojas to have at his disposal to slide into the back-end of the rotation. Rojas also mentioned that a six-man rotation could be in play this season which could also factor into how the starting rotation is constructed.

It’s certainly refreshing to see a fresh list of names that could potentially join the Mets starting rotation whether it is out of Spring Training or at some point during the regular season should a need arise. With the amount of starting pitching depth that has been acquired this winter, the Mets will have an abundant amount of competition to round out the starting rotation.