NY Mets: 4 pitchers the team could use even after the Rich Hill trade

Friday, the New York Mets swung a trade for veteran starting pitcher Rich Hill, sending Tommy Hunter and minor leaguer Matt Dyer to the Tampa Bay Rays in return.

Hill is by no means an overly exciting addition, seeing as he’s 41 years old and his fastball averages under 88 mph, but Mr. Mountain is still a really solid starter. His ERA on the season is a 3.87 and his ERA+ is 102, so he’s been about average. With all the injuries the Mets have had, average and consistency are good right now.

With that said, if Hill is the only starting pitching addition the Mets make before the trade deadline, it’ll be a bit of a disappointment. Hill helps, as he can go out there every fifth day and hopefully give the Mets solid length, but the Mets still need more — so here are four options.

The Mets could take advantage of the fire sale in the north side of Chicago and pick up (no, not Kris Bryant) Zach Davies.

The 28-year-old right-hander isn’t anything special, and he’s definitely on the lower end of potentially available starting pitchers the Mets could acquire. This season through 102.2 innings, Davies has a 4.30 ERA, which is just a little bit below league average. It’s not good, but it’s not the worst out there.

More concerningly though is his WHIP of 1.49, which among qualifiers is the third-worst in baseball. His issue isn’t giving up hits, though he’s not too strong in that aspect either, but mainly, it’s walks. He’s allowed 54 free passes this season, which is the most in baseball.

In 21 starts, Davies has yet to have a game without allowing a walk. In all but one of those games he’s allowed at least two, and in 10 of them he’s allowed more than three. In other terms, in nearly 50% of his starts he is allowing at the very minimum a trio of free passes to first base — that’s really bad, there’s no other way to put it.

There is one other thing in that sentence though that stands out though, and that’s his 21 starts — the most in baseball. That’s the one huge plus about Davies, his ability to consistently go out there every fifth day and take the ball.

The Mets have had such little consistency in the starting rotation this season, Davies could provide some. It wouldn’t be an exciting addition, but he could hold down the back end of the rotation until the premier arms get healthy. He’d also likely come very cheap, seeing as he’s a free agent after this season, on a team that is selling and also just not that good of a pitcher.