3 NY Mets players who could ‘Wally Pipp’ an injured teammate

2) Tylor Megill might never let Paul Blackburn back into the rotation

Sean Manaea will start for the Mets this year and we don’t have a problem with it. The same goes for Frankie Montas except we do have a slight issue with it. Sorry, but you can’t convince most fans he was the right guy to sign until he proves otherwise.

Those two are on the IL to begin the year. So is Paul Blackburn whose yet to be defined role may have him sitting in the bullpen for a good stretch of the season. Tylor Megill beat him out for a rotation spot this spring. If Megill pitches well enough, Blackburn may never get his chance outside of necessity.

In mid-April, the Mets will move from a five-man rotation to a six-man one. At that time, Blackburn probably will need to start games for the team. We’ll have some sort of an idea as to which version of Megill is here. Because of his minor league options, all things equal would probably have the team preferring Blackburn. Just a smidge better, Blackburn might rot away in the bullpen.

We can toss in several of the Mets relief pitchers in here as well as ones capable of Pipp’ing Blackburn into obscurity. The Mets will probably find a way, at least temporarily, to keep Blackburn around even if it means demoting Huascar Brazoban or Max Kranick. By the time we get to Memorial Day when the ruthlessness of David Stearns came out most last year, it might be time to dump Blackburn. Megill pitching well will be one of the reasons why they can.