Not even David Stearns can be as bullish on the NY Mets rotation as Frankie Montas

A festival for fans or as the New York Mets call theirs, Amazin Day, is a time for peaches, cream, unicorns, and rainbow. Most of what the players had to say were stock answers. We can thank Steve Cohen for being candid about the Pete Alonso contract negotiations otherwise it would have been a mostly uneventful list of soundbites. It must be great to be the king in your world.

Among the nothing but positive banter coming from Mets players was a response Frankie Montas had about the team’s rotation. One of the first major additions the team made this offseason, Montas is coming off of a so-so season split with the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers. It’s a return to New York after a brief stint with the New York Yankees where he got to know a thing or two about excellent rotations.

This year’s Mets staff doesn’t have quite the same expectations. Nonetheless, Montas stayed positive and had this to say:

How off-base is Frankie Montas with his take on the Mets rotation?

He’s certainly not going to tell the whole truth. This is a rotation of question marks. The health of Kodai Senga, whether or not Sean Manaea can repeat his success from last year, Clay Holmes transition to a starter from a reliever, and if David Peterson has really stepped up are all present in our minds. Then there’s Montas who has many of the same standard questions you would for a free agent on a pillow contract. Which version of him shows up?

David Stearns successfully built a rotation similar last offseason only for it to mostly work out in the end. However, only Manaea and maybe Peterson were guys you could consider “numbers ones.” Neither was quite an ace although that term is semantical. On any given day, any pitcher can be a number one guy. Over the stretch of a full season, it’s unrealistic to think your rotation will have five guys earning Cy Young consideration. That’s what a rotation of five number ones would truly look like.

Of course, there’s the matter of Montas ignoring the idea of a six-man rotation. Has this not been set in stone? Or is he as down on Paul Blackburn as the rest of us? The assumption has been the team will go with a six-man rotation this year. Perhaps this is wrong or the customary thought of five pitchers over five days is just what came to Montas at the moment. After all, a lot more can happen before Opening Day.

There were probably better and more realistic ways Montas could have answered it. But at an event to celebrate the team, why be nothing but positive? Let the frustrated owner speak to that.

Mets players have, for the most part, been pretty good about saying the right thing at the right time when there isn’t any pressure. Brett Baty deserves a gold star for his follow-up on the number swap with Juan Soto. He's giving me Dominic Smith 2019 vibes when he warmly welcomed Pete Alonso despite what it meant for his career.

There’ll be time for negativity, spin, and whatever else gets thrown our way. Good on Montas for hyping up the rotation. You just won’t find someone who actually believes it, not even the architect who built it.