The easy, temporary NY Mets solution if A.J. Minter begins the year on the IL

It’s almost easy to forget A.J. Minter is a member of the New York Mets because of how little he pitched last season. He is now one of those perennially injured arms who’ll probably bounce around the league for the rest of his career on one-year deals. When he’s on, he’s fantastic. When he’s hurt, you better hope your team has some lefty depth available.

Minter is expected to either break camp with the team or have a minimal IL stint to begin the year. That’ll end up being 15 days from Opening Day. It sets a target date of April 10th for him to return when they play they open up a series at home against the Athletics.

What do the Mets do without him? The early season schedule gives them an easy solution.

If the starting rotation can stay healthy, Sean Manaea or David Peterson can give them big outs in relief in place of A.J. Minter

Sean Manaea and David Peterson are already the best Mets options to get cut from the rotation and inserted into a relief role. They won’t do that with Nolan McLean or Freddy Peralta. Kodai Senga would feel upside down. Clay Holmes worked way too hard to build up into a starter and was far too successful. Conveniently, it’s one of the lefties who could replace Minter as a “just in case.”

There’s always a possibility we see one of them in the bullpen regardless of Minter’s health. In particular, the early part of the MLB schedule fights against the need for any additional days of rest for starting pitchers.

The built-in off-day on March 27th adds the extra day of rest if they stick with a six-man rotation. The second off day of the year, April 6th, arrives at a convenient time as well. The Opening Day starter (McLean or Peralta) would go on March 26th and again on April 1 with 5 days between starts. Whomever gets the ball in each of the four games from April 2-5 against the San Francisco Giants would only get 4 days of rest in between.

If the Mets feel the need to give 5 days of rest to each starter to begin the year, they could plan to then have whoever was available out of the bullpen make a start on April 2, helping to reset the rest of the staff. Have Manaea or Peterson available in relief for the first two games of the year with a plan to start them a week later.

Of course, this does require the Mets to do the impossible and actually get through spring training fully healthy. They rarely do.

It still wouldn’t be a surprise if the Mets decided to have Manaea or Peterson pitch in relief a little bit early on in lieu of Minter. Manaea made three relief appearances last season, once in his debut right before the All-Star Break and two more in September.

In a perfect situation, the Mets can turn to one of their lefty starters in the first two weeks in a relief role that would have otherwise been held by Minter. It wouldn't be exactly the same as the Mets would want to stretch Manaea or Peterson out to have them ready for starts. Upon Minter's return is when things can get more interesting with the Mets doing anything from rolling with a consistent six-man rotation to a plan to piggyback starters.