Mets insider pitches a creative way to make Jose Quintana useful in the playoffs

New York Mets insider Andy Martino didn’t spend Saturday’s rain delay twiddling his thumbs. Instead, he’s already thinking about the best way to use players in the playoffs. Martino is driving the Mets postseason train with tweets like these.

More biased these days than he has been in the past (and that’s okay!), Martino gave his thoughts on how the Mets could use Jose Quintana in the postseason.

Things work differently in the playoffs. Pitchers aren’t always expected to go deep into games. And considering Kodai Senga might be using these appearances without much, if any, rehab outings then once through the order is probably what we’d see.

Getting creative with Jose Quintana might be the only way he makes the Mets playoff roster

Senga to Quintana is one way to mix it up with two very different pitches. The righty to lefty itself could throw the balance of the opposing team’s lineup into chaos. Think about what happens when out of the bullpen comes Jose Butto for the third time through the order.

Righty-lefty-righty thrown the way of an opposing team would have to be expected. It would be up to the opposing manager to know when to and when not to go with some pinch hitters. Considering the Mets would at best only have Danny Young and Alex Young in the bullpen throwing from the left side, taking their lumps against Quintana once through with a couple of lefty on lefty face-offs might be the strategy here.

Senga’s return remains as questionable as the Mets even making it to the playoffs. This is about the only possibility for Quintana to make the team. It might not even be anything to think about until the second round anyway.

If the postseason started today, the Mets would be without Senga and therefore not have the same need for this creative way of thinking. In a couple of weeks, they could go into the first round where they’d need three starters. Is it as easy as Sean Manaea, David Peterson, and Luis Severino? Do the Mets throw Senga into the fire then trust Quintana to get those outs in the middle?