Mets Monday Morning GM: The best built starting rotation in MLB

Pitchers and catchers report this week. We’ll see many of the New York Mets position players join them, too. Many already have made their way to St. Lucie to prepare for the coming season.

The Mets start the process of preparing for the 2023 season feeling good about their starting rotation. Is it the best in baseball?

Tasked to rank all 30 MLB starting rotations for FanSided later this week, let’s issue a spoiler alert for the Mets. It is the best starting rotation in baseball. Let’s go into why.

Why the Mets have the best starting rotation in MLB

The duo at the top makes a quick claim as the best rotation. Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander are legends of the game. Even at their more advanced age, the two continue to dominate. Scherzer lived up to expectations in 2022 during the regular season. Verlander is coming off of an American League Cy Young victory. There is some debate if they are in fact the best duo in the sport right now. Regardless of how you feel, it’s the rest of the rotation that puts the Amazins over the top.

There is definitely some distant between the floor and ceiling for the next three starters. What will Kodai Senga be during his rookie year in MLB? Does Carlos Carrasco have another good year in him? Mets fans seem delighted about the addition of Jose Quintana. Was his resurgence in 2022 a sign of things to come?

The Mets have five capable MLB starters with no questions more unusual than what other clubs experience. Every staff has at least one injury concern. Many even have a guy fans are already thinking about replacing. This isn’t quite the case for the Mets even if there are lingering doubts about a guy like Carrasco.

A finishing touch as to why the Mets have the best starting rotation in baseball is their depth. Tylor Megill and David Peterson would be starting for most MLB teams. On the Mets, they’re sixth and seventh starters.

Compared to a team like the New York Yankees, the Mets get an edge with the backend of the rotation. I’d rather have the top three Yankees starters. Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, and Nestor Cortes are better than any threesome we find on the Mets. Limiting our choices to two or extending it to four and we begin to see where their weakness lies and the Mets have their strength. Three starting pitchers only benefit you in an early playoff series. You need much more to get far.

On paper, no rotation is better than the one in Flushing. Kudos to the front office for losing three very good pitchers and replacing them with three close to equal or even better arms.