3 Mets players with big cleats to fill this season

2) NY Mets pitcher Jose Quintana has Chris Bassitt’s cleats to fill

Exactly who will be the fill-in for Chris Bassitt? Kodai Senga is a candidate, but I think Jose Quintana is more appropriate. He is a season MLB veteran on a short-term deal. A much different pitcher than Bassitt, Quintana will aim to give the Mets a full season of starts. Many will, hopefully, turn out to be quality ones, too.

Bassitt led the Mets in innings and starts last season. He gave them 181.2 frames and 30 appearances. It’s kind of impressive that he was the only starter to go more than 160 innings and the team managed to win 101 games.

Quintana is much less of a workhorse. In 32 starts, he logged only 165.2 innings. Where Bassitt averaged just over 6 innings per start, Quintana was at about 5.1. The difference of two outs might not seem significant. Over time, it really adds up.

Quintana can match or beat Bassitt in other areas. Getting on the field, preventing runs from scoring, and most importantly becoming a shutdown pitcher late in the year and maybe even into October is what the Mets will ask from him. The latter part of those favors we’re asking for is where Bassitt came up short.

Quintana may never see seventh inning in 2023. In a different way, he’ll be able to fill the absence of Bassitt.