3 Mets players with big cleats to fill this season
![Feb 17, 2023; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Elieser Hernandez (57) pitches](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_7933,h_4462,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_752,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/3/01gt0j51xaczkwe1v9ke.jpg)
The New York Mets made some big upgrades this offseason, but a couple of moves they made were more lateral or possibly tiny downgrades or even minimal upgrades. That’s a debate for a different day. Today, it’s all about filling big cleats.
These big cleats left empty by free agency are larger than the size 14s Buck Showalter claims to wear. It’s these three newcomers to the organization with the biggest ones to fill.
1) NY Mets pitcher Elieser Hernandez has Trevor Williams’ cleats to fill
Elieser Hernandez may not end up as the direct replacement for Trevor Williams. The Mets have a healthy Joey Lucchesi to help fill the long-man out of the bullpen role. The same could eventually be said for Tylor Megill or David Peterson. Hernandez does seem like one of the more natural fits to be a bullpen arm while two or all three of those others hang around in Triple-A waiting to start a game in the big leagues.
Williams was amazing for the Mets last season in a unique hybrid role. He started 9 games and made 21 relief appearances. In those 89.2 innings, Williams was 3-5 with a 3.21 ERA. The ability to go multiple innings and start a game one week and pitch in relief the next made him a nice weapon to have.
Nobody should expect Hernandez or anyone else to be as reliable as Williams was in 2022. In fact, it’s not something he would probably be able to replicate again.
Now a member of the Washington Nationals where he’ll get to start, it’s Hernandez’s job to try and place his feet into a pair of cleats left by an unexpected hero from the 2022 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.
3) NY Mets pitcher Justin Verlander has Jacob deGrom’s cleats to fill
Once Jacob deGrom officially left the Mets for the Texas Rangers there was only one move to make. The Mets did it by throwing a Brinks truck at Justin Verlander. There is no more obvious lateral move out there in Major League Baseball this offseason. One ace has been replaced by another.
The pair of cleats Verlander will fill weren’t quite as large last year as they had been in the past. deGrom was 5-4 with a 3.08 ERA in 11 starts for the Mets last season. A shorter and much less dominant version of the longtime New York ace had many feeling okay when he left. Replacing him with the reigning American League Cy Young winner made it even more digestible.
Verlander won the AL Cy Young in each of his last two full seasons. In the other season, 2018, he was the runner-up. He made only one start in 2020 and missed all of the 2021 campaign. Returning in 2022 with one of his most dominant years yet, Mets fans are correct to believe he has plenty left to offer.
As confident as we are, Verlander is 40 and father time will catch up eventually. His presence isn’t all the team is asking for. He needs to go out there and give them a full season. Surpassing recent deGrom performances isn’t out of the question. It doesn’t change the fact that this new ace in Queens has the biggest cleats of all to fill.
Next. 3 Mets contracts we immediately knew were a mistake. dark