The Mets need to seriously consider bringing in Zack Greinke for 2022

The New York Mets have a pitching issue going into the 2022 season. They lost two key guys in Marcus Stroman and Noah Syndergaard and have some question marks now. They did solve part of the issue when they signed one of the best pitchers in the league in Max Scherzer to a 2-year deal with a player option for a third year though. They can solve the rest of the issue by bringing in veteran starting pitcher Zack Greinke.

Although the Mets brought in Scherzer, there are still some question marks with the rotation. Scherzer did suffer some severe arm fatigue in the 2021 playoffs although he claims to be fine now. Jacob deGrom is coming off a season in which he only pitched in 15 games due to an elbow issue so his health for 2022 is a bit worrying. Taijuan Walker is coming off a season in which he tailed off the second half, likely due to his high workload which included the second-most innings in his career and his first "full" season since 2017. Carlos Carrasco missed most of the season due to injury and was not good when he did finally return. The Mets' current fifth option in the rotation would likely be David Peterson who missed half the season with injury too or Tylor Megill who is coming off his highest workload in his professional career.

As much as I personally would like to be and I am sure other Mets fans would love to be optimistic about the rotation because we know what they are capable of when healthy, it is still the Mets so something will probably go wrong. It is not often a team's entire rotation stays healthy throughout the season either. Having guys like Peterson and Megill in the minors or bullpen instead of the rotation ready to step in if someone does get hurt is a good thing since they do have some experience and have proven they can pitch at the big league level. It also allows the Mets to control and monitor their innings much easier.

The Mets need to seriously consider bringing in Zack Greinke for 2022 with all their rotation question marks.

Although he is not the same ace he was with the Kansas City Royals or Los Angeles Dodgers, Zack Greinke can still bring a lot to Queens. With a lot of question marks in the rotation due to injuries, he can bring some much-needed stability.

Outside of the shortened 2020 season, Greinke has started 30 or more games in five out of seven seasons starting in 2014. The other two seasons he did not start 30 games, he started 29 games and 26 games so it is not like he missed a lot of time anyway. In that same time frame, Greinke also topped the 200 innings mark in five out of the seven seasons, with the other two years resulting in 171 innings and 158.2 innings which are both still pretty good.

With so many question marks in the rotation for 2022, Greinke can bring much-needed stability to a rather fragile pitching staff. He has proven to be extremely durable throughout his career, has the ability to start 30 games a year, and can eat a bunch of innings for the rotation and ease the bullpen which the Mets desperately need.

With the Mets making a huge push to get back into the playoffs, it is also worth noting that Greinke does have some success in the postseason. Even though Greinke was handed the loss in game five of the NLDS against the Mets in 2015 in what is one of the most memorable Mets games in recent memories, he still pitched a solid game and received the win in game two.

Outside of the 2015 NLDS against the Mets, his numbers in the playoffs are pretty good overall. He has a respectable 4.14 ERA over 113 playoff innings and a 1.80 ERA in 15 World Series innings. When it comes to the big stage, Greinke has shown he can come through which is good for the Mets who are expected to be a postseason team in 2022.

At the end of the day, you know what you're getting with Greinke. He is not the same ace pitcher he once was, but he is an experienced veteran pitcher who can make 30 starts and eat some innings while also bringing playoff experience to a club that could use it.