In two weeks of spring training, the New York Mets are now down two starting pitchers.
After Frankie Montas was shut down for six to eight weeks with a lat issue, the Mets lost one of last year’s heroes, Sean Manaea, due to a right oblique strain that will keep him out through Opening Day.
It leaves New York’s precarious starting rotation teetering on the brink of further uncertainty heading into the 2025 season, regardless of how good they feel about the current depth that is expected to round out the bottom of the rotation at the start of the new year.
Now, behind Kodai Senga, David Peterson, and converted closer Clay Holmes comes Tylor Megill, Paul Blackburn, and Griffin Canning.
Megill has shown flashes of dominant stuff, but consistency has eluded him for the better part of the last four seasons. After posting a 1.69 ERA in his first three appearances last year, the righty posted a 6.25 ERA in nine appearances from June 3 to Sept. 4. He then went 1-0 with a 1.66 ERA in his final four starts of the year.
Which version will the Mets get in 2025?
Canning was signed in free agency during the winter and was 6-13 with a 5.19 ERA with the Los Angeles Angels last season. His 99 earned runs allowed were the most in baseball while striking out 130 batters in a career-high 171.2 innings of work.
Blackburn was a trade-deadline snag for the Mets from the Athletics last summer, but he only started five games before needing spinal surgery. He has a career 4.85 ERA.
President of baseball operations David Stearns could move Jose Butto back to the rotation after he was converted to a multi-inning reliever last year. The organization’s top pitching Brandon Sproat could also be an option, but he would likely have to make quite an impact to break camp with the big club.
It makes a reunion with Jose Quintana all the more logical to bolster the already-tested depth of the Mets’ stable of starting pitchers. The 36-year-old is still a free agent after completing a two-year stint with New York.
He went 13-16 with a 3.70 ERA and a 1.268 WHIP in 246 innings pitched in 2023 and 2024. Last season, he shook off a miserable start, which saw his ERA swell to 5.29 on June 9 (13 starts) by going 9-5 with a 2.77 ERA in his final 18 outings from June 15 to Sept. 28.
Quintana allowed just one unearned run on six hits in 11 innings across two postseason starts against the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies before getting slammed for five runs in 3.1 innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLCS.
Slotting a veteran of his caliber toward the bottom of the rotation would suggest the presence of a stabilizing factor for a team whose rotation appears to be on remarkably shaky ground — especially considering Senga pitched just 5.1 regular-season innings last season.
