QUEENS, NY — Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean, two of the New York Mets’ top pitching prospects, could find themselves making MLB debuts this season if the trade deadline plays out a certain way.
But it might not be in their normal role as starting pitchers.
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns admitted that he will “begin to think about” promoting the right-handers as relievers if suitable upgrades cannot be found before the league’s July 31 trade deadline.
Stearns confirmed what was already painfully obvious: the Mets are going to be “active” for outside help to bolster a bullpen that has suffered the significant injury losses AJ Minter, Danny Young, Dedniel Nunez, and Max Kranick.
“Providing our group some reinforcements in the bullpen would be great,” Stearns said. “There are generally relievers traded at the deadline, so I’m sure there will be some this year as well, and we’ll be involved in that.
“If that doesn’t happen for some reason, then we probably have to begin to think about some of the arms in Triple-A, and whether those guys at some point can impact us in the bullpen.”
Sproat, 24, has come into his own as of late with Syracuse. He extended his scoreless innings streak to 23 straight frames after a five-inning, nine-strikeout showing on Sunday.
McLean, who started the year in Double-A Binghamton by going 3-1 with a 1.37 ERA, is 3-4 with a 3.08 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 64.1 innings pitched with Syracuse.
There will be understandable trepidation about going this route if the Mets do come up empty at the trade deadline and have to call up either of their prospects to help out with the bullpen. Once a starting pitcher has been shortened to a reliever’s workload, it will be impossible to stretch him back out.
“Once you do that, you can’t reverse yourself in the same season,” Stearns said. “We certainly can reverse ourselves over the offseason, but once we shorten someone up to give them a chance to be a member of our pen, it’s really tough to build them back up if you need them as a starter. So we want to be very cautious if we’re going to entertain that.”
The Mets’ starting-pitching depth has already been tested this season, with the litany of injuries potentially creating a need for McLean or Sproat to step in down the road.
While this is the first time this year that Stearns has his originally projected starting five of Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, and Frankie Montas, three of those arms (Senga, Manaea, Montas) spent significant time on the injured list. Depth options Tylor Megill and Paul Blackburn are working their way back from the shelf, and Griffin Canning is out for the season with a ruptured Achilles.
