New York Mets: Time to Add Some Starting Pitching?

The New York Mets starting rotation is the strength of their ball club, and with struggling ace Matt Harvey likely done for the season, it may be time for the Metropolitans to look for help on the outside.

After recent medical scares with Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, the injury report finally claimed a New York starting pitcher. On Thursday word came down that Matt Harvey was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which involves a constriction of the opening in which nerves and blood vessels pass between the neck and shoulder. Per Adam Rubin of ESPN, Harvey had lost feeling in his arm during his last start.

Logan Verrett (3-5, 4.01) is expected to take Harvey’s place in the rotation moving forward, which gives the rotation five starters with Thor, Matz, Bartolo Colon and Jacob deGrom–a solid mix of arms that should be enough to continue to carry the team.

Zack Wheeler is a wild card at this point. He recently suffered a setback in his recovery and has yet to throw off of anything besides flat ground. A reasonable timetable could be some time in September, if at all, with a slew of rehab games to be expected and adding a little extra time for any other potential setbacks.

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The New York Post argues that Wheeler is no guarantee (meaning go get a pitcher) while Jacob Shafer of Bleacher Report thinks the Mets can weather the storm with the arms they already have on board. Either way you slice it, the Mets will need more offensive firepower if they hope to contend for a playoff spot this season.

The Mets rotation has been really good this season (to put it lightly) with a 3.40 ERA, good for second in baseball behind the Chicago Cubs, while the overall staff ranks third behind Chicago and the division rival Washington Nationals. That’s been there all season, and likely won’t be improved upon too much, and could certainly start climbing in the opposite direction as the season wares on, so focusing on an offense which is 28th in runs scored should become a priority.

But even this isn’t necessarily a must. Lucas Duda is set to resume baseball activities in about a week and could be looking at a return to the Mets lineup by the end of July. Travis d’Arnaud returned from injury June 21 and is batting .318 through 44 at-bats. And let’s not forget Michael Conforto who was sent to Las Vegas to work on some things (that seems counterintuitive being that Vegas is Vegas, but I digress) and through ten games with the 51’s Conforto is batting .333 and has struck out just six times in 42 at-bats (14.3%) compared to his strikeout rate of 29.2 in the big leagues this season.

Those are the reasons to stand pat. Then there is that pesky opt-out clause that’s in the contract of Yoenis Cespedes. Without him, they may not have enough offensive firepower to keep their window of contention as open as it is this season, so making some additions at the trade deadline may be the way to go here.

If the Braves decided to move Julio Teheran, it’s unlikely that they’d trade him within the division with so much team control left on his contract, and New York doesn’t need all of that control anyway.

Two players come to mind as potential fits for the New York Mets, however. Rich Hill of the Oakland Athletics and Jeremy Hellickson of the Phillies. While Hellickson is also playing for divisional foe, his deal is up at the end of the season.

There will likely be a bidding war to acquire Hill from the A’s, and three teams that could be interested (Mets, Astros and Dodgers) all have connections with Oakland, so there won’t be any favoritism shown here. Hill will go to the highest bidder, and that doesn’t need to be the Mets with the talent that already fills their rotation. That is, unless they feel like adding a ton of insurance.

Hellickson is 6-6 with a 3.92 ERA (4.26 FIP) and would be more of a depth acquisition in case Wheeler isn’t ready this season, but he also won’t cost as much to acquire, so it could be worth it to have that added depth to help secure the season.

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Then of course there is the option to stand pat, sticking with the team that just swept a four-game series from the Cubs at Citi Field, won two of three against the Miami Marlins, and took the first game of their series with the Nats. Even as a wild card team, the Mets could send out one of their aces for the play-in game, then have a solid rotation set up for their series (presumably) with the Cubs, who they took out of the playoffs last season.

There are some decisions to be made in Queens, and the trade deadline is approaching quickly.

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