Mets Banking on Rotational Depth

Taijuan Walker's addition solidifies efficient offseason

Gone are the days of Michael Wacha and Rick Porcello populating the New York Mets’ rotational front line. It’s a new age in Flushing.

With the addition of right-hander Taijuan Walker on Friday, the Mets now have a more than viable one-through-four in Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco, and Walker to lean on until Noah Syndergaard (UCL) returns in early summer.

Though, until that time comes, New York will be relying on a generous handful of viable options to fill that fifth and final spot in their starting five. Just an extremely welcome change of pace from what we’ve seen in prior seasons.

Between left-handers David Peterson (3.44 ERA, 123 OPS+ in 10 appearances; 49.2 innings, nine starts) and Joey Lucchesi (more on him in a second), as well as righties Jordan Yamamoto, Sean Reid-Foley, and even Sam McWilliams (Luis Rojas commended his stuff from camp on Friday), the Mets look to be employing an earn-your-keep system.

We’ve spoken here in the past about the benefits of internal competition; it breeds excellence. And regardless of preseason predictions, in this year’s National League, the Mets will arguably need excellence to prevail.

Lucchesi, 27, appears to be the leader in the clubhouse for that fifth spot heading into camp, and with just cause.

With deception on his side and quite possibly the funkiest pitch in baseball in his arsenal, the California product with a Long Island last name could end up being a huge addition to this staff.

Over his first two seasons in the big leagues, the southpaw pitched to a combined 4.14 ERA over 56 starts with 303 strikeouts, 99 walks, and 1.24 WHIP. Not terrible for a young pitcher without overpowering stuff (tops out at around 93-94 on his fastballs).

Lucchesi throws two heaters — a sinker and a cutter — as well as a self-designed hybrid pitch, the churve; a curveball thrown with a circle-change grip. Awesome, right?

Per Statcast, the spin axis on Lucchesi’s sinker and cutter are practically identical at 10:45 (observed spin direction). His churve spins on a perfectly mirrored axis (5:30), absolutely baffling hitters.

In 2019, his churve held hitters to a .183 batting average against, .239 weighted on-base average, .327 slugging percentage, and had a 38.6% whiff rate. Elite stuff.

After training at Driveline Baseball this winter, presumably hoping to increase his efficiency and increase his velocity, Lucchesi should sufficiently assist in holding down the back-end of the rotation until Syndergaard returns.

At that point, Walker, 29, would likely slide into the fifth spot. He’s got some alluring statistical attributes of his own.

Walker is another guy who uses spin direction to his benefit, matching the axis on his four-seam, sinker, and changeup at 1:30 and mirroring his curveball at 7:30-ish).

Fascinating stuff. Don't even want to imagine having to step into the box against it.

At the end of the day, the Mets have something they haven’t had in some time. Actual, tangible depth within their rotation.

Last season, the Mets were severely hamstrung in the absences of Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, and eventually Steven Matz.

Peterson making a strong MLB debut after never pitching above Double-A was an extremely encouraging development, but the scenario itself was far from ideal.

Now, with the depth added, if things go awry injury or performance-wise, next man up. It’s a luxury, to be honest.

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