With nothing official just yet despite two days left of spring training, the Mets are “close” to announcing their complete starting rotation after injuries to some key players early on led to a rotation battle in camp, manager Carlos Mendoza said after Saturday’s tie against the Washington Nationals.
Mainly between Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning and Paul Blackburn, New York’s decision will come after all three have pitched one final time in camp as Megill and Blackburn both pitched on Saturday and Canning scheduled to pitch on Sunday against the Miami Marlins.
All three pitchers have shown sparks at times with Mendoza calling Megill’s latest outing “really good.”
“Another guy that came into camp ready to go and kind of show everyone the things that he needed to work on which was attacking the strike zone,” Mendoza said about Megill. “And he did that every time he took the baseball. We saw it today, using all of his pitches, but not only getting ahead, but staying on the attack. That’s what we want to see out of him.”
In his fourth and final start of the spring, Megill went 5.1 innings and allowed three earned runs on six hits and two walks while striking out five. The right-hander’s final tallies in camp: 4.24 ERA (1.18 WHIP), 17 IP, 18 strikeouts and four walks.
Overall, Megill was pleased with how his spring went.
“Thought it went great,” he said. “I’ve been throwing all my pitches for strikes, walk count has been low. I think that’s probably the biggest part. Throwing offspeed [pitches] for strikes and getting ahead of hitters. [That’s] kind of been my main goal – attack the strike zone and get ahead.”
For the time being, the 29-year-old has done everything he could’ve done to persuade the Mets to give him a roster spot on Opening Day. Now it’s about “just waiting around to see what happens.”
Meanwhile, on the backfields during New York’s matchup against Washington, Blackburn also pitched. The right-hander threw five innings and 82 pitches, per Mendoza who didn’t divulge any other information about the 31-year-old’s outing.
However, in five Grapefruit League starts, Blackburn had a 5.68 ERA (1.34 WHIP) and nine strikeouts to six walks in 12.2 IP. Was it enough to earn him a spot?
“We’ll see tomorrow how they come in, but we’re close,” Mendoza said. “We should be ready to announce this pretty soon.”
(For what it’s worth, the Mets have thrown out the idea of putting Blackburn in the bullpen to start the season, as well.)
Speaking of the bullpen
After the game, Mendoza also discussed his plans with some of his relievers who got off to late starts in spring due to injuries.
Regarding A.J. Minter, who pitched a clean inning on Saturday, the skipper said, “as of right now the goal is for Minter to be pitching on Monday. Whether that’s our game or the backfield, but that’ll be two out of three for him.”
He added that if Minter is in a good spot tomorrow and again after his next appearance, “that’ll do it for us” in terms of adding him to the Opening Day roster.
As for Dedniel Nuñez, he’s also scheduled to go on Monday.
“We’ll go from there after that,” Mendoza said.
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