With the signing of Todd Frazier, the New York Mets crossed off one of their final tasks on their offseason checklist.
For a winter that was expected to see limited action on the market, the Mets have surprisingly made a few splashes, first with Jay Bruce and now with Frazier.
They might not be done either.
According to the New York Post’s Mike Puma, the Mets “could” bring on a starting pitcher that would provide some much-needed depth.
While the recovered Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom are the undisputed aces of the staff, Matt Harvey enters the final year of his contract with the Mets basically re-learning how to pitch after injury issues have made him a shell of the pitcher he was in 2013. Steven Matz, also dealing with injuries, performed just as bad in 2017 as both he and Harvey had ERA’s over six.
Zack Wheeler also struggled to regain his form after missing two full seasons due to Tommy John surgery as his ERA ballooned to 5.21.
Two arms that they relied on near the bottom of the rotation in 2016 during their run to the Wild Card were ineffective as Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman each had ERA’s over 4.70.
Should some combination of Harvey, Matz and Wheeler find their stuff, the Mets rotation might not be as putrid as it was last year, but bringing on a veteran to bolster the rotation could be a wise move for an organization that has received little luck with its promising core of pitchers.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported on Saturday that the Mets were interested in signing either Lance Lynn or Alex Cobb should their prices drop on the market.
Lynn spent the first six years of his MLB career with the St. Louis Cardinals where he proved to be an innings eater, albeit inconsistent at times. He’s pitched 175 or more innings in each of his last five seasons but has seen his ERA swell to as high as 3.97 before sinking to as low as 2.74.
Last year saw Lynn make a comeback from Tommy John surgery where he went 11-8 in a league-leading 33 starts with a 3.43 ERA and 153 strikeouts.
Cobb also underwent Tommy John surgery, which forced him to miss the entire 2015 season and most of 2016. Before his surgery, Cobb recorded a pair of sub-3.00 ERA seasons which is a difficult feat to pull off in the American League. But last year saw a solid bounceback as he went 12-10 while pitching in a career-high 179.1 innings.
