MIAMI — First, the good news: on the day that the Mets officially placed Justin Verlander on the injured list, people with direct knowledge of the situation expressed optimism about Verlander’s ability to make a quick return, and continued to call his low-grade teres major strain a “very minor” issue, in the words of one source.
So: the tension is major but the strain is very minor. Got that?
That’s big if it remains true, because the Mets’ rotation is boom or bust — championship-caliber because of big bets on Verlander and Max Scherzerbut capable of cratering if those future Hall of Famers suddenly show their age, as 38 and 40-year-old pitchers tend to do.
Now for the decent news: Even in a 2-1 defeat to the Marlins on Friday, the Mets looked like a winning ballclub. This is a team with a heady second baseman in it Jeff McNeila spectacular defensive shortstop in Francisco Lindorand a monster masher in Pete Alonso.
Are you ready for the not-so-good news? David Peterson‘s first go-around as key rotation depth did not inspire confidence in future success. Pitching in place of the injured Jose QuintanaPeterson allowed one run in five innings — but it wasn’t as pretty as that sounds.
During those five innings, the Marlins had nine baserunners while blasting four balls at more than 100 miles per hour, and an additional three over 90 miles per hour. Plays by Lindor, McNeil and Alonso played a significant role in keeping the score close.
The offense can be excused for a quiet night because Marlins starter Jesus Luzardo looked like an ace-in-the-making — and who knows if the tight game would have been different had the MLB replay center not blown a correct call by Mets replay ace Harrison Friedland on the first play of the game (Brandon Nimmo was safe at first).
McNeil in particular appeared as a winning player when, in the fifth, Alonso missed a grounder by Garrett Cooper. McNeil was exactly where he was supposed to be, backing up the play — and even with his back to the plate had the presence of mind to calculate that the speedy Jon Berti would attempt to score from second base. McNeil fired home and nabbed Berti.
Because of moments like this, the Mets made Peterson’s line prettier than it deserved to be (and Peterson did help himself by walking only one batter). On this night, the Mets looked like a team that will not be wholly dependent on its co-aces. They lost the kind of game of which a team can still be proud.
Still, that rotation is crucial to the Mets’ success, and the fact that Peterson and Taylor Megill are assigned to the second and third games of the season is far from ideal. They weren’t supposed to need their depth so soon, but two of the three free-agent starting pitchers signed last winter, Verlander and Quintana, are on the injured list.
Megill, summoned on Thursday while playing catch in Syracuse in preparation to pitch that team’s opener, was optioned to Triple-A in the first place because he lost his command towards the end of spring training. He believes that a recent mechanical tweak will fix that. On Saturday, we shall see.
He and Peterson have a ceiling. These won’t be players who lead the Mets to a championship.
The good news is, there are a lot of winning players around them — and not only is the key piece, Verlander, already playing catch, but no one in the organization seems concerned that he will be away from game action for long.