“Nothing on earth is more gladdening than knowing we must roll up our sleeves and move back the boundaries of the humanly possible once more.”
—“The Writing Life,” Annie Dillard
The New York Mets have played ten Grapefruit League games and are now on their first day off of spring training. Now that they have seen every player in their probable Opening Day rotation at least once, the club is attempting to fill in for Kodai Senga.
Senga’s expected absence for at least the first month of the season means that the other starters may be under pressure to step up and strive to be the ace by pitching more often on days off, going deeper into games than they typically would, or both.
“There could be a little bit of pressure because he’s really good,” Luis Severino said. “But there are a lot of good guys who can go out here and help.”
However, Jeremy Hefner, the pitching coach, wants them to not think like that.
“They’re on their own journey, and they need to pitch their game,” Hefner said. “That’s why it’s a team sport.”
The Mets will not have to switch to a six-man rotation for the next two weeks without a day off in mid-April thanks to Senga’s absence. To support the remainder of the rotation, they may yet add an extra starter there.
Two spring innings may not always constitute a representative sample for analytical purposes. But first, let us look at how the probable starting five for the Mets have felt and appeared thus far.
José Quintana
It looks like Quintana will start for New York on Opening Day. He previously started on Opening Day when playing for the Chicago White Sox in 2017. He gave up six runs and three home runs to Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers in that contest.
“It would be an honor. It’s a dream for any starting pitcher,” Quintana said of the possibility. “Big crowd, a lot of energy. It’s a gift.”
Quintana did not finish the second inning against a generally regular lineup of the Houston Astros on Thursday night, making it an uneventful first spring start for him. After that, the lefty did not care because he had utilized the Houston lineup’s overwhelming reliance on righties as a reason to practice his front-door two-seam sinker to righties. With the pitch on Thursday, Quintana missed more often than he would have liked.
“It was the perfect time to practice,” Quintana said. “I just want to get some room for that pitch (because) during the season, that pitch is going to help my stuff.”
Quintana, who threw 75 2/3 innings in 2017 after missing the first half due to a rib injury, stated he should have no trouble returning to throwing 180 innings or more this year.
“I’ve been to 200 innings before,” he said of each season from 2013 through 2016. “I’m thinking more about going as deep as I can every time and let’s see. For sure, it would be great to be around that number.”
Luis Severino
Quintana is directly following Severino in the lineup. He made his spring debut on Friday, and for the most part, he looked good. On his last delivery, he reached 98 mph, and early on, his fastball showed good ride.
“The pitches, the shapes, everything was what I expected. I was very happy,” Severino said.
“I have some in the tank… just waiting for the perfect time to do it.”
– Luis Severino on his 98 MPH last pitch pic.twitter.com/c1or7rTLYd
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 1, 2024
Hefner stated that Severino’s mechanics became slightly off in his second inning, which affected the ride on his four-seam fastball. At this stage in the spring, when the main focus is intensifying, it is not a concern.
The two other things that Severino focused on Friday were maintaining consistency in his mechanics to avoid tipping his breaking pitches and adding a sinker in the latter part of 2023. Severino is trying to get more of that arm-side run in order to make the pitching effective. On Friday, the sinker was moving more down than in to right-handed hitters.
“The hitters are too good,” Severino joked. “I need to figure out ways to get the hitters out.”
“Now it’s just compounding good days,” Hefner said. “He’s a hard worker. You not only pull for those guys, but it’s what fires you up and makes you want to come into work.”
Sean Manaea
Getting used to Manaea’s changing pitch mix and choosing how best to use it all will be essential to his success this spring. He upgraded his changeup, added a cutter, and kept refining the sweeper he debuted with San Francisco in the previous campaign.
“The arsenal’s complete, at this point,” Hefner said. “Now it’s just optimizing it and refining. … My goal for him is by the end of spring training we have a really good plan of how he’s going to deploy these weapons and we’re going to go to war with it.”
On Saturday, Manaea made all those pitches in his first spring training game. The Miami Marlins banged him about a little in the first inning, but he bounced back in the second and third. In particular, the changeup looked good. Manaea is trying to develop a somewhat different action on the changeup, but his grip is still comparable to last year’s.
On Saturday, Manaea made all those pitches in his first spring training game. The Miami Marlins banged him about a little in the first inning, but he bounced back in the second and third. In particular, the changeup looked good. Manaea is trying to develop a somewhat different action on the changeup, but his grip is still comparable to last year’s.
“It was the first time I’ve used all these pitches in an actual game,” Manaea said. “From an overall feel standpoint, everything felt really good. I was attacking guys and not falling behind in the count.”
Adrian Houser
Houser’s second start on Sunday did not go as smoothly as the first one had. Facing a righty-heavy Houston lineup without any regulars, Houser allowed a bunch of hard contact in 1 2/3 innings.
Houser was spending the afternoon getting acquainted with a modified grip on his changeup and a mechanical adjustment to his slider, so he was not too bothered by it. In order to prevent the slider from becoming loopy on him, Houser has been working on a more direct path with his arm since he was dissatisfied with it at his first start. Even though Sunday was improved, he was still unable to get the ball in the strike zone the way he desired. (On Sunday, he only had five strikes out of 13 sliders; he had no swing-and-misses.)
“It feels like it’s coming out a little harder and a little sharper,” Houser said of the slider. “It’s just trying to make it track a little bit better and we’ll be right where we want to be with it.”
Tylor Megill
The Mets were giddy as spring approached, bragging about Megill’s winter labor and how it had paid off up to this time. Megill has pitched five innings, giving up one run while striking out seven without allowing a walk. Recall that in 17 innings last spring, he walked 13 batters.
“I couldn’t be prouder of Tylor and his offseason and how he took ownership of it,” Hefner said. “It goes back to his mentality toward the end of the season going into the offseason — a real clear view of who he is, what he’s trying to do, what his pitches do, how to use his pitches. For me, that’s empowering.”
Tylor Megill strikes out Jose Altuve and Yordan Álvarez pic.twitter.com/l5foZIE7YS
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 1, 2024
Megill can employ his entire mix, including his new splitter, when he gets ahead of hitters as he did on Thursday in his second appearance. Against Houston, he tossed a few of them, one of which struck out Victor Caratini.
Megill explained that training that splitter in the bullpen is not the same as actually throwing it during a game. He prefers to use the same arm motion on his splitter as he does on his fastball, despite the natural inclination to slow down the arm motion to guarantee the right break throughout a game.
“It’s just going out there and getting more feel in-game reps,” Megill said.
Inside baseball
It seems appropriate to note that the pitching lab is more than just a pitching lab, because I wrote about it this week. There is a batter’s box sixty feet, six inches from the lab pitcher’s mound that is equipped with force plates that can analyze hitters in the same way that they can pitchers..
In an attempt to gather more data for future analysis improvements, the Mets have also put hitters through their lab. Because hitting mechanics have not been dissected as thoroughly as pitching mechanics throughout the sport, there is not as much baseline information available as there was for pitchers. As a result, do not expect to receive as much rapid feedback as pitchers did..
Hitting coach Jeremy Barnes stated, “I do not want to say pitching is further ahead of hitting, but there are more things that are recognized and it is a little more applicable instantaneously.” The task at hand is attempting to ascertain the reason behind an object’s operation. It is not always positive or negative.
“Could we please adjust this? Is there a mobility issue we can resolve? Is this the only way this person walks? The next step is to methodically consider whether we can make X, Y, and Z better.
“It’s another tool we have in our toolbelt to hopefully help a player or two perform better in the game.”
Injury updates
- Since Thursday, Jeff McNeil has been unable to utilize a bat due to pain in his left biceps. Over the past few days, McNeil has been able to run, throw, and field. On Tuesday, he will undergo another evaluation.
- Joey Wendle’s right shoulder pain hindered him earlier in the week. Wendle made an appearance in a minor-league game on Sunday at DH, and by the end of the week, he should be playing in the Grapefruit League.
- Reliever Kyle Crick (calf strain) is out of his walking boot and making progress toward throwing. Crick, who suffered the injury two weeks before the opening of camp, thinks he should be game-ready in another three to four weeks. Crick’s goal remains breaking camp on a roster in the organization, though he may have to stay back in Port St. Lucie, Fla., to build up beyond the end of camp.
Last week in Mets
Trivia time
FanGraphs recently compiled spring training statistics dating to 2006. In that time, which Met has hit the most spring training home runs?
HINT: He hits left-handed.
I’ll leave the answer in the comments.
(Top photo of Adrian Houser: Jim Rassol / USA Today)
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