Thursday afternoon, the Mets won their fourth straight game by blowing out the Rockies at Citi Field (NYM 12, COL 3). New York is starting to create some distance between themselves and the second-place Nationals in the NL East, though of course the season is far from over.
Right-hander Noah Syndergaard pitched for the Mets on Thursday and had a bit of a rough start, allowing two runs in the first and another run in the third. He eventually settled in and was able to complete seven innings to earn the win. Syndergaard allowed just the three runs.
Thanks to those seven innings, Syndergaard has now thrown 135 innings in 2015, a new career high. He threw 133 innings last season, all in the minors. That's a friendly little reminder that as talented as New York's rotation is, they also have to monitor some workloads down the stretch.
Here are the recent innings totals for the Mets' three young starters. Jon Niese and Bartolo Colon are both veterans, so we can exclude them from this whole innings-watch thing. There are no workload concerns there.
| 2012-15 Innings Totals: Mets Pitchers | ||||
| Pitcher | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob deGrom | 111 1/3 | 147 2/3 | 185 | 146 2/3 |
| Matt Harvey | 169 1/3 | 178 1/3 | 0 | 148 |
| Noah Syndergaard | 103 2/3 | 117 2/3 | 133 | 135 |
deGrom is the oldest of the group at 27, and he's the one most well-suited to pitch deep into the season. I'm talking 200, 220 innings. Something along those lines. Syndergaard and Harvey came into the year with workload concerns for different reasons.
Syndergaard is a simply a young pitcher -- he turns 23 later this month -- who has been working his way up the minor-league ladder the last few years. Harvey threw a healthy number of innings in both 2012 and 2013 before blowing out his elbow and missing the 2014 season due to Tommy John surgery.
There is still a month and a half left in the season, so Syndergaard and Harvey are storming towards 180-plus innings at the moment. They're both young and strong, so I'm sure they can handle it; however, the Mets want to make sure these guys are fresh for the postseason. This isn't just about the future. It's about making sure they have plenty in the tank for October.
The good news is the Mets have plenty of pitching depth, and rosters expand on September 1, so they'll soon have more pitchers available to chew up innings. Dillon Gee is not on the 40-man roster but could return for September. Rafael Montero (shoulder) and Steven Matz (lat), two more of the team's other young pitchers, are working their way back from injury and should be ready within a few weeks. Pitching help is on the way.
Once rosters expand and the Mets have more warm bodies, they could use a six-man rotation for the final few weeks of the season or outright skip Harvey and/or Syndergaard once in a while to control their workloads. The Mets did briefly use a six-man rotation earlier this year and it's something they could revisit. Harvey in particular wasn't a fan of it, but remember: he is the employee, not the employer.
Future health is always a concern with young pitchers, so that's a reason to monitor workloads down the stretch, but right now we're talking about October. We shouldn't forget about what is happening right now. The Mets have a dynamic rotation, a championship-caliber rotation, but only if guys like Syndergaard and Harvey are at their best in the postseason. Finding those two as well as deGrom some extra rest in September figures to be a priority.
