Jerad Eickhoff Might’ve Made Final MLB Start
By no means is it fair to suggest the New York Mets and their players were throwing the game. Certainly, there was nothing Jerad Eickhoff wanted more than to have a strong start.
In many ways, this was the future of Eickhoff’s MLB career. He had already been DFA’d multiple times this season with no one willing to pick him up. That meant he was there for a Mets team desperate for a pitcher.
There’s no doubt the Mets were overturning every stone they could. After all, they just pulled the trigger on a trade for Rich Hill. Clearly, they wanted better than Eickhoff, but they just couldn’t find it.
It was a disaster for Eickhoff. He joined Pat Mahomes as the only Mets starter to walk five and all 10 ER. It was just that bad over his 3.2 innings.
Luis Rojas and the Mets were clearly asking him to wear one in what was a thinly veiled attempt to punt the game from a starting pitching standpoint. As noted, Eickhoff could only give them 3.2 innings.
Eickhoff left the mound to a chorus of boos. It’s unfortunate that’s the way he goes out. Certainly, he will be DFA’d in short order, and with the trade deadline this week and Carlos Carrasco due to come off the IL on Friday, there’s no way Eickhoff pitches for the Mets again.
To their credit, the Mets tried to make a game of it. Jeff McNeil‘s two run homer in the fifth not only extended his hitting streak to 14 games, but it pulled the Mets to within 10-3.
Pete Alonso followed with a double, but reliever Yennsy Diaz would bat killing the rally. That was probably the Mets chance.
That was certainly the case when Diaz allowed a homer to Austin Riley, a player who is absolutely killing the Mets, hit a two run homer in the sixth. That made a prayer of coming back seven runs back against a bad Braves bullpen, an unrealistic nine run deficit.
Brandon Drury hit a window dressing two run homer to make it 12-5, but this was a game the Mets blew by not having a legitimate Major League starter. We can debate what the Mets should or should not have done, but in reality, there was no one on this roster to put the Mets in position to win.
For the Mets, they still lead the division by 3.5 games. Ultimately, they’ll be fine with getting two starters back and the trade deadline.
Unfortunately, for Eickhoff, this may be it. Certainly, someone could grab him as minor league depth. It’s just hard to imagine he’s going to get a real chance to start in the majors again.
Great read! I am wondering since we basically threw the game do the fans get a refund or a ticket for another game? This was embarrassing ?
I honestly would’ve been upset if I had tickets
Terrible idea to start him yesterday. They gave the game away to a division foe before the first pitch was even thrown. He should not be starting, period.
Eickhoffs best chance to return to the majors is as reliever. Might be serviceable for one or two inning stints where he just focuses on those 1-2 innings and puts his best foot forward doing by throwing strikes, having good command, keeping hitters off balance, changing speed and using his breaking balls, and occasional fastballs on the corners or off the plate.
If he has to pitch a year overseas, he should do it to remake himself. Too young to call it a career at 31. He has to reinvent himself and study successful pitchers who’ve returned from injury with a sub 90 mph fastball and still succeeded.
His other option is to try to regain some velocity.
No, he shouldn’t have started, but there was no other option.
That’s on the front office for not providing someone other than Eickhoff. They had other options, but decided not to dip into that. We already saw Eickhoff several times with him, we knew he would get crushed. Should have called up a no-name AAA starter, someone the Braves hadn’t seen.
There was no better option available