Marcus Stroman
With Noah Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman going down, the Mets need a fifth starter. Whenever the Mets need a starter, the debate once again turns to whether Seth Lugo should be put back in the rotation.
Certainly, you can understand the impetus. Lugo was a revelation in the rotation in 2016, and without him in the rotation, the Mets very likely miss the postseason. We also saw him back that up by being the ace for Puerto Rico in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
We know Lugo can start, and we know he can be extremely good in the rotation. We also know Lugo is one of, if not the best, reliever in baseball. It’s extremely difficult to part with that.
The Mets starting pitching and bullpen injuries make it even tougher to remove Lugo from the bullpen.
At the moment, the Mets rotation only has three reliable starters in deGrom, Steven Matz, and Rick Porcello. While reliable, past deGrom, that’s not a lot of innings.
In 2019, Matz averaged 5.1 innings per start. Things improved in the second half when he moved to the middle of the runner. After that, he did average 5.2 innings per start. That’s still under 6.0, but he did make strides towards at least being a six inning pitcher.
Porcello also averaged 5.1 innings per start. That was after averaging 5.2 innings per start the previous year. Looking at his career, Porcello’s innings have declined in each of the last three years. That’s a bad trend for a pitcher the Mets need to be an innings eater.
That means two of the Mets three best pitchers don’t consistently pitch at least six innings. That leaves the bullpen getting 10-11 outs during their starts. That should prove to be a break compared to the fourth and fifth spots.
Last year, Michael Wacha averaged just 4.2 innings per start. Over the final three months of the season, he pitched into the fifth just three times over 11 starts. In his career, he’s never averaged more than 5.2 innings per start. This is from the fourth starter.
After that, the Mets are stuck going to Corey Oswalt, David Peterson, or bullpenning it. The young starters can’t be relied upon to consistently go deep into games. That puts a further burden on the pen, and that gets worse with planned bullpen games.
Further compounding a bullpen game is the lack of people who can go multiple innings consistently. Robert Gsellman was that guy, but he’s injured. Effectively speaking, that leaves Lugo as the only reliever who can consistently give the Mets multiple innings out of the pen.
That goes to another point. The Mets rotation isn’t the only part of this staff beset with injuries. Brad Brach and Jared Hughes will begin the year on the IL.
Really, a lot of the Mets bullpen is a question mark. Can Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia rebound from bad 2019 seasons? Will Justin Wilson‘s elbow hold up? Can Dellin Betances return to his dominant pre-injury form?
There’s just far too many questions in the bullpen and far too few innings in the rotation. Asking any bullpen to have to cover 10-12+ outs four out of ever five days is a monumental ask. It’s even worse with few off days.
Fact is, at the moment, the Mets need Lugo in the pen. He’s really the Mets only option who can pitch multiple innings. He’s the best reliever on the team.
Really, Lugo is the best option out of the pen. At a time when the Mets need the bullpen to take on a tough workload due to the schedule, they should have Lugo at the ready to get those innings as it’s not coming from another reliever.
Overall, Lugo may be the best option for fifth starter. He’s also the best reliever the Mets have. They need him out otherwise. In any event, Lugo is where he belongs – in that bullpen.
Marcus Stroman was brilliant in this game shutting out the Phillies over 7.2 innings. Jake Arrieta and the Phillies bullpen? Not so much?
When Pete Alonso hit the first of his two homers in the first, the Mets pitchers had all the run support they needed in this 11-0 route.
In addition to Alonso, Michael Conforto and Wilson Ramos also homered.
Marcus Stroman and reigning World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg had a pitcher’s duel which led to this being a 1-1 game heading into the 11th.
In the 11th, Dominic Smith hit yet another walk-off homer giving the Mets a 3-1 victory. His homer off Will Harris scored Amed Rosario and gave Brad Brach the win.
Robinson Cano led off the bottom of the ninth with a double after narrowly missing a game tying homer. Starting with J.D. Davis, the Mets failed to bring Cano home to tie the game. That symbolizes how the Mets fell just short in this one.
The Cardinals scored five runs off the losing pitcher Marcus Stroman through the first three innings knocking him out of the game after 2.1 innings.
The Mets were behind 6-1 entering the sixth. To that point, a Jeff McNeil homer in the fourth was the Mets only run. They’d get back into the game on a Cano grand slam. The Mets couldn’t push another run across as they lost this game 6-5.
Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros bullpen limited the Mets to just four hits in their 4-0 shut out of the Mets. Jeff McNeil had half of the Mets hits.
Marcus Stroman look the loss after allowing three runs over five innings.
Former Astro J.D. Davis was 0-for-4. Apparently, he only got the signs when he was a member of that Astros team.
At one point, Major League Baseball moved itself away from the sport of Cap Anson to the sport of Jackie Robinson. With that breaking of the color barrier, MLB would see some of the greatest and most exciting players join the league to bring the game to an even higher level.
Despite MLB being the league to break the color barrier, the numbers of black players in the majors continue to dwindle. According to Forbes, only 7.7% of MLB players were black, and there were 11 teams without a black player.
Contrast that with the NFL and NBA. The Atlantic estimates 70% of the NFL is black. The New York Times estimates 80% of the NBA is black.
MLB is not ignorant of the issue. Rather, the league of Jackie Robinson seems upset by these dwindling numbers, and they’ve sought to institute programs like the RBI program to help get more black players to play the game.
At this point, it seems like MLB is paying lip service to this. One reason why is no matter how much they say they want more black players, the numbers keep dwindling. This just shows what they’re doing isn’t working, and we’re not seeing them pivot to other plans which may work better.
Another reason why is the current state of this country after George Floyd’s death. There have been several actions and statements about it from both people and businesses. That includes the NFL and NBA:
— NFL (@NFL) May 30, 2020
Tonight at 7:00 PM ET on @NBA – #NBATogether with Ernie Johnson (@TurnerSportsEJ) continues as Lloyd Pierce, @SwinCash, David Griffin (@dg_riff), and Alvin Gentry discuss racism, police brutality, and our shared responsibility to drive change. #NBAVoices pic.twitter.com/PejW2HF2XT
— NBA (@NBA) June 1, 2020
Somehow, those statements have not included MLB.
Yes, there are players like Marcus Stroman and Pete Alonso who have offered statements. There have been individual teams who have released statements. But, MLB as an organization, led by Commissioner Rob Manfred, has been silent.
Perhaps, next time MLB publicly wrings their hands on why they can’t get black people interested in baseball, we can all point to this moment. We can say MLB was absent and silent at a pivotal time, and that silence delivers a very real message. It should also make you wonder just how much MLB really cares about black participation rates in the sport.
Back in March, Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association agreed the players would receive a prorated portion of their salaries predicated upon how many games were played in 2020. This has now devolved into a he said-she said with owners trying to back out of the deal and push for players to cut their salaries more than previously agreed.
Based upon the proposed revised season from the owners, there would be an 81 game season. Even if the previously agreed upon deal was honored by both sides, that would mean each player would receive half of their 2020 salary. As an example, Marcus Stroman would only make $6 million out of his $12 million salary.
However, the proposal MLB made earlier this week would not allow Stroman to make his $6 million let alone the $12 he agreed upon in arbitration. No, MLB wants to pay him MUCH less than that. As part of what could be described as a union busting plan, MLB proposed staggering ADDITIONAL pay cuts to the players. Jeff Passan of ESPN broke down the percentages:
The salary scale in the proposal is:
– $0 to $563,500 (league minimum) paid at 90%
– $563,501 to $1 million paid at 72.5%
– $1,000,001 to $5 million paid at 50%
– $5,000,001 to $10 million paid at 40%
– $10,000,001 to $20 million paid at 30%
– $20,000,001 and up paid at 20%— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 27, 2020
Just to let you know how this works math works out, Passan used Mike Trout, the highest paid player in the game, as an example. Trout was due to make $36.7 million in 2020. Under the proposal presented by MLB, Trout’s salary would be reduced from $36.7 million to $5,748,577. That’s a pay cut of roughly 85%.
Running through the same convoluted math for Stroman, and we see his $12 million salary be reduced to roughly $2.7 million. That is a 78% pay cut. More than that, Stroman is being less than what Michael Wacha‘s $3 million base salary was supposed to be in 2020, but unlike Wacha, he’s not going to get incentives to raise his salary.
Let’s compare that to Commissioner Rob Manfred.
According to rumors, Manfred earns $11 million per year as the commissioner of baseball. If we were to use the same formula for Manfred as we used for the players, Manfred’s $11 million salary would drop to approximately $2.6 million. That would be an approximate 76% pay cut.
However, that is not what Manfred is doing. No, he is only cutting his salary by 35%. That means instead of the $2.6 million he would make as a player, he is going to make $7.15 million.
Keep in mind, Manfred is not going to have to assume the risk of playing games and traveling. He is not going to have to be separated from his family for months on end. He is not going to have to experience the same level of exposure to COVID19 as the players will if the season ever resumes. No, Manfred has the option to work from home or from an office he can dictate screening procedures. He can go home to his family every night.
Even if we take the owners who won’t open their books at face value and accept they can’t proceed with a season paying players at the previously collectively bargained amounts, there needs to be an explanation why Manfred should only take a 35% pay cut while Stroman takes a 78% pay cut.
We need an explanation why Manfred should make more money off of his $11 million than Trout will make off of his $36.7 million. Seriously, Manfred is currently slated to make about $1.45 million more than Trout. When you look at it that way, you understand a little more why Max Scherzer responded on behalf of the players the way he did:
— Max Scherzer (@Max_Scherzer) May 28, 2020
In the end, fans have taken different positions on this fight between the players and owners. Many are frustrated in what they see as a fight between billionaires and millionaires. While we have the right to our own opinions, and we can understand people’s frustrations, we should be at least able to agree a system where Manfred’s pay is cut only 35% and players’ salaries are cut anywhere from 70 – 85% is unfair, and no one should be defending Manfred and the owners pursuing such an inequity.
Much like we’re seeing with Jacob deGrom, for one reason or another MLB The Show doesn’t have Marcus Stroman pitching to the level he does in real games. We saw that again today as he took the loss against the Phillies after allowing three runs over five innings.
The Mets offense amounted to a Michael Conforto solo homer off Vince Velasquez in the Mets 5-1 loss.
The Braves got out to a 6-1 lead against Marcus Stroman and the Mets. However, Stroman would not get saddled with the loss.
In the sixth, the Mets pulled to within 6-4 after homers by Jeff McNeil and Robinson Cano.
In the ninth, Amed Rosario got the game winning rally started with a lead-off double. Later in the inning, McNeil hit his second homer of the game. This one was a go-ahead three run homer giving the Mets a 7-6 lead.
After a Yoenis Cespedes sacrifice fly scoring Pete Alonso, the Mets led 8-6. With Justin Wilson pitching a scoreless eighth, he picked up the win. Edwin Diaz recorded the save.
The Mets just couldn’t complete the sweep of the Pirates. Marcus Stroman didn’t last five even though he allowed just three runs.
The Mets could only muster a Pete Alonso RBI single in the third which then gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. The Mets couldn’t muster another run as they lost 5-1.