Mets pitching rotation for 2023: Scherzer, Verlander give it some backbone
New York Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer. Credit: AP/Chris O'Meara
Across 15 seasons with five teams during his first-ballot Hall of Fame-caliber career, Max Scherzer has developed a theory — expressed via physiology metaphor — about roster construction.
A starting rotation is the spine of a club, he said. The hitters are the muscle.
“It doesn’t matter how strong you are,” Scherzer explained, “if you don’t have a backbone.”
The 2023 Mets like their backbone, led by Scherzer and his fellow all-time great, Justin Verlander, who signed for two years at the same annual salary as Scherzer: $43.33 million, the highest in baseball history.
Altogether, the starting five are due to make $128.67 million — more than the entire payrolls of a dozen teams — and expectations for the group are appropriately high.
Behind the co-aces, the Mets have righthander Kodai Senga, 30, an elite pitcher in Japan for the past decade who now will be a rookie in the majors, and righthander Carlos Carrasco, 36, who last year got back to being the durable, reliable innings-eater he has been for much of his career. Lefthander Jose Quintana, another offseason addition, will be out until at least July after mid-March rib surgery.
His injury underscored the Mets’ anticipated reality: Yep, some of these guys are going to get hurt, especially at their ages. Even the still-elite Verlander, at 40 and the AL Cy Young Award winner last year, and Scherzer (39 in July), are at risk. Backups are critical. That is why the Mets wanted to have David Peterson and Tylor Megill at the ready. Peterson will get the first shot at stepping in for Quintana.
Last year, 11 pitchers started a game for the Mets (six of them are no longer with the organization).
“Every single one of us has got to go out there and have a career year,” Scherzer said. “We all know how important each other is to be the backbone of this team.”
GRADE: A-
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
