Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander to return this week as Mets' starting rotation takes shape
New York Mets pitcher Justin Verlander in the dugout at Citi Field last Friday. Credit: Noah K. Murray
It took more than a month, but the Mets’ starting rotation is (almost) starting to look the way Billy Eppler drew it up before the season.
Weather permitting, Max Scherzer will be reinstated from his 10-game suspension on Wednesday to pitch in Detroit. His old Tigers teammate, Justin Verlander, should make his season debut in the final game of the series on Thursday.
Verlander, who began the year on the injured list with a low-grade teres major strain, dominated in his one rehab start for Double-A Binghamton on Friday, throwing 4 2⁄3 scoreless innings.
That’s not all, though. Carlos Carrasco (right elbow inflammation) is slated to return to the mound sometime next week, Buck Showalter said.
The moves — and the fact that Joey Lucchesi will pitch in the series opener against the Tigers on Tuesday — mean the team can move Kodai Senga to Friday. Senga pitched last Wednesday, but the extra rest is an effort to replicate the schedule he was accustomed to in Japan, where pitchers go once a week.
“It was something we kind of planned to simulate as much as we could if the season would allow it so later in the year, as he grows, we might be able to pitch him more on the six and maybe even the five,” Showalter said.
The only remaining piece is Jose Quintana (ribs), who played catch on Friday and is on track for a potential July return.
Message to Peterson: ‘Pitch better’
The Mets activated Stephen Nogosek off the injured list Monday after optioning David Peterson to Triple-A on Saturday — an effort to get Peterson back on track after the 6-6 lefthander started the season 1-4 with a 7.34 ERA.
The organization plans to do a “deep dive” to see if something has changed in Peterson’s mechanics or learn if he somehow is tipping his pitches. (He had a 3.83 ERA last year and a strong spring training this year.)
“Pitch better,” Showalter said of his message to Peterson. “It’s not like you’re going down there and you have to spend ‘x’ amount of days there and it’ll come back. We know what he’s capable of.
“A couple of his outings, it was like he was a pitch away from having a good, solid outing. He just hasn’t been able to make that pitch . . . At 27 years old, I think he needs to know that he has to start grasping some of these things, and he does. He will.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
