Mets have Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt lined up for big Atlanta series
Mets starting pitcher Jacob deGrom follows through against the Pirates during an MLB game at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
MILWAUKEE — Near the end of a long season, when everybody is definitely tired and probably a little hurt, with the Mets’ best players loath to skip a game for rest because every game matters so much in the tight NL East race, the team is about to have three off days in a stretch of eight.
And that is … sort of a bad thing?
“Personally, the off days have become as much of a problem as they are an asset,” manager Buck Showalter said Tuesday. “Maybe just intellectually it has been because it creates too many options for us.”
Showalter’s comment came as part of a discussion about the rotation the rest of the regular season. Because they have no games on Thursday, Monday and next Thursday, the Mets have options on how to deploy their starers — including, if they want to, rejiggering the order so that their top pitchers pitch the most.
But pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said they intend to keep everybody in line. That means their big three — Chris Bassitt, Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, in the order they’ve pitched most recently — will get the ball this weekend in a three-game series against the Athletics.
That means, too, that as of now it’ll be Bassitt, deGrom and Scherzer next weekend against Atlanta, the potential division-decider.
“It’s like it was by design,” Hefner said with a smile. “That’s where we’re at. Ultimately, whatever Buck says. He’s the captain of the ship. But that’s what the plan is right now.”
Neat feat
With the Mets having clinched a postseason berth, Showalter is the fourth manager in major-league history to lead four organizations to the playoffs. Dusty Baker (five teams), Billy Martin and Davey Johnson also did it.
Showalter also went to the playoffs with the Yankees (1995), Diamondbacks (1999), and Orioles (2012, 2014 and 2016). His teams have won one postseason series.
Personnel news
The Mets activated Drew Smith from the injured list, where he had been since late July because of a strained right lat, adding another intriguing option into their bullpen mix.
Smith has a 3.51 ERA on the season but was even better in the first half, earning his way into the Mets’ high-leverage picture by opening the season with 13 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
With Smith and Trevor May, also recently back from the IL, plus converted starters Tylor Megill and David Peterson, Showalter and Hefner are working with more moving/uncertain relief pieces than normal, adding a degree of difficulty to the already difficult task of managing a bullpen.
“Yeah, but they’re good pieces,” Showalter said.
To clear a spot on the active roster, the Mets put Tommy Hunter on the IL with what they called “low back tightness.”
This is the second time that the club, facing the difficult decision of which pitcher to subtract, landed on Hunter’s apparent injury as the solution. The Mets also did it in August. Hunter had multiple surgeries on his back last year.
Hunter has a 2.42 ERA in 18 appearances for the Mets. His IL stint is retroactive to Sept. 17. He’ll be eligible to return Oct. 2, the fourth-to-last day of the regular season.
Extra bases
Showalter provided no substantive update on Starling Marte but did say his fractured right middle finger has been feeling a little better each day. Marte tried throwing and swinging Monday. Showalter said he didn’t know how it went but noted “he still had some discomfort there.” Tuesday marked two weeks since Marte got hurt . . . Megill “feels good” a day after his relief debut Monday, according to Showalter. He allowed the Brewers two runs in an inning . . . Righthander Bryce Montes de Oca (left hamstring tightness) began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse.
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.
