Mets Rotation Filled With Question Marks

The Mets, like a lot of teams during the off-season, are looking to upgrade their pitching.

The Mets however are going backward as they have already lost veteran southpaw, Tom Glavine, who returned to the Atlanta Braves.

Right now, the Mets have Pedro Martinez as the ace of their staff; however, he was out for the majority of last season, pitching just 28 innings.

The Mets’ number two pitcher lies in the hands of the 42 year old – or at least that is what he is listed at – “El Duke” Orlando Hernandez, who is also coming off right foot surgery.

The Mets were given a nice surprise in John Maine who had a nice season last year, going 15-10 with a 3.91 ERA, however it was a tale f two seasons for the young righty.

Maine prior to the All-Star break Maine pitched 109.2 innings in 17 starts, going 10-4 with a 2.71 ERA. After the break, he pitched just 81.1 innings in 15 starts, going 5-6 with a 5.53 ERA.

The Mets played with several pitchers to fill the fifth spot in the rotation, however, with Glavine gone, they will have to find matches for their fourth spot as well.

Aaron Heilman has always wanted to be part of the starting rotation and has expressed disappointment in not being part of the rotation, however, then the Mets would be missing a set-up man.

Besides, Heilman has only started 25 games in his career and has not started a game since 2005 where he was primarily a reliever. In that season, Heilman pitched in 53 games, just seven as a starter.

When he was a primary starter in 2003, starting 13 of 14 games, he went 2-7 with a 6.75 ERA in 65.1 innings pitched. In 2004, Heilman was in and started in all five games he was in, going 1-3 with a 5.46 ERA in 28 innings pitched.

Last season, his fifth season, was his best. Heilman was 7-7 with a 3.03 ERA in 81 relief appearances, so it is unlikely the Mets convert their best reliever outside of their closer, Billy Wagner.

So, if Heilman is unavailable, that leaves the four and fifth slots in the rotation tentatively to youngsters Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber.

Mike Pelfrey was 3-8 with a 5.57 ERA last season and is 5-9 with a 5.55 ERA in his career.

Philip Humber on the other hand pitched just seven innings last season and nine innings in his career.

The Mets’ current rotation holds five question marks. This means that either the Mets take a chance with what they have, try and take a dip in the thin free-agent pool, or try and make a trade.

The Mets rotation is anything but a sure fire thing. The only sure thing about their rotation is that it appears to be weak and needs a lot of help.

The Mets will surely be in the sweep stakes for Johan Santana if and when he becomes available. Other than Santana, there doesn’t appear to be a big splash in the Mets rotation in the near future.

Maybe they can land a Carlos Silva, Kyle Lohse, Josh Fogg, Rodrigo Lopez, or someone of that stature, but they don’t appear to be landing an ace type free agent.