As we arrive on the cusp of the World Baseball Classic’s quarterfinal round, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. WBC Update
Following a day that saw Puerto Rico throw eight combined perfect innings in their defeat of Israel, there are four matches on the docket for today: Venezuela (2-0) will face Nicaragua (0-3) at 11am CST on FS2, though the latter team has been eliminated from quarterfinals contention at this point. Also on FS2, Canada (1-1) will face Colombia (1-1) at 2pm CST. This evening, Israel (1-1) will try to right the ship after yesterday’s shutout loss to Puerto Rico against the Dominican Republic (1-1) at 6pm CST on FS1. Also on FS1 will be Mexico (1-1) vs. Great Britain (1-2) at 9pm EST. The first quarterfinal match, featuring Australia against Cuba, will take place at 5am CST tomorrow morning on FS2.
2. How long will Quintana be out?
Yesterday, a report emerged that Mets lefty Jose Quintana would be shut down for three months due to the stress fracture in one of his ribs, though GM Billy Eppler later pushed back against it, noting that the club is still talking to doctors about potential next steps. Losing Quintana for a significant amount of time would be a major blow to a Mets rotation that is set to heavily rely on aging pitchers who have struggled to remain healthy in recent years: Justin Verlander, 40, pitched just six innings 2020-2021 before his dominant return from Tommy John surgery last season. Max Scherzer, 38, is coming off his lowest full season innings count of his career (145 1/3) in 2022, while Carlos Carrasco, 36, eclipsed 100 innings for the first time since 2018 last year with his 152 innings of work.
The Mets have a strong contingent of depth, headlined by lefty David Peterson, righty Tylor Megill and left-hander Joey Lucchesi (whose workload will be monitored in his first season post-Tommy John surgery). Presumably, the Mets will make a more formal announcement Quintana’s recovery timetable once they’ve finished gathering opinions, but for now all eyes are on their depth options to see who claims the final rotation spot to begin the season. Peterson and Megill are the favorites, and both have pitched well so far in camp.
3. MLBTR Chat Today
Do you have any questions regarding your favorite team or the larger baseball world as the 30 clubs gear up for Spring Training and make their last minute offseason moves? MLBTR’s Steve Adams will be fielding questions from readers today during a live chat at noon CT. If you would like to ask questions in advance, you can do so here. That same link will also take you to the chat when it begins if you would like to participate live.
Peterson, Megill, and Lucchesi are great depth starters. Looks like the Mets are gonna need them, too.
Not sure if I consider them great depth, but certainly good depth. Lots of unknowns here, especially with Lucchesi. Peterson & Megill have looked good in spring training so far, but that’s a really small sample size. But you’re right, the Mets will need them all.
I really don’t know how anyone can depend on Lucchesi to any extent. He’s not stretched out from post-TJ and looks like a ways to go. Even pre-TJ he was an average SP in a large ballpark (Petco). He hasn’t pitched more than 43 IP (total) since 2019 due to injury/TJ — even deGrom has 224.1 IP during that time.
Also, interesting they’re talking about Mets pitching depth and Senga isn’t mentioned.
Senga isn’t mentioned because he’s considered #3 in the rotation by most analysts – Verlander, Scherzer, Senga, Quintana and Carrasco. 1 & 2 can be flipped, as can 4 & 5, but 3 usually is Senga. If they need to go further into their depth than those already mentioned, they acquired Elieser Hernandez from the Marlins.
Sure, but if mentioning SP1/SP2 as need for depth at the backend, wouldn’t it make sense to mention a high-dollar FA signee that has been limited in ST and never pitched stateside — meaning he’s a wild-card and would need possibly to depend more on a stronger backend of the rotation?
Elieser Hernandez? A $300M team depending on Marlins scraps? That’d be fitting.
I believe he was omitted due to his lack of injury concerns.
A 300M dollar team is what it is. What’s your idea? spend 450M?
Would that $450M team be allowing someone with a career 83 OPS+/5.51 FiP to take the hill? Somehow, I think Mets would still be facing the same issues.
Lucchesi hasn’t looked good since his return from TJ surgery in 2021 and Megill was mostly injured last year. and only pitched 47.1 IP. Peterson pitched only 105.2 IP to a 3.83 ERA and is their best option. Beyond that you are looking at Jose Butto and his 15.75 ERA oh no and Elieser Hernandez and his 6.35 ERA.
Mets are heavily betting on 40 yo Verlander and 38 yo Scherzer to carry them deep into a postseason run. Good luck with that strategy. Lol
As an aside it will be interesting to watch if you can teach old dogs new tricks with the pitch clock rules and pickoffs. Scherzer has been having major difficulties with these rule changes during preseason games.
Not major difficulties by any stretch. As a matter of fact in his first outing he used the clock to his advantage and had caught a few hitters way off balance. His adjustment to the clock is really no different than most other pitchers.
Yeah, Max looks like he’s playing chess out there with hitters/time clock. Love the fire that he sees it as a competitive advantage.
baseball-reference.com/players/s/scherma01.shtml
I watched Max’s last ST start and he unraveled and had difficulty with the new rules
So he’s getting old and can’t adjust, you think? All it takes is one bad ST outing to prove that? I don’t think so. The season will be the proof, not ST, and definitely not one ST game. Scherzer is a student of the game, and a teacher too. He’ll come out of this fine.
I think it is safe to say he is set in his ways and is on the back nine.
No he hasn’t. He loves the clock and is scheming already on how to use it.
SCarton12,
You must have missed his last ST start where he was arguing with the Home Plate ump and got flustered and the floodgates opened he was called for a balk on an attempted quick pitch.
@Recall_CarlosTocci First off, you should switch out Carrasco for Peterson. Carrasco is one of the worst pitchers in the league. Second, you must be on some sort of substance because Luchessi belongs in Single-A
hey champ, Lucchesi had a 97 ERA+ in his two healthy years, and Carrasco had a 97 ERA+ last year. those are far from bad numbers. try harder next time lol
My favorite Buckism when Buck skippered the ship here in Baltimore was “want to”. IMO, he doesn’t care much about past performance or experience level. He’ll fill that 5th spot with a healthy guy who has that “want to” attitude.
Chris Tillman was my favorite example here. At best a 3 physical talent wise, but tough mentally. Not afraid to take the mound as the Os number one which he often was during those playoff years. Mets fans, 5th spot will get figured out.
Unfortunately Buck didn’t Want To use Zach Britton until they were leading in that wild-card game and it cost him.
I would think Zach Britton has gotta be grateful for Buck not quitting on him back in the day. Of the three left-handers with ace level SP stuff in the 2007 draft, only one ended up having the mental toughness along with those physical gifts to be an ace: Kershaw. Andrew Miller and Zach; not so much. It was Buck that gave him the opportunity to try relief work to save (pardon the pun) his career.
And yes, not bringing Zach in against Toronto was a big time gaff, but Buck’s overall body of accomplishment while in Baltimore far out weighs it. The winningest team in MLB from 2012 to 2016 (5 year period) including 3 playoff appearances under his leadership. Go gettum Buck! Miss you down here.
Hopefully Derosa has learned you don’t sit Schwarber.
CST, EST, CST, EST…
I truly felt bad for Mitch Bratt when he was pitching against Team U.S.A. He’s a 19 year old facing superstar players. He was noticeably very nervous which resulted in giving up 6 runs in 0.1 innings pitched. He just needs more seasoning in the minors right now. I hope he can take this experience to better himself and understand that he had a lot of work to get to the top level of baseball.
That certainly was a difficult position for a 19 year old to be in. Like a lot of these up and coming international teams, it seems the pitching is lacking much more the hitting and defense.
Same. Rooting for USA but you could see the kid was shaken.
I really hope he has some better days ahead.
If three months means that he will be ready to start games in three months (so mid June) then the Mets should have enough depth.
But if three months means that is how long before he can start pitching again, then it’s July or August and it would behoove them to get another depth arm.