WASHINGTON — The debate over whether to maintain the current starting rotation or trade pieces to address weaknesses isn’t settled, but the Mets lately have made a case for keeping the unit intact.
A team clobbered by injuries early this season that was buried in the NL pennant race before midseason, entered Friday 39-34 since July 1, cautiously optimistic that a nucleus is already in place for significant improvement in 2019. The key word is “cautiously.”
Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, as a group, is still the Mets’ biggest asset. The performance of that unit has strengthened the resolve of team officials that keeping all four was the right move before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, when the Mets were listening to offers, particularly for deGrom and Wheeler.
“I think there was some discussion around midseason that the way we were built was not a viable model,” assistant general manager John Ricco said this week. “I kind of disagreed with it because I thought building around pitching is generally a tried-and-true method of winning, but I did think were some questions.
“If anything, the last few months have shown that maybe we have to reconsider and maybe stay the course a little bit and tweak from the position player side a little more — whether that means more depth, younger, more athletic, whatever to try to weather the storm of injuries.”
The ultimate decision on which course to follow will rest with the new general manager. Interviews for the seat vacated by Sandy Alderson in June to battle his reoccurring cancer are expected to begin immediately after the season concludes next weekend.
DeGrom, who picked up his ninth win in the Mets’ 4-2 win at Nationals Park, is a strong candidate — if not the front-runner — for the National League Cy Young award. But the emergence of Wheeler and Matz, particularly down the stretch, also has boosted the Mets. Along the way, position players such as Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier have returned from the disabled list and contributed and another important component of the lineup, Michael Conforto, has regained form after slumping in his return from left shoulder surgery.
The Mets have also seen improvement from shortstop Amed Rosario and received a boost from rookie second baseman Jeff McNeil.
“Since we have stabilized things, this model of running a pretty good starter out there every night, with a decent offense, you can win,” Ricco said. “We have shown that since the beginning of July.”
The Mets certainly will have to address their bullpen this offseason and look to add multiple bats, but trading a starting pitcher to obtain those pieces might not be a necessity.
“We have got four young guys who excelled this year in all facets of the game and sometimes we didn’t give them the run support,” Frazier said. “If we can stay somewhat healthy I think we have got a really good shot next year.”
Frazier and Bruce arrived on multi-year contracts and can’t easily be traded. At the non-waiver trade deadline, the Mets dealt Asdrubal Cabrera and Jeurys Familia, both of whom are set to become free agents.
“They did a great job of keeping us together,” Frazier said. “They got rid of some guys who were going to be free agents, some really good guys, but it goes to show you what they think of us and I love that about them, certainly giving us another shot, and I think we need a couple of more pickups in the offseason and we’ll be right where we need to be.”
