PORT ST. LUCIE — As GM Billy Eppler made the out-until-July news on Jose Quintana official, David Peterson had just finished buzzsawing through the Washington Nationals’ lineup on Tuesday, making the case that the Mets planned smartly for these inevitable pitching injuries.
In fact, it might prove to be that replacing Quintana in the rotation won’t be as difficult for Buck Showalter as choosing between Peterson and Tylor Megill, who was equally impressive a day earlier in his start.
As Showalter said, “It’s nice to know that two of the options we’re talking about are pitching well at this point.”
For that matter, the manager took it a step further, emphasizing the potential benefit in Quintana being out until “past July 1,” as Eppler put it.
“We’re going to get a good acquisition at the trade deadline,” Showalter said. “I was talking to him about how strong he’ll be if we can make it to October.”
And maybe it will work out that way, but it does leave the Mets without much margin for error now, no matter which starter they choose to replace Quintana. After all, they are determined to use a sixth starter at times this season to provide extra rest for a rotation of starters in their 30s — or age 40 in Justin Verlander’s case.
The idea is to try and reduce the workload over the course of the season to help improve the odds of Verlander and Max Scherzer, in particular, getting to October in peak form. In addition, they’re not sure how Kodai Senga will handle a heavier workload than he dealt with in Japan, where pitchers usually only start once a week.
And so even while stressing the positive, Showalter had to admit that Quintana’s injury could have something of a domino effect on the Mets’ rotation.
“Both guys [Megill and Peterson] have a track record but it does cut into the depth that Billy and the front office were so adamant about trying to create,” he said. “The way I look at it, there are two parts to that: the guy that joins but then the guy that takes his place on the depth chart.”
That’s perhaps the biggest issue for the Mets. Beyond Megill and Peterson there is very little pitching certainty in the organization. Potential starter Joey Lucchesi is back from Tommy John surgery but hasn’t looked good in his spring training outings, and the Mets’ farm system has very little in the way of major league-ready prospects, according…