Last week, Mike Puma of the New York Post reported Steven Matz could be promoted to the Mets by the All-Star break, and previosuly have limited his innings and pitches at Triple-A for the purposes of saving them for his time in the big leagues in 2015.
However, a promotion for Matz could come even sooner than mid-July.
A club source has told Adam Rubin of ESPN New York Matz could be promoted by July 1, if not sooner.
The Mets haven’t yet determined how they might accomodate Matz in the rotation, but as Sandy Alderson has said in the past, Rubin says the Mets are not still considering Matz for a role in the bullpen.
If the Mets cannot find new homes for either Dillon Gee or Jon Niese, Matz could still join the bullpen and Niese could be relegated to long relief and a spot starting role.
Last week, Alderson told Puma Matz might already be with the Mets if there was a spot for him in the rotation, as he has nothing further to demonstrate to the club at Triple-A.
The Super-Two date is approaching. It should somewhere in between June 15-20 this season, and as it stands on June 9, there is no reason to cost the organization an extra arbitration year over a matter of one or two starts right now. Obviously, by calling up Noah Syndergaard this year and deGrom last year, it’s not an issue for the organization if the timing is right (they were both promoted five weeks before the Super-Two cutoff). But calling Matz up right now with 1-3 weeks to go before the Super-Two date passes would just be a bad business decision, for any team.
Besides, that will afford the Mets more time to find a taker for one or both of their excess starting pitchers, which they simply must do without creating another chaotic and awkward situation on their roster.
Still, Matz is ready, and ready to compete at a very high level in the big leagues, and there aren’t many baseball reasons to use what’s left of his 170-180 innings he has in 2015 in Las Vegas anymore.
If they could at least find a taker for either Gee or Niese, the one who remains can pitch out of the bullpen which would open up a spot in the rotation for Matz. But, as Rubin says, the Mets are knee deep in the draft for the first part of this week, so a trade is unlikely to transpire for now.
But when and even if that happens is anyone’s guess.
Just Mets 