Just Mets

It’s another banner day for the Mets, as they announced they will officially graduate another top starting pitching prospect to the big leagues this weekend.

The club announced they will recall LHP Steven Matz from Triple-A Las Vegas. He is will start Sunday against the Reds at Citi Field Field in place of Jon Niese, who will now pitch on Tuesday.

The Mets will announce a corresponding roster move on Sunday.

The Mets will employee a six-man rotation for the foreseeable future, Sandy Alderson said on Friday at Citi Field. Alderson said there was a need to have a six-man rotation once again to manage the innings limits they have for Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, and Matt Harvey specifically, but also Matz’s performance at Triple-A warranted a promotion as well.

“If you do the basic arithmetic based on every six games, instead of every six days, and make an assumption about the number of innings pitched in each of those outings, it becomes apparent, at least in the case of two, maybe three of our starters, we have concerns,” Alderson said about the six-man rotation.

Matz also has an innings limit of approximately 180 – he has already thrown 90 with Triple-A Las Vegas. Even so, the three instances they’ve attempted to go with a six-man rotation have all blown up in the club’s face and clearly impacted both the performance and attitude of each of the pitchers. In the end, the pitchers have to deal with it and adjust, but they’ve been unable to keep them effective in the process. So, this either has to be managed better or they have to find a different solution to the problem.

There’s no question the Mets want to and should protect their starting pitchers. And, all of this has nothing but the best of intentions for both the pitchers and the team. But, if it’s going to impact them negatively, the effort ultimately becomes fruitless.

Matz, 24, is 7-4 with a 2.19 ERA in 15 appearances and 14 starts in 2015 with Triple-A Las Vegas. He’s allowed 69 hits and 31 walks with 94 strikeouts in 90 1/3 innings.

He is ranked the club’s number one prospect according to MLB.com.

Matz will join Noah Syndergaard, Kevin Plawecki, Daniel Muno, Akeel Morris, Hansel Robles, and Jack Leathersich to make their big league debuts with the Mets in 2015.