The Mets Are Idiots

Finally, a break from con-law! Unfortunately, it's not a particularly refreshing break. The news today is that the Mets fourth starter, Dillon Gee, has been hospitalized with numbness in his fingers, then was discovered to have a blood clot in his pitching shoulder, and then hit the disabled list. This is bad; Gee has sported a 4.10 ERA thus far this year, but as that's around his career ERA and his strikeout and walk rates have both improved dramatically this year, it looks like he's really been pitching better than that. For instance, SIERA, considered by many to be the most sophisticated peripherals-based ERA estimator, pegs Gee as a 3.53 pitcher this year. That's what we call "good." The Mets have already been dealing with one rotation spot whose designated occupant, Mike Pelfrey, is out for the year, and while Chris Young has filled it rather well so far it's a real shame to have another one. (Obviously, the more major concern goes something like "blood clot?!? Eeeep!" with the focus being on his own personal health.) The Mets' plan is apparently to use Miguel Batista as Gee's replacement; Batista has a 4.92 SIERA to go along with his 4.20 ERA this year. This will not end well, although I guess it has the upside of getting Batista away from the eighth innings of games started by R.A. Dickey, Johan Santana, or Jon Niese.

But consider that it didn't have to be this way. The Mets have, after all, a highly regarded pitching prospect who has prospered this year as a starter for their AAA team, the Buffalo Bisons. No, I don't mean Matt Harvey, although that description fits him too; he's widely regarded as not quite ready yet, and I have no way of second-guessing that judgment. I mean Jenrry Mejia, rehabbing from the Tommy John surgery that knocked out his 2011 season. Overall, in his journey from the High-A St. Lucie Mets to the AA Binghamton Mets to the AAA Bisons, Mejia made 7 starts this year, with a combined line that looks something like 35.0 IP, 26 H, 15 R, 10 ER (although admittedly the 5 unearned runs were on his throwing error), 9 BB, 23 K, 3 HR. That's a 2.57 ERA, a 5.9 K/9 rate, a 2.3 BB/9 rate, an 0.8 HR/9 rate, and a 2.55 K/BB rate. All of that is pretty damn good. His strikeout rate was lower at Buffalo, but that's largely because he appeared to be working on pitch efficiency, getting through his short-ish starting assignments with sparklingly low pitch counts and dozens of ground ball outs. Pitch efficiency, of course, is something you look for in a starting pitcher. As is the possession of multiple effective pitches, which Mejia has.

So, what did the Mets do with poor young Jenrry? They converted him to a reliever, of course! The thinking behind this was something about how the Major League team's bullpen has sucked this year, and they want help there, and people have always been tempted to think of Mejia as a reliever anyway, for some strange reason. Anyway, it hasn't gone very well. In ten relief appearances with Buffalo, Mejia's thrown 11.2 innings, allowing 11 runs, 10 earned, on 16 hits, 2 of which cleared the fence, walking 8 while striking out just 6. Those numbers make Miguel Batista look like a good pitcher. And now, of course, that they've put Jenrry in the bullpen, he's not available, not immediately anyway, to come up and start games for the Mets. Which they could use him to do. Because the alternative is Miguel Batista.

In any event, I do see Mejia as a starter down the road, so here's hoping they realize that just because the bullpen has been so awful and just because they had been having a period of relative rotation stability doesn't mean they should mismanage their players. That means stretching Mejia out to be a starter again, and then down the road when Batista's struggles have reached the point where they can't be overlooked any longer, bring him up. As things are, though, I'm having trouble not considering this a big fat error on Sandy Alderson's part.