Cleared to Play, Mets Have a Busy Week Ahead

“It seemed to make sense,” Van Wagenen said. “Now, as we look at it from a personal standpoint, I think it’s a necessity, trying to cover so many games in so few days.”

The Mets’ rotation has been unsteady, with two former All-Stars who will not pitch this season (Noah Syndergaard, who had Tommy John surgery, and Marcus Stroman, who opted out) and two others, David Peterson and Michael Wacha, out with shoulder injuries. Another starter, Steven Matz, is 0-4 with a 9.00 earned run average and a .313 opponents’ average.

Reliever Robert Gsellman has joined the rotation, and closer Seth Lugo was scheduled to do so last week. Van Wagenen would not commit to using Matz as a starter but said the Mets would still count on him and others in various roles.

“We have to be creative at this point,” he said. “Call it openers, call it bulk-inning pitchers — I have a feeling that we’re probably going to be going through a number of different scenarios, not only this week with the number of games that we have, but also as we head toward the rest of the regular season, because we have to treat each game as much of a must-win game as possible.”

Van Wagenen said that while he had started exploring trade possibilities before Monday’s deadline, “we don’t have anything on the horizon at this point.” He added that the types of players the Mets need — starters like Peterson and Wacha and an outfielder like Jake Marisnick, who has a hamstring strain — could soon be activated from the injured list.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/sports/baseball/mets-yankees-schedule.html