The New York Mets came into 2016 with high expectations. After losing to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series, they had some unfinished business. However, injury after injury occurred. David Wright, Matt Harvey, Justin Ruggiano, Neil Walker, and Zack Wheeler won’t return this year. Lucas Duda, Jon Niese, and Juan Lagares have only a slight chance of returning. Other players such as Asdrubal Cabrera, Jose Reyes, Jim Henderson, Yoenis Cespedes, Travis d’Arnaud, Jacob deGrom, and Steven Matz have all missed or are missing a varying amount of time.
The Mets record reflected this as they hovered around .500 for a good part of July and August. Even though a lot of the offensive pieces that the Mets were missing in July and August have come back, the rotation is still missing most of the familiar and reliable faces that took the Mets far last year. However, a trio of unlikely pitchers have done an outstanding job thus far as they fill in for one of the best rotations in MLB.
The question many baseball fans and perhaps even some casual Mets fans may have is who are these unlikely pitchers? Their names are Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman, and Rafael Montero and they all have different stories on how they have made it this far to keep the Mets competitive.
Unlikely Pitchers Are Keeping the New York Mets Competitive
Seth Lugo
Lugo is a right-handed pitcher drafted by the Mets in the 34th round of the 2011 amateur draft.
Lugo, 26, has spent over five years in the minors after being drafted out of Centenary College of Louisiana. He was not a top prospect when being drafted and instead had to work his way up the Minors. While Lugo found success along the way, this year he struggled in his time at Triple-A Las Vegas. He pitched to the tune of a 6.50 ERA in 21 games (14 starts) with 62 strikeouts in 73.1 innings. Triple-A Las Vegas is known as a hitter’s ballpark, similar to Coors Field in Colorado. The Pacific Coast League in general is filled with ballparks that result in big offensive numbers. With that in mind, the Mets did not weigh that as a big factor.
Lugo was called up on July 1st to pitch out of the bullpen against the Chicago Cubs. He pitched two scoreless innings, but was sent down the next day. Lugo was then called back up on July 8th for a longer, yet less successful time. He played in four games (7.1 innings), gave up four runs, and got the loss against the New York Yankees on August 1st. The next day he was sent down again. He was then called up again on August 12th to pitch out of the bullpen. He did that for three games before being asked to start in place of Matz.
In four starts for the Mets, Lugo has gone 3-1 with a 2.24 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 24.2 innings. To even further his value, those wins came against the St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins, and Washington Nationals; three teams that were ahead of the Mets at that time and/or now.
Robert Gsellman
Gsellman is a right-handed pitcher drafted by the Mets in the 13th round of the 2011 amateur draft.
The 23-year-old Gsellman was not a top prospect coming into the Mets organization either. He started out in the Gulf Coast League which is even lower than where Lugo started. From there, Gsellman started his rise.
Like Lugo and most pitchers on the Triple-A Las Vegas team, Gsellman did not succeed all too well. He pitched to a 5.73 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 48.2 innings there this year. As mentioned before, the Mets are aware that ERA in Triple-A Las Vegas is meaningless and they promoted him to the majors.
Gsellman was brought up to the majors on August 22 to pitch out of the bullpen. Things changed quickly as Niese went down with a injury at the beginning of his start on August 23. On his MLB debut, Gsellman came in for Niese and pitched 3.2 scoreless innings to pick up the win against the Cardinals, who were occupants of the second Wild Card spot. Gsellman’s next start against the Philadelphia Phillies was going well until he was pushed into the seventh inning. He left after putting a few players on base with no outs and the bullpen then gave up the runs. He was charged with the loss and four runs over six innings.
His next start was against the first place Nationals. Gsellman was able to hold the Nationals to one run over six innings. He picked up a win in an important game for the Mets.
Rafael Montero
Unlike Lugo and Gsellman, Montero is a name that many Mets fans have heard over the years.
Montero, 26, was signed as an amateur free agent in 2011. Being a top prospect, he moved his way up the minors from the Gulf Coast League to Triple-A from 2011-2013. After some more time in Triple-A in 2014, Montero was called up to make his Major League debut along with deGrom who wasn’t well known at the time. As fate would have it, it was deGrom who stuck and became one of the top pitchers in MLB while Montero became an afterthought.
Montero saw some time in the majors in 2015 and the beginning of 2016, but injuries and poor pitching placed him back in the minors. Montero struggled mightily in Triple-A Las Vegas this year to the point where he was demoted to Double-A Binghamton.
The Mets being in dire straits, called Montero up from Double-A after he performed much better there. Montero came up to the Majors this time with less hype and has strung together two winnable starts.
His first start came against the then-second place Marlins. The game looked like an automatic win for the Marlins. They were starting Jose Fernandez and both Walker and Cabrera weren’t starting for the Mets. Instead Montero kept the Marlins from scoring for five innings and Cespedes later hit a wall-off home run.
Montero’s next start was less polished as he only went 4.1 innings and gave up three runs. Luckily the Mets offense came through to salvage the win. Obviously Montero’s pitching hasn’t been as good as Gsellman’s and Lugo’s, but for a fifth starter in a battered rotation, he has done enough.
Looking Forward
After the Mets won against the Cincinnati Reds on September 6th, they are one game behind the second Wild Card. It is very unlikely that the Mets would be this competitive had Lugo, Gsellman, and Montero not pitched the way they have. All three may not finish the season as well as they are pitching now or may not even be needed in the rotation the rest of the way, but right now one thing is certain. The Mets are in the thick of the Wild Card race due to the pitching of Lugo, Gsellman, and Montero.
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