Tylor Megill Putting Together Strong Spring For New York Mets

It's easy to forget, but just last year, Tylor Megill was the Mets' Opening Day starter.

Yes, it likely would have been Jacob deGrom or Max Scherzer if either of them were healthy, but Megill came up huge when called upon.

The right-hander struck out six batters in five innings while holding the Washington Nationals lineup at bay as New York won 5-1.

Megill continued to build off that success, but went down with injury in the early part of the season and wound up sitting out until September when he returned as a reliever.

Now healthy again, Megill has gotten off to a strong start to Spring Training, including four shutout innings against the Miami Marlins on Monday.

In 8 1/3 spring innings so far, Megill has a 1.08 ERA and six strikeouts.

With José Quintana on the shelf for likely the foreseeable future, having Megill step up and give the Mets quality innings would be a huge boost.

The Mets entered Spring Training with a ton of starting pitching depth beyond their penciled in five-man rotation. Neither David Peterson nor Megill would likely have broke camp as a starter unless there was injury. Now, here we are.

You can never have too much pitching, and the Mets are seeing that early on. Later this year, the team may also move to a six-man rotation, so should Megill continue to build off his solid spring, he could become a fixture in this year's rotation.

Regardless, it's not a bad problem to have for the Mets, who, should they have to lean on a Peterson or a Megill, are in better shape than they were just a couple years ago, when they had no choice but to leave guys like Jerad Eickhoff out to dry.