What the Mets Might Do With Their Crowded Rotation

There had been speculation earlier in the offseason that the Mets would try to trade Senga, who lost his rotation spot late in the 2025 season due to a lack of command. Stearns recently pushed back on the idea that Senga was available now, telling Andy Martino that the Mets are now planning on having Senga be a rotation member after seeing how good a shape he is in when he came stateside earlier this month.

Having a lot of rotation depth can be a good thing as the Mets saw last year that injuries and poor performance can create a need even if things look good on paper in February. There are ways to protect that depth, such as leaving Myers in the bullpen and allowing both Tong and Scott to begin the season in Triple-A as starters, but that still leaves six starters for five spots in the big leagues.

How The Mets Could Manage Their Pitching Situation

Assuming the Mets leave the remaining six starters (Peralta, Peterson, Senga, McLean, Holmes and Manaea) in the big leagues, they would have seven spots remaining for relievers in their pitching staff. Six of those figure to be accounted for by Devin Williams, Luke Weaver, A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley, Luis Garcia and Myers, leaving just one open slot up for grabs in spring training.

The Mets do have a good mix of arms competing for that final bullpen spot, including Huascar Brazoban, Dylan Ross, Adbert Alzolay and the recently-signed Craig Kimbrel. The fact that Minter may not be ready on Opening Day could allow the Mets to carry Kimbrel and one of the optionable relievers to round out the unit, but when Minter returns they could be locked into a situation where every reliever on the club cannot be optioned to the minor leagues.

Injuries could certainly alter this equation but if everyone is healthy that kind of rigidity would make it hard for the Mets to make moves, which is antithetical to how Stearns prefers to operate. Stearns routinely kept the last spot or two in the big league bullpen open for shuttling fresh arms into the group over the past two years and that kind of practice would be helpful to avoid overusing the team's late-inning arms.

The bullpen also lacks a true long man in this configuration, which could be an issue if a starter gets knocked out early. Myers could profile as a multi-inning reliever in this scenario, but having to use him that way could prevent the Mets from using him as a potential late-inning option to alleviate some of the burden on Weaver and Williams.

There are two realistic options if the Mets opt to run the group into camp without any subtractions. The first would be to commit to a full six-man rotation, which would allow them to manage the innings for Nolan McLean in his first full year as a big leaguer while affording Senga an extra day of rest every time through naturally.

The other option would be to use someone like Manaea, who has bullpen experience in his past, as the long man. Paying a long man $25 million is not ideal, but Manaea could serve as a second lefty in the bullpen until Minter is ready to return. He could additionally step in to be an actual sixth starter during long stretches of the schedule without an off day.

It is also possible that the Mets could simply carry this group into camp and see if another team experiences a major pitching injury which could lead to a trade market for their excess starters. Moving someone like Manaea or Senga in that scenario, followed by back-filling the team's depth with a veteran like Griffin Canning on a minor league deal, could be another alternative to create more flexibility for the pitching group.

After how badly the pitching group suffered with injuries last season, Stearns is probably not too concerned about having too many options to use in the rotation. There are still two months between now and Opening Day, which could allow the situation to resolve itself naturally, but for now the Mets have a good problem to navigate on the pitching side.

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.

• New York Mets Sign Craig Kimbrel to Minor League Deal
• Mets’ Offseason Plan B revealed
• Signing Pitcher Long-Term Should be on Mets' Wish List Before Season
• Mets Star Pitcher Tops MLB Pipeline Prospects List