Mets can not restart Jason Vargas

Fourteen games since the start of the 2019 season, the Mets look like a team that can very well stay and compete for the title of the National League East. And that's why they can not give Jason Vargas another start – next week, next month, or anytime this year.

In three appearances this year, Vargas has been tattooed and he is frankly a little lucky to have only 14.9 years of silver. At his first start to the year in Miami, he gave up a ton of tough contacts, but managed to come out of the match with only two innings allowed in five innings of work. Since his turn in the rotation was skipped, his next appearance was relieved against the Twins, and he did not fool anyone. The Mets had come down 10-4 to take the ninth place start that night, but Vargas quickly gave up a double, two singles and a home run, allowing four points before he made an exit. . He managed to finish this round, but not to make it better.

But last night in Atlanta, Vargas again scored four points, this time in the third of the inning. Gary and Ron were openly wondering how the Mets could send him off for a fresh start after giving two singles and giving three walks, one of which forced him to run and forcing Mickey Callaway to bring him out of the match and put him out. play a huge burden on the bullpen of the Mets.

You do not have to watch Statcast to know that Vargas is being smoked, although if you wanted to check it, the numbers would surely be ugly. In total, he has started six innings and one third this year, he has four strikers and only three, and five of his innings have been against the modest Marlins.

Worse, nothing that Vargas did this year is surprising. While the Mets were telling how good Vargas was in 2018, even those eight starts with an ERA of 2.62 have been reduced to an average of 5.77 over the season. Of the 152 throwers who pitched at least 90 innings last year, this team ranked 146th.

The Mets also spent a lot of time talking about depth during the winter, and they have it in some areas of the list. The launch is not one of them, but the team was pleased to leave Vargas his fifth starter all winter, although Dallas Keuchel – whom Allison McCague called for the signing of the Mets in January – was was not signed. There were also other options for upgrading Vargas to the free agent market, but Keuchel is still there and still makes a lot of sense for the Mets.

In addition to that, Mickey Callaway suggested that the Mets could at least consider removing Robert Gsellman or Seth Lugo from the register and placing them in Vargas' place in the rotation, which seemed to want to be banned before the start of the season . The Mets used memory aids during the winter, but if the quality of the high-end pitchers they brought was good, the amount was not quite enough. Even with Lugo and Gsellman in the pen, the last two points in relief on the list are changing. Tim Peterson was part of the first day's lineup, but has already been sent to Syracuse for Corey Oswalt, who fought fiercely against the Braves last night. And Luis Avilan has an ERA 12.71 and 8.44 FIP in his first six appearances.

It may be too early to trigger panic with all the troubled pitchers in training, but the cascading effects of this version of Jason Vargas make the team's decision to wear it at the beginning of the year even worse . There is no clear option to replace it in the miners currently.

Surprisingly, the Mets could still dramatically improve their rotation without giving up any player in their organization today. For a team to be in a position where the Mets are – after making the decisions about their list of players during the winter and occupying the front row while looking like a good team legitimately endowed a free upgrade sitting in free competition in mid-April – this is rare. They should jump on this opportunity.

Even if they do not, they have to find a capable pitcher in the big leagues somewhere. Abandoning the prospects, even the most marginal ones, would risk losing the opportunity to simply sign a contract with a well-paid player. But it would not be as bad as watching Vargas take another start, and the next one, which will be omitted, should be in another important division game, this time against the Phillies.