Stroman will be instrumental to the Mets’ success in 2020
Brodie Van Wagenen, days before plucking rotation additions Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha, expressed confidence in his starters ahead of the 2020 season. As he explained the team would “try to be opportunistic elsewhere,” Van Wagenen indicated that the Mets — however underwhelming it appears — view Marcus Stroman as the replacement for Zack Wheeler, who has since plunged into a future with the division-rival Phillies.
One of the reasons the Mets GM is displaying a sense of patience entangled with unwillingness this offseason, comparatively offbeat from his splashy winter that landed Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz last year, is because Van Wagenen claims his game plan for 2020 actually began in July. In other words, fans seeking a splash from the Mets this offseason may have to backtrack five months and relive the eyebrow-raising move that gave them Stroman.
“Part of our offseason strategy started in July,” Van Wagenen said on Dec. 9 at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. “We traded for Marcus Stroman recognizing that starting pitching was going to be expensive and difficult to acquire. That was kickstarting
that and in some ways we got out in front of all of this a little bit earlier.”
Van Wagenen’s plan — cornering the market, then shifting the focus to “rotation depth” — centers chiefly on an impactful performance from Stroman and puts pressure on the Long Island native to fill Wheeler’s shoes.
The Mets gave up Nos. 4 and 6 minor-league pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson for the 28-year-old Stroman, who joined the Mets after being selected to his first All-Star Game on a 6-11 record and 2.96 ERA over 21 starts for Toronto in 2019. He’s under contract for the Mets through the 2020 season and is projected to make $11.8 million through arbitration.
Last season, Stroman posted a 3.22 ERA and 4.1 bWAR in 32 combined starts and 184.1 innings pitched between New York and Toronto. In comparison, Wheeler recorded a 3.96 ERA and 4.1 bWAR across 31 starts and 191.1 innings pitched in 2019. Stroman gave up 18 home runs compared to Wheeler’s 22. Stroman registered a career-high 20.5% strikeout rate to Wheeler’s 23.6%.
It took Stroman more than a handful of starts to get acclimated in the National League, but his finish to the 2019 season shows promise for 2020.
The righty struggled through his first seven games as a Met, putting up a 5.05 ERA and surrendering seven home runs, though the Amazin’s won four of those seven starts. He found his footing against the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Reds and Braves in his final four starts of the year, recording a 1.88 ERA and holding opponents to a .200 batting average and .540 OPS.
Van Wagenen’s faith in Stroman stacking up to Wheeler’s effectiveness is presumably why the Mets did not even bother to make a legitimate offer to Wheeler — beyond the formal one-year, $17.8 qualifying offer he rejected earlier this offseason — despite the righthander demonstrating a desire to remain in Queens.
“I think that both sides had expressed interest in potentially finding a way to have a reunion,” Van Wagenen said after Wheeler signed with the Phillies. “But over the course of the last six weeks, it started to become more clear the price point was going to go beyond how we valued him.
“The value for what we thought of the investment didn’t line up. The projections we had for Zack, both short term and long term, didn’t quite match up to the market he was able to enjoy.”
New pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, a 33-year-old former Met with a background in advanced scouting and prior experience coaching, certainly sees potential in Stroman. When Hefner described the reasons he’s looking forward to coaching the Mets’ bluechip rotation led by a back-toback Cy Young award winner, he mentioned two starters capable of following in Jacob deGrom’s footsteps.
“Stroman and Noah [Syndergaard], those guys can easily compete for [the Cy Young award],” Hefner said. “They’ve been dominant at certain points in their career. I couldn’t be more excited and more thrilled to walk into an opportunity with the pitchers that the Mets currently have on their roster.”