Mets need Matz to fix his issues to help staff

Their ace is returning, but another member of the Mets rotation remained in limbo Monday.

Jacob deGrom threw a bullpen session at Marlins Park, after which manager Luis Rojas declared the right-handed fit to start Wednesday’s game against Miami. The prognosis wasn’t as clear for Steven Matz, who still could be skipped in the rotation due to his recent struggles.

DeGrom, the two-time defending National League Cy Young Award winner, had battled neck stiffness in recent days that scratched him from his Friday start in Philadelphia.

“After seeing his side session, he just needs to show up,” Rojas said before the Mets won 11-4 to open a four-game series against the Marlins. “He looked really good.”

The Mets needed that good news following a week in which righthander Michael Wacha was placed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation and Marcus Stroman opted out of the season. Another starter, David Peterson, encountered left shoulder fatigue after throwing only 74 pitches in his last outing, but Rojas confirmed the rookie left-hander will start Tuesday as scheduled.

As for Matz, the Mets are still trying to figure out whether he might be best served by a stint in the bullpen. The left-hander has scuffled in his last three starts, including Saturday when he surrendered five runs in the fifth inning in a loss to the Phillies. With that performance Matz’s ERA surged to 9.00.

“We have talked to Matzy and what we have ahead of us is to work on some things, fix some things, to put him in the best situation that he can succeed,” Rojas said. “Matzy is a

hard worker by design and that is one thing that has helped him.

“Right now we are not committing to him what is going to happen. We are just working with him specifically on things that haven’t been there in specific innings of the ballgame. He has three good innings, one bad one and we are targeting where are the mistakes. What can we minimize and make better for him?”

In the long term the Mets need to resurrect Matz, who emerged as a dependable starter last season after a bullpen stint.

“His stuff is there,” Rojas said. “We know that, we told him that. He has the fastball velocity, the changeup feel and almost like everything happens in one inning or two innings in a five-inning outing so our sessions with him, my talks with the pitching coaches is what’s going to determine where Matz is going to be and which way we are going to commit for him going forward.”