Mets will soon know what they have in Wheeler

THE METS probably should have expected this from somebody pitching on 924 days’ rest. Zack Wheeler had a forgettable return to the mound Friday, surrendering five earned runs over four innings on a brutally cold and windy night at Citi Field that had no semblance to the tropical paradise in which he had won his job this spring. Wheeler’s fastball had early juice, but commanding his off-speed pitches was a challenge, and pretty soon the Marlins were jumping on his heat. It’s a performance Wheeler should discard, right after he appreciates the fact he was back pitching for the Mets following two frustrating years of rehab from Tommy John surgery. Not every comeback will be a success story from the start. Matt Harvey, returning from surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, was terrific in his 2017 debut a night earlier, but Wheeler is clearly at a different place. “I wanted to come out here and dominate today,” Wheeler said after the Mets’ 7-2 loss. “Just put my foot that I’m back and I belong here. But something as small as controlling your offspeed [pitches], that is easy to fix. I’m not that down. It stinks that I lost, but it’s a long season and I will be better. ” What is Wheeler’s ceiling as a pitcher? The Mets believed they were close to answering that question when Wheeler arrived at spring training in 2015. His torn ulnar collateral ligament delayed the answer, and then Wheeler was pushed to the back burner, an afterthought in a rotation that had other stars. Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard have carried the Mets’ “ace” label at various points in recent seasons. Wheeler has never gotten a sniff of that air, but the manner in which he had concluded 2014 — going 8-3 with a 2.80 ERA over the final three months — made it seem plausible he would enter the conversation the following year. “We know that it is in there,” manager Terry Collins said. “Now, where are we are today? I think we are still in the dark about how he’s going to handle things, the command of his pitches, the durability of his arm after not pitching for two years, but he’s putting in a lot of work and excited about being out there.”

After arriving with much fanfare in the 2011 trade that sent Carlos Beltran to the Giants, Wheeler was largely ordinary in his first calendar year pitching in the major leagues. Too often, he worked deep into counts and had a habit of getting stung by one bad inning. This wasn’t the early dominance the Mets had seen from Harvey or the electricity they would later receive from deGrom and Syndergaard.

But the Brewers thought enough of Wheeler to want him in a deal that would have sent Carlos Gomez to the Mets at the trade deadline in 2015. When that deal crumbled, Wheeler was still Mets property — Michael Fulmer went to the Tigers two days later as the linchpin of the Yoenis Cespedes trade.

Wheeler, who had called general manager Sandy Alderson only hours before the trade deadline to express his desire to remain with the organization, had a second life with the Mets. But few could have envisioned it would take until April 7, 2017 for that second life, with the surgically repaired elbow, to begin. And even then, it wasn’t until Steven Matz landed on the disabled list with elbow soreness — and Seth Lugo was headed in that direction — that Wheeler received his shot.

“I thought for the first game he was OK,” Collins said. “The other guys have pitched so well and this poor kid hasn’t been out there in a long time, but I thought he did fine.”

Soon enough the Mets will know what they have in Zack Wheeler. It’s a question they have been waiting 925 days — and counting — to answer.