Depending on whom you ask, the Mets have either the best or second-best starting rotation in baseball.
That prompted us to take a snapshot of the National League champions’ starters. The table below looks at three stats that together provide one glimpse of pitching prowess.
Fielding independent pitching (FIP), which measures a pitcher’s talent by isolating results a pitcher controls directly: strikeouts, walks, hit by pitches and home runs.
Strikeouts per nine innings (K/9), which counts how many strikeouts a pitcher averages over nine innings
Earned run average (ERA), which measures the number of earned runs a pitcher allows, averaged over nine innings.
As the numbers suggest, deGrom, Harvey and Syndergaard, the heart of the Mets’ rotation, all have the potential to be Cy Young award winners in 2016.
Wheeler, who was out last season while recovering from elbow surgery, is expected to rejoin the rotation in July. Matz, a left-hander who missed two months last season (his rookie year) after tearing a muscle near the armpit on his left side, will be trying to regain the form he showed in the first half of 2015.
Colon is expected to hold down the fifth spot in the rotation until Wheeler returns. The right-hander, who is entering his 20th season in the majors, reportedly turned down more money to remain with the Mets.
“All these guys are my family,” Colon told reporters on Wednesday.
Perhaps the best stat of all for Mets fans: Barring injury or a trade, the core of the rotation will be together for at least the next three seasons.