Starting Rotation 2026

[Centerfield]

So here’s the big question for David Stearns. What do you do about the starting rotation that was ranked 18th in ERA and 26th in WHIP? The staff that collapsed in the second half. You run it back of course!

I don’t know. Probably not. But most of these guys are signed for next year.

Holmes, Peterson, Senga and Manaea are all back. Maybe you trade one? They’re not high on Senga. But he’s also a guy that can pitch like a #2 when right. And his salary is only $13M. Holmes could always be moved to the pen, but he’s been the best of the bunch.

Then you have the young guys. McLean has done enough to start the year in the bigs. I think Sproat too. Tong should go to Syracuse until his secondaries are refined. And who knows what we’ll get from Christian Scott.

Montas is a sunk cost. Good riddance. And Megill is out until 2027.

I think you need an anchor. Whether that’s Sandy Alcantara, or Dylan Cease, I don’t know. But I feel like you need some dependability in this staff. I was ready to go all in for Michael King, but he has an issue with a thoracic nerve. Super risky.

One thing we absolutely cannot do is commit multiple years to some hack like Frankie Montas and hope that our ******** pitching lab can fix him. I hope that idea has been put to bed.

I’m sure there will be a low risk flyer too. The 2026 Griffin Canning.

[roger_that]

I've always been big on trading pitchers off a strong season for a comparably good batter for the simple reason (irrefutable, really) that pitchers are fragile, relying as they do so heavily on one body part.

The problem is we have no pitchers (other than McLean) coming off a strong season.

Hence, we have no chance to land a good hitter, nor do we need one, other than in CF.

A decade ago, I built an article around the argument the 2015 Mets were having with the 2015 Cubs--one team built around young home-grown pitchers (Harvey, deGrom, Syndergaard), the other around young home-grown position players (Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber). I still think that's the wisest way to go, trade off young pitchers as soon as they establish themselves as reliable, because that perception is not going to last long and then you'll be stuck with expensive guys who sit out whole seasons and whole careers.

McLean isn't there yet, and we don't have any other pitchers who are going to fetch anything valuable in return. Who are you gonna get for David Peterson at this point? Peterson's the best of the lot, so we might as well stick with him.