Rich Hill was a solid veteran addition to the Mets’ rotation last weekend, but the team isn’t necessarily finished adding starting pitching before Friday’s trade deadline.
Acting general manager Zack Scott accentuated that point Monday during a pregame session with reporters at Citi Field.
“I still think we need to improve and have more depth there,” Scott said before the Mets faced the Braves in a doubleheader. “We have some guys that we think are on the cusp of returning to the team that can make an impact, a positive impact on the club, but … we don’t have the August waiver period before so we need to make sure we put our best foot forward in terms of getting the most pitching depth that we can.”
The sexiest name potentially on the market might be Max Scherzer, but Jose Berrios, Luis Castillo, Tyler Anderson and Zach Davies are among the other starting pitchers who could be finding new teams in the coming days.
Carlos Carrasco will likely return from the injured list this weekend and the Mets are hopeful Jacob deGrom returns in early August, but the team has endured enough bullpen games or starts by Quadruple-A pitchers this season to understand the fragility of the situation.
“The fastest way for things to fall apart is to have your starting rotation not pitch to their capabilities or to have a lot of injuries that lead to that falling apart,” Scott said. “Unfortunately, I’ve experienced that in the past, where it feels like you’re always down 3-0 coming to bat the first time or early in the game and it’s hard to dig out of those holes. So [we] definitely want to shore things up so we feel like we have a chance to win every game.”
Scott reiterated the Mets’ pursuit of starting pitching won’t keep them from trying to upgrade in the bullpen or with another bat.
Chemistry factors into the equation when deciding on additions.
“That’s been an important part of this team,” Scott said. “Putting together this team in the offseason, that was a big focus. Obviously we’re trying to put the best players on the field but the clubhouse culture is an important focus. So that remains the case and I’ve already had plenty of conversations with Luis [Rojas] about, if we did certain things, how we think that would be received by the clubhouse more broadly rather than a specific player?
“But we always have to do our due diligence so that we understand not just kind of the player that we’re bringing in but the kind of person, because I do think it’s important and what we do have in the clubhouse has been pretty special and we want to keep that going or even add to it.”