New York Mets: Steven Matz Year in Review

The homegrown Steven Matz had another solid year in the middle of the New York Mets rotation. Much like the rest of the team, he found his stride during the second half of the season. Matz also reached a career-high in innings pitched and recorded the first shutout of his career.

Matz had a solid start to the season; the only let down being an eight-run outing without recording an out against the Philadelphia Phillies. He had a 3.55 ERA at the end of May, but he struggled with getting deep into the game. In half of his starts, he failed to get above 90 pitches. Some of it had to due with not pitching well in those starts, and other times, Mickey Callaway did not have the onions to let him continue.

Poor June and the Move to the Bullpen

Matz hit a wall during June, with a 7.36 ERA during the month. Things had gotten so weak that Matz had to move to the bullpen in July. After two scoreless outings out of the bullpen, he returned to the starting rotation when Zack Wheeler went down with an injury.

Safe to say the move to the bullpen made him better. In the two months following the stint, Matz had a 2.52 ERA and returned to the strike-throwing machine he was known to be. He had a couple of hiccups in his last couple of starts in September but still finished with a 3.52 ERA in his starts following his bullpen duty. While he still was not getting deep into games consistently, he always gave the Mets prime chances to win.

There have been trade rumors surrounding the only lefty in the Mets rotation, but they seem very unlikely to happen. He has been a solid mid-rotation starter, who is also very cheap. Matz still has a ceiling to hit, which is very likely to occur as he heads into his age-29 season. Coming off two straight 30-start seasons and having a healthy offseason is going to be a key for his 2020 success.

Grades:

Pitching Repertoire: B+, Change-up, and Curveball control can be flat at times, sinking fastball played very well for him.

Control: B+, Walk rate slightly decreased this season.

Composure: A-, Huge difference in his confidence and demeanor this season, which allowed himself to figure things out in the second half.

Intangibles: B+, Still has to work on avoiding the big inning, but was a much smarter pitcher this season.

Overall: B+, Solid year from Matz, but there is still a lot of potential for him heading into 2020.