While it is true that the New York Mets severely underperformed expectations this year by failing to qualify for the playoffs, it is also true that their pitching depth was basically evaporated at one point of the season. Noah Syndergaard was lost to Tommy John surgery in March and Marcus Stroman decided to opt out of the season because of COVID-19. Also, Michael Wacha, Steven Matz, Jacob deGrom and even replacement David Peterson (who has now won a spot in the team’s plans for the future) missed additional time with injury.
The one starter in the original Mets’ rotation that didn’t have any injury issues was Rick Porcello. Unfortunately, the right-hander wasn’t always dependable, even though he had a weird statistical season and wasn’t the disaster that it appears to be on the surface.
“To the Mets fans, I’m sorry we couldn’t have done better for you and given you something to watch through the postseason, but I hope we were able to give you some relief through your struggles in your daily lives,” Porcello said after his last appearance of the 2020 season on Saturday night.
Rick Porcello apologizes to Mets fans:
“To the Mets fans, I’m sorry that we couldn’t have done better for you” pic.twitter.com/e89GWnqFXa
— SNY (@SNYtv) September 27, 2020
That’s a classy way to own up to what happened, and shows that Porcello respects New York Mets’ fans and had a good time in his stint in New York. He signed a one-year, $10 million deal to play in 2020, meaning that he is set to hit free agency after the World Series ends.
The Mets had a good starter in Porcello
For the year, Porcello gave the Mets a 5.64 ERA, which means that run prevention was an issue, which is that ultimately matters. However, looking under the surface, his 3.32 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) is a very good mark and more indicative of his performance than just ERA.
Since Fangraphs uses FIP to determine WAR, Porcello ended the season with a 1.6 mark which was actually the second-best in the Mets, behind deGrom’s 2.6.
Porcello had some horrible luck on balls in play (.373 BABIP) and with the men he left on base (59.5 LOB%.) So while it may seem like he had a horrible season, he didn’t in reality.
Will the Mets be interested in bringing him back next season? Only time will tell.