The New York Mets pitching staff has helped the team race out to an 11-5 start to the 2025 season. But the challenge is just beginning, as the Mets have started a stretch of 13 straight games without a day off.
The good thing is they have the pitching staff to withstand a stretch like this. The downside is it puts a lot of pressure on the starting rotation, which already has its own bind pending. As good as this starting staff has been — and it's been excellent, with a 2.50 ERA that leads the league — the one flaw has been an inability to go deep into games; New York ranks just 21st in starter innings pitched so far this year.
That can begin to take a toll on the entire staff, especially during a stretch of that features games every day until April 23. According to a Sports Illustrated story, the Mets could even entertain a bullpen day on Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals.
That doesn’t necessarily solve their problem, though. Bullpen depth is good to have, but without a starter that can confidently go six innings, that would essentially dry up the bullpen even quicker, having to use three, four or even five different pitchers to get through each day.
The Mets are red hot right now, and that’s largely because of their pitching. But all of that could come to a head over this nearly two week stretch of games.
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Mets rotation's hot start could run out of gas eventually
Of the five starters in the Mets rotation, only three of them are averaging more than five innings pitched per start. There’s nothing wrong with that, particularly, but it’s not really sustainable even in this day and age of pitcher burn and churn.
Sure, it may not be a problem right now, when everyone's still relatively fresh. But that doesn’t mean this is a sustainable structure moving forward: The MLB season is too long for New York to not only get five innings per game from their starters. They’ve had a starter reach six innings just three times in the first 16 games, and while the bullpen has been able to pick up the slack so far, the team can't ask them to do so over a full six months.
The Mets have done great so far in preventing runs and getting enough offense to reach 11 wins. But we’re approaching a month into the season, and their biggest strength could become their biggest problem if they aren’t able to get more distance from their starters.