Jenrry Mejia made his second “start” for the GCL Mets as part of his rehab assignment yesterday — and I put start in quotes because he’s been handled with kid gloves out there right now. He was only allowed to go 1.2 innings in his first go-around, allowing three hits, a walk, and an unearned run. Yesterday, he was stretched out to 4.0 innings pitched, and allowed two earned runs off five hits and a walk. He uncorked two wild pitches — but induced eight groundouts and zero flyouts. A slightly worrisome figure has been his low strikeout rate through his GCL rehab, as he has only struck out one and two in his first two starts, respectively. He had struck out 14 in 8.0 innings before hitting the DL in mid-May.
There are some that believe Mejia should still be given a shot to start — but I am not one of those people. This young man still has a live arm and could work out to be a solid bullpen piece for us on the cheap — which we know this front office is fond of. He might not bring back much in a trade because of all the tinkering with his…biomechanics (?) and his injury history, but he’s still a flamethrower at just 23 years old. He can excel at keeping the ball low to induce a lot of ground outs and keep the ball in the park — evidenced via small sample size in his last start and in the fact that he has not allowed a home run in 13.2 combined innings this year.
I don’t ever believe in giving up on a guy who can touch the mid nineties with regularity — especially someone who had the movement on his fastball that Mejia does. Looking ahead to next year, it’s going to be really interesting to see where Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia stand in regards to the 2014 Mets. I’ve always believed Familia could be a closer for us — while my colleague Teddy Klein believes that Mejia has more potential and the better stuff overall. No disrespect to the guys like Scott Atchison, Greg Burke, and LaTroy Hawkins — but I’d rather see my guy Familia and Mejia working out of our pen next year than the random veteran names.
What do you guys think? Should we count on Mejia for anything at this point? Do you want to see him in the ’14 pen?
The key to Mejia is staying healthy. The talent is there. I think after all of these injuries he has to go to the pen. I really wanted him to have his chance at starting last year but I think that ship has sailed. Familia will be a nice pen piece too! Hope he gets healthy soon!
There was one game this year where Familia came in and closed out the ninth. He threw some absolute wicked stuff. It was unlike anything we’ve seen out of a closer in years. If he can get healthy and throw like that with any consistency, he’s going to be a huge asset in the pen.
Not sure what to make of Mejia. I certainly wouldn’t give up on the guy but he has to get healthy and stay healthy. Seems like the kind of guy who we eventually have t move on from, but comes back down the road to be effective for someone else.
I completely agree with seeing Famila and Mejia pitch out of the pen next year. They could be huge future pieces and continuously seeing guys like Lyon and Atchison come in to blow games and get hurt is not only hurting our team now but for the future as well.
First he needs to be healty. After that put in the AAA rotation and let him prove he is a starter. IF he fails put him in the 2014 pen.
I think they need to make him a reliever. He’ll never have the durability to go 200 innings. He throws far too many different pitches, most of them fringy at best. He needs to go to the pen, simplify is repertoire, and I think he can be a good reliever.
Whatever the team decides to do with him, I think they should make the decision and implement it. Jerking him around hasn’t helped and only stunted his development. He still has a live arm and is only 23, six months younger than Matt Harvey and only eight months older than Zack Wheeler.