Mets make decision on fifth starter

The Mets will open the season with righty Tylor Megill as their fifth starter, manager Carlos Mendoza announced, via Tim Healey of Newsday. He’ll join Jose Quintana, Sean Manaea, Adrian Houser and Luis Severino in the team’s rotation to begin the season. Right-hander Jose Butto will be optioned to Triple-A Syracuse

Megill, 28, is no stranger to the Mets’ rotation. Injuries elsewhere on the roster led to him making 25 starts for the team last season, and he’d started 27 games combined in the two seasons prior. However, an offseason full of mid-range pitching acquisitions for the Mets — Manaea, Severino and Houser all joined the team this winter — pushed Megill back down the depth chart. Were it not for right-hander Kodai Senga’s shoulder injury, he’d likely have been ticketed for Syracuse himself.

Instead, Megill competed with Butto and did enough to convince the team he was the preferred option. Both righties pitched well. Megill has tossed 15 2/3 innings and held opponents to six runs on a dozen hits and four walks with 16 strikeouts. Butto yielded just one run in 10 innings and turned in a sharp 9-to-2 K/BB ratio. Megill is the older and more experienced of the two, and he’ll get the first look in rotation while Senga is sidelined. In 263 1/3 big league innings over the past three seasons, Megill has posted a 4.72 ERA, 22.3% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate, 42.9% ground-ball rate and 1.50 HR/9.

Megill has flirted with a long-term rotation spot before and will again get a chance to prove himself to Mets higher-ups early in the 2024 campaign. Senga has yet to resume throwing, as his initial three-week shutdown has been stretched at least another seven to ten days. He’ll need to fully build his arm strength back up whenever he’s cleared to throw. That’ll likely be a weekslong process. Megill ought to have the first month of the season to make a positive impression. It’s always possible injuries crop up elsewhere on the starting staff and extend that window; Severino and Quintana, in particular, have had their share of health troubles in recent seasons.

As for Butto, he’ll head to Syracuse to begin the season but may not be down long. The Mets, as Healey points out, have a stretch of 13 games without an off-day early in their season and could look for a spot starter along the way. Butto is expected to be the next man up in the rotation and would be the leading candidate for that role, if needed. In 42 innings with the Mets last year, Butto logged a 3.64 ERA with a 21.2% strikeout rate, 12.8% walk rate, 42.2% grounder rate and 0.64 HR/9. He was hit hard in 19 Triple-A starts last year but posted solid numbers between Double-A and Triple-A back in 2022. He’s entering his final minor league option year and is still controllable for six seasons.