NEW YORK — That age-old baseball lament — “You never have enough pitching” — could not ring more true for the Mets as they embark on their mission to end their 37-year championship drought.
Even before Edwin Diaz went down for the season with a torn patella in the World Baseball Classic, and lefty Jose Quintana, who they signed to replace Chris Bassitt in the rotation, went down with a lesion on his ribs, there were legitimate concerns about their two old aces, Max Scherzer (38) and Justin Verlander (40), making it all the way through to the end of October. And then — bang — there it was: the announcement on opening day in Miami that Verlander was suffering from a low-grade strain of the teres major muscle in his armpit area and will have his Mets debut delayed indefinitely. After spending over a half billion this winter — $214 million alone on Diaz, Verlander and Quintana — in the effort to overtake the Braves in National League East and hopefully go on to win the first Mets World Series since 1986, Steve Cohen is quickly learning this hard lesson about pitching in baseball.
The Mets’ season is not over before it ever started, but it sure has been compromised.
