Awesome. And I agree 100% with you. There’s no reason Mejia should be in the big leagues this early. He needs to go to the minors and continue to develop.

I am very scared by this move. I do think that people make too big a deal about ruining this kid [or any other] if he gets rocked upon making the club out of spring.

My main problem is that the Mets [Manuel/Minaya] are just being very short-sighted here, and likely more worried about their jobs than the well being of Jenrry/the Mets. It’s not like there are a ton of starters that are going to block Mejia, if they would let him go to AA [or even AAA] and continue to develop he could be of service in the rotation later in the year. They need to just buck up and pay a guy to come in and provide relief innings and not screw with Mejia.

Jose Reyes came up at 20 and was still very raw. The plate discipline actually developed once he reached the majors, up until then, his walk rate was atrocious.

Admittedly, I haven’t seen him throw this spring and have heard little. The numbers are there, but ST stats count for shit, especially when it’s just a handful of innings, leading me to believe this is more about how the Mets are evaluating him largely on what it is they are seeing in his pitching. They may be impressed enough that he has turned a corner / figured something out to think he’s ready. If this was throwing him right into the rotation, it would be one thing. Here you can control who he faces in what situations and limit his innings. If it doesn’t work out after a month, he can go down to work on things.

-I think there is a very good chance he ends up in the pen anyway
-I think he can get major league hitters out right now the way his stuff moves.

I wouldn’t start him in the bigs if I were in charge of the Mets, but its not an absurd move. He could probably be pretty useful out of the pen.

I feel like the negative backlash here is 99% Mets fans dreaming on him becoming a front line starter.

But Mejia’s stuff looks Mariano-esque to me.

Bullpen move = good, IMO.

you feel like his secondary pitches are already adequate. I am not sure this is the case with Mejia. I think he needs to be given the opportunity to develop his secondary pitches in a higher level of the minors to determine if he can be a front-line starter.

Regardless of what happens, if the secondary pitches develop or no progress is made, he can be put in the major league pen the second half of the year, whether it be for permanent relief work or a “breaking in” timeframe.

Not sure why you start him in the majors, let him get some more seasoning down in AA or AAA and then call him up midseason if hes ready.

Peter (NY)

Jim, What is your opinion on how the Mets are handling Meija’s development? If he has a chance to be a legitimate top of the rotation pitcher, arent they hurting his development by rushing him to the majors and developing him as a late inning 1 or 2 pitch reliever?

Jim Callis (2:10 PM)

The Mets’ front office is in win-now/save-our-jobs mode. I would have sent him to Double-A as a starter to begin the season.