WASHINGTON — Let the “fun” begin.
After watching Jacob deGrom handle the Yankees by allowing one run over seven innings on Thursday, manager Terry Collins is excited about a potential battle for the final spot in the Mets rotation.
Dillon Gee, who has a strained right lat, will miss at least one more start, but the Mets may eventually have to choose between deGrom and Rafael Montero for one spot.
Montero allowed three runs over six innings against the Yankees in his major league debut on Wednesday.
“There will be a lot of discussion about who’s it going to be?” Collins said before the Mets’ 5-2 loss to the Nationals on Friday. “Who is going to be the fifth guy? The one thing, it will be fun. Because they are both very talented and you’re very impressed.”
Montero will take his next turn in the rotation on Tuesday against the Dodgers, according to Collins. Team brass had originally indicated Montero might be skipped with Monday’s off day as a means to keeping his innings in check.
Montero will be facing an innings limit of about 180 this season. He has pitched 47 ²/₃ innings between Triple-A Las Vegas and the Mets.
Collins said David Wright will receive a game off in the near future. Wright went 1-for-4 on Friday and committed a fielding error in the first inning that led to the Nationals scoring two unearned runs. Wright has homered just once since Opening Day.
“We’ve looked at some tape of David and he’s really trying to do too much,” Collins said. “But he’s one of these guys that is going to break out of it.”
Jenrry Mejia will soon pitch on back-to-back days from the bullpen, according to Collins. That could mean Saturday and Sunday or later in the week.
How many tickets will that be?
In an attempt to secure “Lion King” tickets for Sandy Alderson’s family, a Mets staffer accidentally sent out the general manager’s credit card information in a mass email to the New York media on Friday.
The staffer sent a follow up saying the previous email should be disregarded.
It’s not the first time the Mets have released sensitive information on the Internet. Previously, a staffer tweeted a picture of a check with the bank routing number visible.