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Dillon Gee will step back into the New York Mets rotation now that news broke about Zack Wheeler being done for the season as the young right-hander will undergo Tommy John surgery.
Matt Harvey is ready to rejoin the rotation after missing all of last season while recovering from the same surgery. It’s Wheeler’s turn as he will leave the rotation for the entire 2015 season and presumably the start of next season.
Gee has pitched five years for the Mets with a 40-34 record, 3.91 ERA. He’s been a serviceable, middle-to-end of the rotation pitcher for New York over the years as the club has built a deep pitching staff throughout its entire system.
"We still think we've got a pretty good pitching staff," Mets head coach Terry Collins told MLB.com. "Dillon's won games. He's won a lot of games in the big leagues in a short time. He's going to have to step up and fill some big shoes, but he can handle it. He's a good pitcher."
Gee was originally the odd man out for the starting rotation as he was going to be coming out of the bullpen. Instead, he will get another chance to prove he deserves to be pitching every fifth game. Gee will replace Wheeler, who went 11-11 with a 3.54 ERA in his first full season in the big leauges.
With a deep pitching staff, fans wondered whether some of the young arms would be called up as the new starter in the rotation. Collins told Newsday that it won't be quite yet that fans see Rafael Montero, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz pitch for the Mets.
"I think they've got to pitch their way up," Collins said of the young arms. "But I think those decisions will be made later in spring."
