Who Pitches Wednesday For The Mets?

Interesting timing for Jon Niese to go down with an injury considering the Mets’ rotation was voluntarily thinned out this week with the demotion of Ollie Perez.

Jerry Manuel said today after the game that re-inserting Perez back in the rotation in light of the uncertainty surrounding Niese was NOT an option.

He’ll remain in the ‘pen for the foreseeable future.

So who will start Wednesday against the Nationals in place of Perez? And now that the Mets possibly need to replace TWO pitchers in their rotation, how deep are they willing to dig to come up with that starter?

So far all signs point to any of the following five candidates getting the start Wednesday:

1. Raul Valdes. The lefty has a 2.25 ERA in 13 appearances and could be the favorite to pitch against the Nationals.

1A. Hisanori Takahashi. Tak’ would have been the likely candidate for the Wednesday start had he not been pressed into three innings of emergency relief today in place of Niese.

2. R.A. Dickey. Dipping into Triple-A for the next three candidates, beginning with the knuckleballer Dickey. He’s 4-2 with a 2.23 ERA in 60.2 innings this season, including a game where he retired 27 straight batters after allowing the first batter on base.

3. Pat Misch. Misch is 3-0 this season with the Bisons, posting a 3.30 ERA in 43.2 innings. You’ll remember Misch came on strong towards the end of last season starting for the Big Club.

4. Dillon Gee. Gee, the third starter in Buffalo, is 3-1 with a 4.39 ERA in 41.0 innings. Gee has yet to make his major league debut and is currently in his fourth season in the minor leagues.

So those are your candidates, Met fans. Selfishly I’d like to see Dickey get the start because I have a soft-spot in my heart for knuckleballers.

From a ‘best chance to win’ standpoint, I really liked what I saw from Misch last season. I think he deserves a chance to pitch when it counts for the Mets.

We’ll see who Jerry goes with come Wednesday.

Matt Estreich for The Huddle