Mets' Carlos Carrasco making his pitch for 2023 by racking up innings
Carlos Carrasco #59 of the Mets pitches in the first inning against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field on Wednesday, June 1, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
LOS ANGELES — Carlos Carrasco is on pace to reach his primary — and most lucrative — individual goal.
Through one-third of the season, a checkpoint the Mets hit with their loss to the Dodgers on Friday, Carrasco has thrown 57 innings. If he maintains that pace the rest of the way, he’ll finish with 171.
It just so happens that throwing 170 innings is one of the conditions he must meet to turn his $14 million club option into a guaranteed extra year. Thus, that otherwise arbitrary number has become one of his top targets, along with the usual team accomplishments such as getting into the postseason.
“It’s really important for me,” said Carrasco, who will begin the middle third of his season Monday against the Padres in San Diego. “This year it’s my goal. That’s what I’m pushing for . . . I would love to stay here. I love this team. They treat me pretty good. That’s my goal.”
The other needed element to lock in the 2023 deal: He needs to be healthy at the end of this season, which also is no guarantee. To that end, it was wise of Carrasco to have surgery to remove a bone fragment from his right elbow last October. It had bothered him for years, particularly in 2021, and if he didn’t get it taken care of then, it might have interfered with his 2022 (and beyond).
“I did it because it was bothering me a lot,” Carrasco said. “I said, ‘This is the time to do it.’ And I just want to finish strong and come back next year and continue to pitch. The best way to do it is to do the cleanup. And this year it’s been great.”
If Carrasco manages to pitch 170 innings and stay healthy, in addition to a financial win for him, it would be an on-field win for the Mets because it would mean Carrasco will have been reasonably good and reliable.
He has posted a 3.63 ERA and 1.21 WHIP in 10 starts, averaging 5.7 innings per outing. That is solid production from a guy who was something of a question mark entering the season and who the Mets needed only to be a back-end starter. If he makes, say, 20 more starts, he needs to average 5.65 innings to touch the magic number.
That also would make him desirable in the context of the Mets’ 2023 rotation. They have openings. Of their top five starters coming into this season, four could be free agents at the end of the year: Carrasco, Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker.
It would mean something to Carrasco in a baseball sense, too, to have that sort of year. He hasn’t pitched a full season since 2018, when he tossed 192 innings in 32 games for Cleveland.
In 2019, he missed half of the season while being treated for leukemia. In 2020, he and everyone else played a pandemic-shortened schedule. In 2021, he dealt with hamstring and elbow issues, was injured most of the year and was ineffective for most of the rest.
“For me it’s going to be special,” Carrasco said.
And then there is the matter of the 2022 Mets. Carrasco likes what he sees.
“We have a really good team. Really good. We’re missing three starters — [Tylor] Megill, Jake [deGrom] and Max [Scherzer] — so as soon as those guys come back, the team is going to get better. We just need to continue to play hard,” Carrasco said.
“More important here is to give the opportunity to the team every five days when I go out there to win a game. The way we’re playing right now is really good. We need to just continue to play hard and get stronger every month.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
