Jason Vargas finds his comfort zone quickly with Mets
Mets pitcher Jason Vargas talks to reporters on Feb. 18, 2018 during a spring training workut in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday / Alejandra Villa
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Jason Vargas’ outing Thursday was more than a standard two-inning spring training debut. In early March, when feel and comfort are more important than straight output, the game was a miniature mashup of franchises and figures central to Vargas’ career.
Watching from the home dugout was Mets pitching coach Dave Eiland, Vargas’ pitching coach the previous four seasons with Kansas City. In the opposing dugout were the Marlins, the organization that drafted him in 2004. And for the first time in a decade, Vargas was back in a Mets uniform and back on the mound at First Data Field.
Even as the new guy in the clubhouse, a couple of weeks removed from signing a two-year, $16-million contract, Vargas, 35, is working with a noteworthy degree of familiarity.
“It didn’t feel brand new,” he said. “That’s nice to feel.”
Vargas’ last game as a Met was 10 years ago Saturday. His one Grapefruit League inning that day became his one inning all year, as surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip cost him the entire 2008 season.
Thursday was better, as the lefthander threw 31 pitches (20 strikes) and allowed three hits in the Mets’ 3-2 loss to the Marlins. He walked none and allowed a run on Garrett Cooper’s home run to left-center.
Of the two other hits, one was by Cameron Maybin, who was thrown out at second trying to stretch his bloop single into a double. That meant Vargas saw very little action with a runner on base.
“Nice to get out there, nice to get some of that game feel and get back there with one of the catchers,” he said. “I was able to get through two innings in a pretty clean manner as far as not having tons of traffic out there and not having to stress a whole bunch about runners on base or getting deep into a lot of counts. Everything out there was productive today.”
As one of the few known quantities among Mets starting pitchers — with Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Steven Matz coming off injury-plagued and/or bad seasons and Jacob deGrom already dealing with lower-back stiffness — Vargas is looking to rebound from a poor second half in 2017.
He had a 2.62 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in the first half with the Royals and became a first-time All-Star at age 34. After the break, those numbers rose to a 6.38 ERA and 1.60 WHIP. His work with Eiland helped straighten him out enough for him to post a 2.01 ERA during a four-start stretch in September.
“We worked on cleaning up a few simple things in the delivery, staying over the mound, making sure that we’re in a good position to deliver the baseball and commanding the bottom of the strike zone, especially to my arm side, which I had gotten lackadaisical on,” Vargas said. “That’s the main reason I was getting exposed in the second half. We were able to clean those up.”
Manager Mickey Callaway attributed the sharp dropoff to Vargas’ innings total (179 2⁄3 by year’s end) versus his 2016 workload (32 innings in the majors and minors). Callaway doesn’t expect that to happen this year, Vargas’ second full season removed from Tommy John surgery performed in the summer of 2015.
“It should make a considerable difference,” Callaway said.
Added Vargas: “I definitely hope I’m stronger in the second half. Only time will tell. I’m hopeful that the work that has been put in, the continuing all of the things I’ve done in the past up until now, hopefully those show up as the season progresses.”
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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.
