Mets think Mejia, like Cards' Wainwright, can make the jump
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Jerry Manuel has lobbied for Jenrry Mejia to be on the Opening Day roster ever since he first saw him on a bullpen mound six weeks ago. His opinion hasn't changed, and Omar Minaya is almost certain to grant his wish when the Mets announce their 25-man roster after Saturday's exhibition game in Sarasota.
It's a controversial decision. There is risk in promoting a 20-year-old pitcher with only 10 Double-A starts to his credit, one who was 0-5 with a 4.47 ERA in those starts.
Mejia is the Mets' top pitching prospect, and such a jump - even moving him into a relief role - could hurt his development as a potential front-end-of-the-rotation starter.
On the other hand, Mejia basically earned himself a spot in the Mets' relief corps with the way he has pitched in spring training - and they need him. If his age and limited experience were removed from the equation, taking Mejia would be a no-brainer. He's outpitched his competition and looked better than anyone not named Francisco Rodriguez or Pedro Feliciano.
Before Friday, Mejia had a 1.69 ERA in 10 appearances with nine strikeouts and three walks in 16 innings. He also had held hitters to a .217 average. Beyond that, the Mets believe he has the psychological makeup to not only handle the added responsibility but thrive under the right circumstances.
"Absolutely," pitching coach Dan Warthen said Friday. "By all means. Do we feel that this kid is going to be strong enough to make this big change in the big city? To a man, the answer is yes. He's confident. He believes in himself. He's certainly not going to let it bother him."
Mejia did nothing to hurt himself Friday despite allowing two unearned runs in the ninth inning. The Rays tagged him for two hits, including a double off the rightfield wall by Sean Rodriguez. But the first run scored when Fernando Tatis kicked an easy grounder and the second came in on a broken-bat bloop single to center.
The Cardinals tried a similar experiment in 2006 with Adam Wainwright, a name the Mets know all too well. Wainwright, who turned 25 on Aug. 30 that year, was their top pitching prospect then, and with 135 minor-league starts on his resume, he made 61 relief appearances.
He was a more polished pitcher than Mejia, but manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan still had to make an evaluation of Wainwright's mental makeup. Could he handle the switch from lifelong starter to the bullpen? How about the pressures of a late-inning relief role? La Russa viewed the promotion as an important step in Wainwright's overall development, knowing he would be moved back to the rotation.
"It's an old-fashioned concept that Dave and I believe in," La Russa said this week. "When you have a guy that's a promising starter, and he's got a certain amount of minor-league experience, you can bring him up to the big leagues and use him out of the bullpen so he gets his feet wet. But the idea is that he's going to be a starter."
La Russa initially planned to use Wainwright as an "innings-eater" in middle relief to keep him out of the fire but soon gave him a more meaningful relief role out of necessity. And Wainwright wound up catching Carlos Beltran looking at an 0-and-2 curveball with the bases loaded to end Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS and put the Cardinals in the World Series.
Like Wainwright, Mejia has shown he doesn't flinch. The natural movement on his 97-mph fastball has drawn comparisons to Mariano Rivera's lethal cutter, and Mejia mixes in a looping curve as his secondary pitch. His attitude, however, is nearly as important.
When asked about staring down the likes of Albert Pujols and Hanley Ramirez, Mejia smiled. "I'm only thinking about throwing strikes and getting them out," he said.
And if he fails? "Nobody's perfect," he said. "Today is today. When it's over, it's over. That's no problem."
