With 162 games in 2021 after 60 in 2020, there still are plenty of questions about Yankees' and Mets' pitchers

Back in February, when the topic of how many innings starting pitchers could be expected to throw in 2021 was broached, phrases such as "uncharted waters" kept coming up.

As in, who knows? We’ve never done this before. We’ve never played a full season after a 60-game season. We’ll have to see how it looks in August and September.

Well, it’s August, Newsday has learned. September is just around the corner.

For several starting pitchers on the Yankees and Mets who pitched very little or not at all in 2020, those spring training questions still have not been answered completely.

For example:

— Why is Jameson Taillon of the Yankees (AL pitcher of the month for July) surging but Taijuan Walker of the Mets (first All-Star selection after a terrific first half) slumping?

— Will injured/rehabbing pitchers Luis Severino (Yankees) and Noah Syndergaard (Mets) really throw their first pitches since 2019 in September, or were their returns from Tommy John surgery always something of a pipe dream?

— Will their current status on the injured list and the rest it affords them help Yankees starters Domingo German (rotator cuff strain), Gerrit Cole (COVID-19) and Jordan Montgomery (COVID-19) finish the season with more oomph, as pitching coach Matt Blake recently suggested?

— Did Yankees righthander Corey Kluber, after throwing only 36 2/3 innings combined in 2019 and 2020, leave it all on the field during his May 19 no-hitter? Kluber went on the IL after his next start and still is trying to rehab his shoulder for a late-season return.

— Is Marcus Stroman going to be able to maintain his stuff down the stretch after opting out and not pitching at all last year?

— And — the biggest question for the Mets for this season and beyond — when will Jacob deGrom (elbow) be healthy enough to pitch again without worry?

Six of the 10 pitchers mentioned above totaled one inning in 2020 (by Kluber) because of injuries (Kluber, Severino, Syndergaard, Taillon), suspension (German) or decision to opt out (Stroman).

Montgomery and Walker came back in 2020 from Tommy John surgery. Only Cole and deGrom threw their normal complement of innings last season. Cole currently is on the COVID-19 list and deGrom is on the injured list with an inflamed elbow.

Not all of those issues are directly related to the shortened 2020 season, but enough of them are to justify the uncertainty that reigned in managers’ and pitching coaches’ offices in February when camps opened.

The Mets went into the season counting on deGrom and Stroman atop the rotation, hoping Walker would stay healthy enough to last the full season, and optimistic about a midseason return from Syndergaard.

The Yankees went into the season counting on Cole and Montgomery, curious about what they could get from Kluber, Taillon and German, and optimistic about a midseason return from Severino.

That’s why it was striking — and understandable — to hear Blake suggest time off on the COVID list could help Cole and Montgomery, and time off on the injured list could help German.

Blake was asked this past week if he’s noticed fatigue becoming a factor with some of the Yankees’ starters.

"I would think, obviously the one with Domingo where we’ve got a little shoulder fatigue and he's got to take a timeout right now to kind of get that right," he said. "Obviously, we've got a COVID break here for Monty and Gerrit — not to make light of that situation — but it's a nice 10 days where hopefully that can diminish some of the workload we're building on them because both those guys were chugging along for 150-plus innings.

"I would think each of them has had their dog days through June and July where maybe they didn't feel great and then went out there and tried to post for us. I think we're looking at it right now where everybody's got to take the ball when it's their turn and ultimately we're fighting for wild card and division, so ultimately we’ve got to just monitor where they're at and make sure we're not putting them in a harm's risk. I think pleasantly surprised by where Monty and [Taillon] were. Obviously, not sure about the workload they were going to handle. Obviously, Kluber is getting close to coming back and [Severino] is getting close to coming back. So reinforcements are on the way, hopefully."

With the trade deadline having passed and after a four-month slog to get to August, it’s now a sprint to the finish for the Mets and Yankees, both of whom have postseason aspirations.

For the Mets, obviously the biggest issue is the health of deGrom’s elbow. He hasn’t pitched since July 7 and currently is not throwing at all.

"I feel like I was having the best year of my career, and these little bumps and setbacks and now this — it’s definitely frustrating," deGrom said last week. "But how it feels this past week I think is a plus. I haven’t thrown, but moving it around, it feels fine. Just see what it says when we get it looked at again [with an MRI]."

For the Yankees, the biggest issue is the return to the roster for Cole, who went on the COVID list after testing positive on Monday. Montgomery joined him the following day.

Fatigue was the biggest question mark for Taillon and Walker once they were healthy enough to make the Opening Day rotations.

Taillon, whom the Yankees acquired from the Pirates in the offseason, had his second Tommy John surgery in August 2019 and didn’t pitch in 2020.

The 29-year-old righthander started the season slowly, with a 5.74 ERA through June 12. On that day, he hit rock bottom by giving up four runs in one-third of an inning against the Phillies.

Taillon is 6-0 with a 2.20 ERA in his last eight starts, including 4-0, 1.16 in July. Overall, he is 7-4, 4.04 and has thrown 107 innings.

"There's a lot of [reasons]," Taillon said. "I'm throwing my heater just around the zone more so I'm not just living up. There's strikes down. I'm pitching in a little bit more. I'm kind of saving the up fastball for guys that either I know can't hit it or can't adjust to it, or I'm saving it for later in a game or a big situation or a big advantage count where I want to kind of lean on that pitch and I haven't shown hitters that yet.

"I'm throwing the curveball a little harder. I feel like I'm throwing in the zone a little more. I feel like I'm able to throw it out of the zone when I want to a little more. Slider, I'm able to kind of like add and subtract some velo and shape on it.

"So there's a lot of different things. But I guess the biggest thing now at this point is just knowing that this is a level that I can expect of myself and I should expect every time out. That has, I guess, kind of raised the bar for me and I've gotten a little more confidence, too.

"I felt really good early in the season. I just wasn't quite getting the results. The results of the game showed me that I needed to change some things. The hitters are going to give you the best feedback that you could ever want. The hitters gave me the feedback through the first 2 1/2 months and said I had to make some adjustments. So that's what we did."

Walker’s trajectory has been the opposite. The Mets signed the 28-year-old righthander right as spring training opened and he came out of the gate hot, going 7-3, 2.50 in the first half and earning his first All-Star Game nod.

But since the Midsummer Classic, Walker is 0-3 with 12.00 ERA in four starts.

Manager Luis Rojas said before Walker’s most recent outing that he did see a drop-off in stuff in his first two outings after the break. Walker threw only one inning in 2019 and 53 1/3 in 2020 after coming back from Tommy John surgery. He’s at 105 innings, the most he’s thrown since 157 1/3 for Arizona in 2017.

"I was pleased with his last start just on how his stuff was compared to the other two," Rojas said on Monday. "The other two gave me a little bit of a concern just how his fastball wasn't carrying as much as he was in the first half. We don't know if this [is] just the number of innings and then all the work that he's done already this season. We don't know if it's bad, but last start, the fastball, the four-seam was carrying up in the zone, which is a good pitch for him. You can get the hitters to speed up a little bit and then all secondary pitches can work off of that. So that was a good sign."

After allowing five runs in five innings to Atlanta on July 29, Walker said: "The first thing after the break, I was a little tired. But I felt like everything’s starting to pick back up now."

His next time out, on Tuesday in Miami, he gave up four runs in 5 2/3 innings in a loss.

Walker and Taillon are scheduled to start on Sunday. Stroman last pitched on Friday. The others are in different stages of attempting to pitch again — or for this first time — in 2021.

Everyone — from managers to pitching coaches to the pitchers themselves — is still navigating uncharted waters.

"It’ll be something that’s very fluid and probably a bit unique to each individual," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said in February. "The feedback we’re getting from things we can actually measure with their pitches and their stuff, to conversations with them about how they’re feeling, that’s all going to be really important. I don’t think with anyone we’ll say, ‘This guy can pitch this number of innings, this guy can pitch that number of innings,' but we’ll certainly be mindful of all of them."

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.