Corbin Burnes, arguably the top starting pitcher available this past offseason, is headed for an MRI on his pitching elbow after leaving his last start on Sunday, an ominous sign after the ink on his six-year, $210 million contract has barely dried.
Over in Los Angeles, Blake Snell is working his way back from the 60-day IL as he recovers from a shoulder injury that he suffered shortly after signing a five-year, $182 million deal with the Dodgers. The lefty has thrown just nine innings so far this season.
The list goes on and on as the injury epidemic paralleled with the demand for velocity continues to run rampant throughout the league. Gerrit Cole is out for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Tyler Glasnow, Yu Darvish, and Shane McClanahan are just some of the other big names that are working their way back from injuries that have kept them out for varying periods of time.
Meanwhile, in Queens, the Mets hold the second-best starting pitching ERA in baseball, all while boasting a rotation making pennies on the dollar compared to most other playoff-caliber teams. The latest impressive display of the team’s ability to stretch a dollar in terms of pitching came Monday night, when Paul Blackburn made his season debut and shut down the mighty Dodgers across five innings of shutout ball in an eventual win for New York. Blackburn, returning from a myriad of injuries, is making just over $4 million this year.
Such has been the pattern for these Mets under Steve Cohen and David Stearns. Rather than commit big money to a position where long-term injuries are far more common, they have instead invested in their now famous “pitching lab,” where the Mets look to take potential diamonds in the rough and maximize their ability, turning cast-offs into top-of-the-rotation arms, all while committing little to the bottom line in terms of payroll.
Blackburn was one of the first Stearns signings when the executive arrived from Milwaukee, and it didn’t look like a win as Blackburn pitched just 24.1 forgettable innings in 2024. There were other failures like Adrian Houser, but along the way, the Mets continued to fine-tune their process under pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, and now, it’s taking off for the world to see. Clay Holmes, demoted as the Yankees closer a year ago, is pitching to a 3.07 ERA as a starter. David Peterson and his $4.6 million paycheck is boasting a 2.69 ERA, Griffin Canning and his $4.25 million holds a 3.23 ERA, and Kodai Senga leads the league with a 1.60 ERA.
Starting to see a pattern? The highest annual salary in that group is Senga, who is making $15 million in 2025. That is tied for the 44th highest salary among starting pitchers in all of baseball, per Spotrac. Ironically, the two highest salaries on the payroll are Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas at 24th and 39th, respectively, and both are down with injuries. The Mets have taken note of that pattern and, instead of committing big money to established stars, have invested in maximizing cheaper arms to get the most out of their financial commitments, and it is paying off in a big way.
With an owner boasting the type of wealth as Cohen, paired with a pitching process that doesn’t necessitate big paydays in the rotation, the Mets are free to spend big money on everyday position players, like signing superstar Juan Soto to a record-breaking contract. As top arms across the league go down with injuries or try to put previous ailments behind them, the Mets seem to have cracked the code on how to combat the injury tidal wave when it comes to big-league pitchers, and it has them holding the best record in the National League despite holding middle-of-the-pack numbers in several key offensive categories.
Looking at the seven highest-paid starting pitchers in baseball, five of them are down with injuries (Cole, Glasnow, Burnes, Snell, and Shohei Ohtani). Another in Jacob deGrom is back from his second Tommy John surgery. The Mets don’t have to worry about sunk costs or bad investments in the rotation. Not when the pitching lab is humming to the point where seemingly marginal signings are sitting near the top of the league leaders, all while barely putting a dent in the team’s payroll.
Credit to Stearns, Hefner, and the Mets pitchers that have the organization finding a solution to the injury craze that has ravaged the pitching staffs of several teams across baseball.