With the Mets' rotation thrown into further disarray on Tuesday with David Peterson scratched from his start and placed on the IL, manager Luis Rojas wouldn't shut the door when asked if Seth Lugo is now an option to start games.
"Seth is very versatile. He has the ability to give us multiple innings, he's closed games for us, he's been very important to our bullpen," Rojas said before the game. "Seth can do different things. ... We're not committed with him yet to do something as an opener, something as a starter yet, but that's something that -- you never know.
"His versatility is something that can help us to do some things different from the bullpen in the future. We'll see. Right now, we're looking to see if he can help us out tonight or something. Like I said, right now we're bouncing back right away from the situation that we encountered today. And this is what we want to do today, just to get through this game and make sure we have the innings (covered).'"
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Asked whether he was more open now to moving Lugo from the bullpen, Rojas said "It's something to think about."
When it comes to Lugo entering the rotation or serving as an opener, it is not clear how much he would need to be stretched out in order to be deemed ready.
Corey Oswalt will be making the start Tuesday in place of Peterson, a day after Robert Gsellman -- making his second start since being moved from the bullpen -- lasted just 1.2 innings.
In addition to the situation with Peterson, the severity of which is not yet known, the Mets are still without Michael Wacha (who is set to throw a simulated game on Tuesday) and remain non-committal when it comes to the struggling Steven Matz making his next start. Marcus Stroman opted out of the season earlier this month.
Jacob deGrom, who missed his last start due to neck stiffness, is scheduled to start on Wednesday.
The Mets' starting pitching depth has been almost completely exhausted, with Walker Lockett (who started in place of deGrom on Friday) unavailable on Tuesday and Franklyn Kilome having thrown over 70 pitches in relief on Monday before being optioned to the alternate training site.
As of now, the Mets' healthy starters are deGrom, Matz, Rick Porcello, and Gsellman, though it's fair to wonder how long the rotation experiment with Gsellman can continue if he's unable to provide length.
