With ace Kodai Senga sidelined due to a shoulder injury, right-hander Tylor Megill is among the group of depth starters who have an opportunity to make their mark in the Mets’ starting rotation early on this season.

Max Kranick tossed the ball well in his Mets debut, but he also landed on the IL due to a hamstring injury, and youngster Jose Butto impressed in his first start of the spring after a strong finish last season.

But thus far, it’s been Megill who is shining atop the competition as he tries to show new manager Carlos Mendoza that he can be the guy to step up for New York's rotation.

After opening the spring with two innings of one-run ball over the weekend against the St. Louis Cardinals, the right-hander put together an extremely impressive showing in his second outing on Thursday night.

Megill needed just 19 pitches to cruise through three scoreless innings while picking up four strikeouts and issuing no walks against an Astros lineup containing everyday stars Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman, and Kyle Tucker.

“Everything was working,” Megill said postgame. “Fastball, cutter, splitter, I had them all going. Most importantly I threw a lot of strikes. No walks tonight was big, I kept the ball in play and kept things moving.”

Megill cracked the big-league rotation out of camp last season as well as the team dealt with injuries, but he ended up being sent down to Triple-A Syracuse after enduring an up-and-down campaign.

The 28-year-old was able to return and finished the year strong, and after carrying that success into the offseason, he's seeing his hard work pay off to begin this spring.

Megill's allowed just one run on four hits with seven strikeouts and no walks across his first five spring innings, and he certainly caught the attention of the new skipper with his latest outing.

“I thought he threw the ball really well,” Mendoza said. “The velo was there on all of his pitches and he attacked the strike zone, he looked good overall. The early results are there, it was a really encouraging outing.”

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