Who Do The Mets Turn To Now?

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The Mets were very impressive last night in their 5-2 win over the Atlanta Braves.

Unfortunately, the win came at a price; as starter John Maine left the game with an apparently injury to his non-throwing elbow. While Maine indicated that he would like to make his next start, that is still very much up in the air.

This means that the Mets have a gaping hole in their starting pitching staff. Even if Maine doesn’t miss much time, it’s not like he’s been all that effective. If I had to take a guess I’d say that Maine hasn’t been healthy all year, which is likely why most of his performances have been so disappointing.

The question that remains is who should take Maine’s spot in the rotation? Last night on SNY’s Post Game show, analyst Bobby Ojeda predicted that Hisanori Takahashi would be the pitcher to fill the gap. I love Takahashi, but the team needs this guy in the bullpen.

What happens when Oliver Perez gets knocked out of the game in the fifth inning? Is Jerry really going to call on Fernando Nieve, who is on pace to possibly break Pedro Feliciano’s record for most appearances by a reliever? Besides, the pitching staff would be too unbalanced with Mike Pelfrey as the lone right-hander.

I would like to see the Mets continue their youth movement and call up right-hander Dillon Gee from Triple-A Buffalo and see how he fares in the big leagues. If you can recall, last season Gee was very impressive in Spring Training and there was talk that he could have been called up mid-season.

Unfortunately, that never came to fruition because Gee suffered a shoulder injury in May that ended his season.

Prior to the season, Toby Hyde of the Mets Minor League Blog ranked Gee the team’s 22nd best prospect. Thus far, it appears that he has picked up right where he left off last year and is currently 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA in 18 innings pitched.

I think this is a perfect opportunity to see what this kid has and who knows maybe he’ll stick at the major league level. As much as I love John Maine, it’s been almost three years since he’s contributed at the major league level. This team needs to turn the page and start building a new core of players.

Provided Maine won’t make his start Wednesday, who do you want to see toe the rubber? Sound off in the comments section.