Last season, I coined the term Organizational Innings.
Let’s start with the premise that the goal here is to WIN THE WORLD SERIES. Not accidentally back into the third wild card and callout a success, but actually win the World Series.
Aside from the 162 game schedule, a team could win the World Series with as few as 11 games (if it has a bye and sweeps every series), or as many as 22 games (if it starts in the Wild Card Round and every series goes the distance). Lets cut the middle and call that 17 games.
We need to cover 189 nine inning games. (Yes extras happen etc…)
Let’s use a 5 man rotation. We need our 5 starters to make 37 or 38 starts.
I’d like those starts to be 6 innings. I’d actually like them to be 7+ but modern baseball doesn’t have much of that, so 6 innings it is.
That’s going to take 222 innings from our starters.
2025 was doomed from the start because Senga only pitched 5 innings in 2024 and Clay Holmes only 63. Their arms were never going to get you to 222, and sure enough, they didn’t.
Coming into 2026, Clay pitched 165 last year…so yeah. maybe his arm will hold up this year.
Sean Manea pitched 60 innings on 2025. He won’t give you 222.
Segna pitched 111. He won’t double his output.
But what about the kids? Nolan McLean who made the Mets Fans Hall Of Fame last year pitched 48 at the major league level, and another 114 in the minors. That’s 162 (his career high). He’s a young guy, maybe he can get you to 222. Ya Gotta Believe.
So what do the Mets do?
They have Homes and McLean going to the World Baseball Classic. That way, two members of the rotation can be out of Mets camp, and ramp up too quickly to pitch useless innings in the tournament that MLB insists on having.
Now let me ask you, Mets fans, what do you think is going to happen?
That’s right. This is going to lead to injuries. I don’t know how it all works if the Mets can stop players from taking part, but it’s not a good idea.
The Mets do not have enough organizational innings, and sending two guys to the WBC won’t help the cause.