Michael

Wacha

It had already been announced that Cole Ragans would pitch against the Braves in Atlanta on Opening Day. He’ll be followed by Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo, with Noah Cameron rounding out the rotation and pitching on Wednesday against the Twins. It’s possible that Cameron could actually get pushed back to Thursday with Ragans working Wednesday on regular rest, but they may not want to push their ace so early in the season.

He allowed six hits, walked one and struck out four. Wacha’s four spring outings have produced an 8.44 ERA, and he gave up three runs in three innings in his lone WBC appearance for Team USA. On the brightside, he had a 7.64 ERA last spring and still opened up with a 2.98 ERA in his first eight starts.

The only two likely major leaguers Wacha faced tonight were bottom-of-the-barrel-types Jorge Barrosa and Ildemaro Vargas, so this is a particularly poor result, even if Wacha did wind up with six strikeouts. His velocity is down about 1.5 mph from last year, and he doesn’t seem like a very good bet for at least the beginning of the season.

Team USA could not guarantee Holmes enough innings to stay ready for the regular season, so back to Mets camp he goes. Also exiting the Team USA roster for the quarterfinal round are Michael Wacha, Ryan Yarbrough, and Tarik Skubal. Replacements for those three are Will Vest, Tyler Rogers, and Tim Hill. The team has not yet announced a replacement for Holmes, but Joe Ryan is expected to be in the mix.

Wacha struck out five over two scoreless frames to start his outing, but he gave up two hits and a homer to Victor Mascai in his third inning of work. In all, he threw 39 pitches, 31 of which were strikes.

Wacha struck out three, issued three walks and needed 43 pitches (26 strikes) to navigate a pair of frames in his opening salvo of the spring. The 34-year-old veteran represents a low-ceiling fantasy option at this stage of his career, which limits his appeal to deeper mixed leagues.

Wacha ends the year 10-13 with a 3.86 ERA in a career-high 172 2/3 innings. His career-low 17.6% strikeout rate wouldn’t seem to bode well going forward, but this makes four straight years as at least a slightly above average starting pitcher. He has about 12 bWAR since he turned 30, compared to 8.1 bWAR in nine seasons from ages 21-29.

Wacha gave up eight hits, walked one and struck out four. The 34-year-old right-hander has allowed 13 runs in his last two starts combined. Wacha has seen his ERA rise to 4.00 and has a 121/42 K/BB ratio in 166 2/3 innings this year. Wacha is lined up to face the Athletics on the road next weekend.

Wacha pretty obviously did not have his best stuff tonight in his return from the concussion IL. With his velocity down nearly one mph, he got just one missed swing and gave up 10 hard-hit balls in the 47-pitch outing. Assuming that he feels okay, he’ll probably start again Sunday against the Blue Jays, though he’ll be a tough play in mixed leagues.

Wacha was hurt in an off-the-field accident last week. He’ll be pitching on 10 days’ rest tonight against the Mariners.