The Mets continue to express belief in Adrian Houser, who is set to make what seems like a significant start Thursday.
The eighth-year major leaguer and first-year Met will bring an 8.37 ERA to the mound, his rotation spot beginning to feel the heat of both his own underperformance and others’ performance:
Triple-A Syracuse holds interesting and effective arms in Joey Lucchesi, Christian Scott and Dom Hamel, and a group of rehabbing starters that includes Kodai Senga is getting closer to becoming options.
Houser projected as the No. 5 starter at the onset of the season and will need to figure something out soon to preserve his spot.
He believes he has begun to figure something out.
According to the starter and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, Houser’s typically excellent command has abandoned him because of arm-path issues that have thrown off his mechanics.
Houser said he has gotten too long with his arm, which in turn has caused his whole delivery to be slightly out of sync.
In a solid 2023 season with the Brewers, Houser walked 2.75 hitters per nine innings.
He will get the ball Thursday having walked 6.08 per nine.
“It’s been getting a little long, so it’s throwing the timing off so my arm’s in the wrong spot,” Houser said of his mechanical issues. “I think that’s contributing to a loss of command and not having that fastball command. We’ve been trying to get that synced up and … trying to hammer away and get back to where I was in spring training.”
Is he fixed?
“We’re on the path,” Houser said before the Mets faced the Cubs at Citi Field on Wednesday. “If we’re not there, we’re pretty close.”
There is some urgency for a team both with playoff hopes and with other options on the way. The righty has allowed 14 runs in his past two starts and 8 ¹/₃ innings, uncharacteristic for a 31-year-old who had established himself as a nice, if not high-octane, starter with the Brewers.
At his best, Houser is a ground-ball specialist who relies primarily on his sinker to induce soft and southbound contact.
This year, opposing batters are batting .283 against his best pitch, but the problem has been bigger than one offering.
Opposing batters have particularly teed off against his changeup (hitting .545), and the belief is his mechanical issues have affected every pitch.
“Ultimately the hitters are going to tell us whether the adjustment was good and whether his command is better,” Hefner said. “But for him, it’s about not walking guys. … There’s going to be some balls in play, hopefully ground balls and we can turn double plays when guys do get on base.”
President of baseball operations David Stearns essentially brought Houser with him from Milwaukee through a trade and showed faith this week that Houser “is going to work his way through this,” Stearns said.
Stearns had seen Houser struggle at times with Milwaukee but also had seen him always right himself.
From 2018-23, Houser was a slightly above-average starter with a 4.02 ERA who might not blow many away but who could find his way to outs.
Mets fans were not around for those successful outings with the Brewers. Houser knows he picked a poor season for a poor start.
“Definitely not starting off on the right foot with a new team, the fan base, stuff like that,” Houser said. “But I know what I bring to the table; what I’ve been able to do throughout my career.
“I know I’m definitely better than what the numbers are showing right now.”
After a solid few days of between-start work and an adjustment for a slightly shorter arm path, Houser believes the numbers will change soon.
He is not happy with how his season has begun but is happy that he found something concrete to fix.
“Being able to identify something has been huge,” Houser said. “You don’t want to just be sitting there spinning in circles trying to find something.”
