Mets' 2016 rotation ranked best in baseball

Heading into the 2016 season, the Mets' starting rotation is ranked the best in baseball by ESPN's Buster Olney. With Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Bartolo Colon set for the Opening Day rotation and Zack Wheeler targeting a mid-season return from Tommy John surgery, Olney says "there isn't really a close second."

Mets starting pitchers had a 3.44 ERA in 2015, the fourth-best mark in Major League Baseball. That was with Noah Syndergaard spending the first month of the season in Triple-A, Wheeler missing the entire season, and Matz making just six starts in the regular season.

The ESPN list isn't the only recent source of optimism for the Mets' rotation, either. ZiPS projections posted at Fangraphs paint an optimistic picture for members of the Mets' starting rotation, with deGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard, and Matz all projected to be better than league average. Wheeler is projected to perform at roughly a league-average level once he returns, while Colon is projected to pitch a bit below league average.