Ariel Jurado to start for the Mets tonight

Ariel Jurado will make his Mets debut tonight as the Mets begin a quick two-game set in Baltimore against the Orioles. The club added the right-hander in a trade with the Rangers last month in exchange for a Player To Be Named Later and cash.

Jurado signed as an international free agent with the Rangers in 2012 and made his way up the Texas system while coming in at Number 72 on the Baseball Prospectus Top 101 prospects list. He made his major league debut in 2018 and made eight starts and 12 total appearances. In that span, he posted a 5.93 ERA, a 5.01 FIP, a 1.54 WHIP, and a 0.1 bWAR. He followed that up in 2019 with a 5.81 ERA, a 5.10 FIP, a 1.50 WHIP, and a -0.2 bWAR in 18 starts and 32 total appearances. He was designated for assignment by Texas prior to the Mets acquiring him. He has been in the alternate site in Brooklyn since then.

The Mets didn’t have many options for today’s start given the nature of their schedule. Jacob deGrom pitched yesterday on normal rest after pitching the previous Wednesday. Meanwhile, Michael Wacha and David Peterson each returned from the injured list and pitched one of the games in Friday’s doubleheader, which meant they could not go today given the short rest.

The team recently added Franklyn Kilome to the bullpen when Steven Matz and Dellin Betances landed on the IL, but the team decided not to go with him as a starter. He could piggyback off Jurado today if anything goes wrong in his start. Jurado recently served as the 29th man for Sunday’s doubleheader in the Bronx.