How Mets' Tylor Megill Can Build Off Promising Rookie Year

Tylor Megill showed promise in his rookie campaign, but there is still a lot of work to be done this offseason to build off his first year with the Mets.

After the Mets suffered a barrage of injuries to their pitching staff in 2021, rookie Tylor Megill stepped up and showed promise this season.

In his first seven big-league starts, Megill shined with a 2.05 ERA while accumulating 39 strikeouts across 35.1 innings.

However, the final two months of his season have been a bit of a struggle, as he has posted a 6.78 ERA through 49.1 innings, to go along with 15 home runs allowed.

According to his manager Luis Rojas, the league figured out Megill, and now he must adjust.

Luckily, Jeremy Hefner and the Mets' pitching coaches have given him some homework for the upcoming offseason.

With Megill set to make his final start of the year against the Atlanta Braves on Friday night, a team he had success against in first two career outings [9.1 innings, five-runs, 12 strikeouts], Rojas says Hefner and co. have already come to him with a list of adjustments for the right-hander to work on this winter.

"The main thing here is, I just want to see him attacking the zone," said Rojas prior to the final series opener of the season. "He learns from outing-to-outing but I think the biggest time to learn is going to be in the offseason for him.

"Regardless of how it goes tonight, I think it is about going into the offseason and working on things and even hearing him talk about some of the things that he did in his first offseason."

And for Megill, he can also use the big-league experience he received in 2021 in order to help him make these adjustments as well.

"He can use all those samples on what went right, what went wrong," said Rojas. "And that's what [the coaching staff] gave him, and more than those things combined with that adjustment, but I mean tonight, it's just being who he is attacking the zone.

"But I don't think there's just going to be like a major adjustment, I think it's just he needs to attack the zone and trust his repertoire."

Although Megill endured an up-and-down first season in the majors, he shattered his career-high with 84.2 innings, after not tossing a single frame last year due to the pandemic cancelling the minor league season.

While his rookie season didn't end the way he would have hoped: 3-6. 4.78 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 93 strikeouts, 19 home runs allowed, the 26-year-old can still right the ship in the offseason.

Now, he must build off the trials and tribulations from this year, in order to emerge as a piece the Mets can rely on in their rotation moving forward.