Over the weekend, I wrote about Brandon Nimmo and discovering durability during a career to maximize potential. I was trying to think about players with that rare quality.
One name that resonated was Zack Wheeler.
Imagine if after Wheeler had missed the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons and then had a 5.21 ERA in 17 starts in 2017, I had told you he was going to end up as the workhorse of what the Mets had hoped would be a long-running elite rotation and perhaps have the best career of the group (more on him vs. Jacob deGrom in a bit).
But Matt Harvey is out of the game. Noah Syndergaard is out of a job. Steven Matz is hanging on as a fifth starter for the Cardinals. And deGrom is going to miss at least a few months after missing most of last season following a second Tommy John surgery.
