New York Mets left-hander Steven Matz now has his major league debut and a World Series start on his résumé. So he most certainly will enter spring training next month with a different mindset than previous years.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Matz said from Tampa, where he is now working out. “Every year, going in, I was moving up a level. So it was like, ‘OK, I succeeded at low-A, now I’ve got to try to do it at high-A. Now I did it at high-A, I’ve got to do Double-A. All right, I’ve succeeded at Double-A, now I’ve got to try this at Triple-A.’ But now I’ve pitched in the big leagues and I’m just going to be going back to the big leagues. So I already know what to expect.”
Albeit interrupted by a two-month disabled list stint for a lat strain, Matz went 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA in six regular-season starts last season. He then made three postseason starts. That included commuting from his childhood home in Stony Brook on Long Island to start Game 4 of the World Series at Citi Field on Oct. 31.
Figuring to go wire-to-wire at the major league level in 2016, Matz plans to get his own place rather than navigate the Long Island Expressway from his parents’ house this season. He nonetheless appreciates the uniqueness of sleeping in his childhood bedroom on the eve of starting a World Series game.
Matz allowed two runs in five innings in a no-decision against the Kansas City Royals in Game 4, in what became a 5-3 loss.
“In the midst of everything, you’re focused on pitching in the World Series. So I didn’t think too much about that,” Matz said about the commute from his childhood home. “But looking at it now, I think [Michael] Cuddyer said something to me about it. He’s like, ‘I don’t think anyone else can say that.’ So it was definitely pretty cool.”
Because he logged only 35.2 regular-season innings and because he was on the active roster for fewer than 45 days before Sept. 1 of last season, Matz retains his rookie status for 2016 -- unlike left fielder Michael Conforto, who exceeded the at-bat threshold (130). Matz’s primary competition for the National League Rookie of the Year award might come from Washington's Trea Turner and Los Angeles' Corey Seager.
Although still unbeaten at the major league level -- during the regular season, at least -- Matz does have one area of his game upon which he would like to improve.
“The one thing I want to do is pitch better out of the stretch,” he said. “It feels like I can get in a groove for a few innings out of my windup. And then once I pitch out of the stretch, I may lose my stuff a little bit. So I just want to try to be more consistent out of my stretch as well.”
Innings restrictions should be pretty loose for Matz in 2016. Between the majors and minors, including rehab starts and the postseason, he reached 155⅔ innings in 2015. That should allow him to get close to 200 innings this year without trepidation.
“I’ve never had a conversation about it or anything, but I would think so,” Matz said about the restrictions being reasonably relaxed.
Matz spent a week early in the offseason in Honduras, volunteering with the charity Hearts for Honduras. He was in New York to play Santa Claus at the Mets’ annual holiday party for local schoolchildren, and participated in a baseball clinic at his alma mater, Ward Melville High School. Much of the offseason otherwise was spent with his girlfriend in Nashville. He drove to Tampa on Jan. 6. There he is living with former Yankees first-round pick Ty Hensley and working out with prospects Carson Fulmer of the Chicago White Sox and Jacob Barnes of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Matz just resumed throwing off a mound for the first time since the World Series.
“Just really light, just to feel the mound again,” he said. “It’s the same thing I did last year this time of year.”