Dillon Gee

Gee has been a punching bag at the major league level for much of his career, but the hits were coming at a frightening pace for the right-hander in his age-30 season. Too many of those hits left the yard, as Gee gave up an astounding 1.7 HR/9 in 125.0 frames split between the bullpen and the starting rotation. With so many hard-hit baseballs, he might want to consider putting more of his highly-hittable pitches outside the strike zone. At least he keeps the free passes to a minimum (2.6 BB/9). After starting 110 of his first 114 games in the majors, the Royals kept him in the swingman role throughout 2016 and used him as an emergency starter, but the emergency bell was sounded 14 times. With a 6.4 K/9 and 89.5 mph average fastball, Gee would seem an unlikely bounceback candidate, especially given the fact he was only able to land a minor league deal with the Rangers during the offseason.

It doesn’t feel like Gee has maxed out, but at the same time he is now 29 years old and has three seasons of a greater than 4.00 ERA in his last four while posting no less than a 1.25 WHIP in any of the four. So maybe this is just who he is at this point. His 21.0% strikeout rate from 2012 is looking more and more like the outlier as opposed to a precursor of things to come as he followed it up with back-to-back seasons below 17.0%. He has always leveraged his home ballpark for a better ERA (3.36 career home mark) and maybe he has inadvertently given the fantasy community the road map for maximizing his value, assuming he has a rotation spot, of course. The development of the Mets' pitching might have Gee on the outside looking in to start the season. However, with a Tommy John survivor and 42-year-old penciled in atop the rotation, there may be some chances. Or maybe his best value to this organization is as a trade chip for more offense.

Gee entered 2013 as a major question mark after he was shut down for the season during the 2012 All-Star break with an arterial blood clot in his pitching shoulder that required surgery. He got off to a slow start, and as of late May, Gee was in danger of losing his rotation and roster spot. Gee turned it around and put together a terrific second half, where he was one of the best starters in all of baseball. Even though he faded in late September, giving up four runs in three of his last four starts of the year, Gee delivered a solid season including a 3.62 ERA with a 142:47 K:BB ratio in 199 innings. Underneath those numbers, Gee's groundball rate tumbled and his strand rate increased, but the development of his knuckle-curve bodes well for future success.

Gee improved each month before getting shut down for the season during the All-Star break due to an arterial blood clot in his pitching shoulder. Surgery was successful and he is expected to be ready for spring training. Gee's big improvements came in his K:BB, K/9 and GB/FB ratios, which despite a jump in his BABIP, resulted in improved numbers overall. If Gee can continue the strides he made in those numbers, he should be one of the better back-end starters in the league, while his job security improved with the Mets' decision to trade R.A. Dickey to Toronto.

Gee overall had a solid first full season with the Mets, having gotten called up in mid-April and moving into the rotation full time in early May. He led the team in wins with 13, but after peaking at 7-0 with a 2.86 ERA, he stumbled, allowing 52 runs in 90.1 while posting a 6-6 record. Two danger signs are his below-average .280 BABIP and 4.82 FIP, which may be partially offset by his lower-than-usual 70 percent strand rate. Despite the late-season slump and warning signs, Gee, who mixes a low-90s fastball with a solid changeup and curve, should enter spring training penciled in the Mets' rotation as the fourth or fifth starter.

Gee was named Triple-A Buffalo's Comeback Player of the Year after missing half of 2009 with a torn labrum in his shoulder. He went 13-8 with a 4.96 ERA and led the International League with 165 strikeouts at the time of his callup to the Mets. All five of Gee's starts for the Mets were "quality," but he benefited from an abnormally low .232 BABIP and high .848 strand rate, giving him a 4.37 FIP, double his 2.18 ERA. Gee mixes a low-90s fastball with a solid changeup and curve. He is the favorite to open 2011 as the Mets' fourth or fifth starter.