What It Means:

Vargas was expected to occupy the fifth spot in the Mets' rotation this season, but without him to begin the year, Seth Lugo will take at least one turn as the fifth starter until Vargas comes back. However, Vargas is almost recovered from surgery to repair a broken bone in his non-throwing hand, so he's expected to only miss one or two starts. He has been placed on the 10-day DL.

numberFire's models project Vargas for a 4.83 ERA and 1.36 WHIP this season, to go with 113 strikeouts over 143.2 innings pitched.