Last year, the Mets went into spring training under the assumption that four rotation spots were all sewn up. Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, and Rick Porcello were going to make the rotation. The last spot would be a battle between Steven Matz and Michael Wacha, with a dark horse candidate in rising minor leaguer David Peterson.
It ended up playing out slightly differently, to put it extremely mildly. The start of the season was postponed due to the global pandemic, Syndergaard had to get Tommy John surgery, and as the season began to start up again, Marcus Stroman tore his left calf muscle and ended up opting out of the season due to concerns with COVID-19.