Even before the first official workouts of spring training begin in about two weeks, the Mets will be keeping an eye on their starting rotation depth.

That is a sound philosophy for any team, given the fragile nature of elbows and shoulders in particular, but the Mets are headed to Port St. Lucie, Fla., with three starting pitchers above the age of 35, two of which (Max Scherzer and Carlos Carrasco) have spent significant time on he injured list during their respective tenures with the team. The third, Justin Verlander, is coming off a Cy Young award year with the Astros after missing essentially two full seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery.

In winning 101 games last season, the Mets received 37 starts combined from David Peterson, Tylor Megill and Trevor Williams. If the Mets need that kind of coverage again, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner is confident the team has the answers: Peterson and Megill are returning, and the Mets have multiple arms — Elieser Hernandez and Joey Lucchesi among them — to potentially replace Williams, who signed with the Nationals in December.

Peterson and Megill, specifically, have shown they are worthy of starting rotation consideration.