This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Welcome to the next level of Mets pitching depth.

This is not how the front office drew things up over the winter, when it built the most expensive rotation ($128.6 million) in Major League history. But this is the reality the Mets face barely three weeks into the season. When Max Scherzer accepted a 10-game suspension on Thursday for violating Major League Baseball’s sticky substances policy, he became the latest member to drop from the team’s starting five.

The original unit now looks like this:

Scherzer: Suspended, due to return May 1

Justin Verlander: IL, right teres major strain, due to return in early May

Kodai Senga: Healthy

José Quintana: IL, recovering from rib surgery, due to return no earlier than July

Carlos Carrasco: IL, bone spur in right elbow, return unclear

Those five have combined to start only 11 of the Mets’ first 20 games.

The team’s current rotation consists of Senga, David Peterson and Tylor Megill, with left-hander Joey Lucchesi set to join on Friday. The Mets still must find another starter to sub for Scherzer next Tuesday, or proceed with a bullpen game.

It’s a testament to the depth that general manager Billy Eppler built that the Mets have maintained a second-place standing despite their issues, but the team is nonetheless walking on uncomfortable ground.

Although the Mets are entering a softer stretch of their schedule, they will be without Scherzer, Verlander, Carrasco and Quintana for at least the next 10 days. They’re going to see a lot of Peterson, Megill, Lucchesi and José Butto, who must be up for the task if the Mets are to avoid unraveling their early-season success.

“Nobody’s going to stop the season to let you catch up and wait till everybody’s healthy,” manager Buck Showalter said. “Maybe it bodes well down the road when we get everybody back, if we can continue to be competitive until then.”