The New York Mets have been without two of their top pitchers, Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard, for the whole season to this point. The former has dealt with a torn hamstring for months, and the latter recently encountered a setback in his recovery from Tommy John surgery.
However, the Mets had good news to share this weekend, as both pitchers were spotted in uniform at Yankee Stadium, when they are playing through Sunday, doing baseball activities.
The Mets shut down Syndergaard with tightness in his elbow during a rehab start on May 25. At the time, they estimated he would need to stop throwing for six weeks. Instead, he was already playing catch about a month later.
Syndergaard was throwing a baseball at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, and has been playing catch off flat ground for about a week, per Mets manager Luis Rojas.
The Mets have a target date for Syndergaard
The skipper announced that the Mets are targeting September 1 as the date for Syndergaard’s return, and it seems feasible if he has no further setbacks.
Carrasco, meanwhile, started throwing bullpen sessions late last month, and he is already in the ramp-up phase of his recovery from a torn hamstring. He had to wait until the muscles on his legs were strong enough to endure the rigors of pitching, but fortunately for the Mets, he is already there.
If everything goes according to the plan, he’ll start a rehab assignment in mid-July and return around the end of the month. “Feels good, looks good, stuff is great,†Rojas said. “But this is where he’s ramping up.â€
The Mets are expected to pursue starting pitching help around the trade deadline, which is in July 30, but if they are able to get back the best versions of Carrasco and Syndergaard, that would go a long way into securing some necessary pitching depth for the stretch run.