The New York Mets haven’t had their ace, Jacob deGrom, throw in an MLB game since early July. His absence coincided with a rough patch that saw the Mets give away first place in the NL East division. It’s not easy to replace a starting pitcher with a 1.08 ERA, after all.
At the time, his injury was referred to as right elbow inflammation. After some time passed, a recent MRI showed significant improvement and he was given the green light to begin throwing again. He is currently throwing from flat ground, but won’t graduate to mound work until mid-September, complicating his prospects of returning this year.
However, it turns out the Mets’ star was dealing with more than just ‘inflammation’.
Team president Sandy Alderson said deGrom has been nursing a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, but as he detailed to the Mets’ official site, it has healed and the ligament is “perfectly intact, based on the MRIs and our clinical evaluations through our doctors.”
The Mets say the issue has resolved itself
Alderson also said that the word sprain was a “technical term … another term for a very mild ligament condition,” and he called deGrom’s injury “a very low-grade thing that has resolved itself.”
The Mets don’t know where deGrom’s elbow issues came from.
“I don’t think we know exactly what has caused the problem, but if you were to look at it generally throughout baseball, I think velocity has something to do with a lot of these injuries,†Alderson said. “Whether it’s true in his case or not, I don’t know. I’m not a doctor, I haven’t done all the research. But I suspect there’s a correlation between the velocity that pitchers exhibit today and the rate of injury, which is a concern.â€
DeGrom is one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in baseball, clocking up to 101 mph with his four-seam fastball.