Mets reportedly think they can have Carrasco back by Memorial Day

The New York Mets will be without one of their best starters, Carlos Carrasco, for at least a few weeks. He began experiencing mild elbow soreness early last week and had to stop his throwing program, but after a few days of rest, he had progressed all the way to live batting practice a couple of days ago.

Everything went fine when Carrasco, who the Mets acquired together with shortstop Francisco Lindor in January, threw to live hitters. However, it was a running drill afterward the one that took away the first few weeks of his season, as he suffered a right hamstring tear.

It was diagnosed as a high-grade tear, meaning that the Mets will have to be careful not to rush him back or he could aggravate the injury.

Yet, the Mets are optimistic that their top starter can be back on the mound soon. In fact, they hope they can get their pitcher back by Memorial Day (which is on May 31.)

The Mets are optimistic

Andy Martino of SNY reported that the Mets are confident Carrasco can be back before that date, despite the initial timetable of 6-8 weeks before he could ramp up to being game-ready.

If Martino is correct, the Mets could potentially have Carrasco locked and loaded, fully stretched out and ready to be on a major league mound in about 10 weeks.

With Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard out, the Mets will likely bump David Peterson into the rotation and have one of Joey Lucchesi and Jordan Yamamoto join Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, and Taijuan Walker.

“We have pretty good depth,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said Thursday. “Not only that but having a guy like [Jacob deGrom] and Marcus [Stroman] and [David] Peterson and guys that also have experience starting games for the last few years in camp definitely gives us a relief when something like this can happen.”