Jacob deGrom

New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom hasn’t been able to pitch in 2022 after suffering a stress reaction on his right scapula a few weeks ago. The rotation has been able to hold down the fort and then some during his absence, but they need the best pitcher in baseball back when he is fully healthy.

He was sent to the 60-day injured list this week, but not because he suffered a setback: the Mets made a waiver claim and it was a procedural move that doesn’t really affect his timeline.

The good news is that deGrom has already started his throwing program, in early May, according to Mets’ beat writer for MLB.com Anthony DiComo. He is expected back next month, but the earliest he can return would be mid-June.

The Mets hope to have him back soon

“deGrom restarted a throwing program in early May, in advance of an MRI — his third since late March — that he will undergo around the middle of the month. Prior to throwing, deGrom had spent his time loading and strengthening his shoulder, which entailed a series of resistance exercises. If all goes well, deGrom’s progression will take him from flat ground to bullpen sessions and eventually to Minor League game action, with the goal of making it back before the All-Star break. But the timeline is fluid. deGrom hasn’t pitched since being diagnosed with a stress reaction in his right shoulder at the end of Spring Training,” DiComo wrote.

Last season was full of injuries for deGrom, who ended up pitching just 92 innings for the Mets. They were magnificent, though, as he had a 1.08 ERA and struck out 45.1 percent of the hitters he faced. But he suffered lat, shoulder, and elbow issues that ultimately ended his season in July.

This time, it was his scapula the one that barked, and the Mets just want to have him healthy and on a roll in time for the stretch run and the playoffs.

The New York Mets sent a bizarre update on the health status of their injured ace, Jacob deGrom, late on Monday. The right-hander has been out all season with a stress reaction on his right scapula, and was scheduled for imaging last week.

An MRI and CT scan taken Monday on deGrom’s right shoulder showed “considerable healing of the stress reaction on his scapula.” However, the Mets didn’t say he was allowed to throw just yet.

Instead, the star pitcher has been cleared to begin “loading and strengthening of the shoulder” and will undergo another MRI in three weeks to check his progress, per the Mets’ official site. That means his return isn’t imminent, and it could take most of the first half from the former Cy Young award winner.

As Anthony DiComo notes, the Mets’ release “didn’t say anything about a throwing program, so it would appear he won’t be cleared for that at least until the next exam.” While he is showing healing, the team is obviously not confident enough in his progress to let him start a throwing program just yet.

The Mets need deGrom

When healthy, there is no question that deGrom is the best pitcher in baseball. Last year, he covered 92 innings and had a minuscule 1.08 ERA, with a 45.1 percent strikeout rate, but he suffered elbow issues that robbed him most of the second half.

In the meantime, the Mets have the best record in baseball, at 13-5, and haven’t missed deGrom much. Most, if not all, of his rotation mates have done a fantastic job holding down the fort: Tylor Megill, Max Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco, Chris Bassitt, and even David Peterson have all been stellar, and these are good times in Queens.

To make a deep postseason run, though, the Mets will need deGrom healthy and in-form, and that’s apparently what they are shooting for with so much caution.

The New York Mets will be without their best pitcher for a big portion of the first half, at the very least. It was revealed, after an MRI on Friday, that the star right-hander is dealing with a stress reaction in his scapula, which caused inflammation in the area and resulted in shoulder tightness after a session of catch.

As a result of the diagnosis, the Mets decided to shut down their ace for at least four weeks. After that timeline, he will be reevaluated and another MRI will be performed in the affected area. If there is significant improvement, he will be allowed to restart a throwing program.

The Mets, therefore, suffer their first tough blow of the year and the season hasn’t even started yet. Newcomer Max Scherzer will now be tasked with leading the rotation until deGrom is ready to come back.

“Everybody has adversity,” general manager Billy Eppler said, per the Mets official site. “Everybody does. Every team, all the time. So you deal with these things. Would we have loved to have had Jake out there on Opening Day? Yeah, absolutely. But we understand that this is what teams go through. So that’s what we’ll do. We’ll manage it and move forward.”

deGrom could realistically return to the Mets in two months

If the follow-up MRI taken a month from now comes back clean, deGrom will likely need another month to ramp up and stretch out enough to start an MLB game. So, in reality, we won’t see deGrom on an MLB mound before June.

“He’s disappointed,” Eppler said. “We’re disappointed. Everybody’s sharing the disappointment right now. Nobody’s immune to that.”

The Mets rotation will now have Scherzer, Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, and the winner of a battle that includes Tylor Megill, David Peterson, and Trevor Williams.

“[deGrom] is really good at what he does, and we won’t have that for a period of time, but now an opportunity presents itself for somebody to step forward,” manager Buck Showalter said.

The New York Mets received some bad news on Thursday night, when ace Jacob deGrom reported some tightness in his right (pitching) shoulder after playing catch. The pitcher, expected to carry the team alongside new addition Max Scherzer, underwent an MRI on Friday morning, and the organization is patiently awaiting the results to determine the next steps.

The Mets scratched deGrom from his originally scheduled Grapefruit League start against the Cardinals, and replaced him with right-hander Félix Peña. His status for Opening Day is now in doubt and will largely depend on what the MRI says.

deGrom already had to deal with an injury-filled 2021, in which he suffered oblique, shoulder, and elbow issues. The latter proved too much to overcome in July and knocked him out for the rest of the year.

Losing deGrom would be a huge blow for the Mets

The Mets’ ace was brilliant when healthy: in 92 innings, he had a 1.08 ERA and struck out over 45 percent of the hitters he faced last year. He was on his way to a historic year if it wasn’t for the injuries.

According to Mets’ president Sandy Alderson, the elbow injury that robbed him of his second half was a partial UCL tear that “resolved itself”.

Anthony diComo of the Mets’ official site explains that, according to manager Buck Showalter, “deGrom felt fine during his routine game of catch on Thursday until his last couple of throws. He looked strong over his first two Grapefruit League starts, allowing one run in five innings with 10 strikeouts. deGrom had also made some concessions in the name of staying healthy, lifting slightly heavier weights this winter and dialing back his velocity a few ticks in spring.”

If deGrom is not available to make his Opening Day start for the Mets, the team could opt with Scherzer, who had a 2.46 ERA in 179.1 frames last year and signed a three-year, $130 million to pitch in Queens.

The New York Mets got some bad news to start the week, and they have to do with their best pitcher, Jacob deGrom. No, it doesn’t have to do with any physical ailments (thankfully!), but instead, with his contract situation.

Before the 2019 season, deGrom signed a contract extension for five years, worth $137.5 million. That deal included an opt out after the 2022 campaign, which the pitcher, according to his own words in the last few hours, intends to use.

“As a player, you build in opt-outs and that’s the business side,” he said, per SNY, pretty much confirming he will exercise his opt out after this season.

However, before Mets’ fans freak out (understandably, of course) over deGrom’s comments, he did say his desire is to stay in the franchise for the long term.

“For me, I don’t want that to be any distraction,” he said. “I’m excited about this team, and I’ve said it before, I love being a Met. Think it would be really cool to be one for my entire career. The plan is to exercise that option and be in constant contact in the offseason with the Mets and Steve Cohen and the front office.”

The Mets will need to pay him more to make him stay

After seeing the Mets pay Max Scherzer $43.3 million per year for three seasons at 37 years old, it’s understandable that deGrom, who is 33, wants to bet on himself to get a larger deal.

“It’s exciting. To see what ownership’s doing and going and getting guys, this is going to be an exciting place to be,” deGrom said.

The Mets’ ace had an injury-riddled 2021, in which he suffered shoulder, side, and elbow issues. Team president Sandy Alderson talked about a partial elbow ligament tear that “healed itself,” so deGrom will hope to stay healthy and cash in over the offseason.

Last year, he could only make 15 starts, but that was enough to put a 4.9 WAR: he pitched 92 innings, struck out 45.1% of hitters, and had a minuscule 1.08 ERA.

The New York Mets made the logical decision of shutting down ace Jacob deGrom for the remainder of the season, after the team fell off the race for a playoff spot via the NL East crown or the second Wild Card.

DeGrom hasn’t played in an official MLB game since July 7, when he had to leave his start with right elbow discomfort that was later dubbed as inflammation. However, the team recently admitted that his UCL was partially torn at one point, but that the issue “resolved itself” and surgery was no longer an option at the moment.

The Mets decided to keep deGrom from pitching this year the same day fellow star Noah Syndergaard returned to the mound and looked impressive in an inning of work.

With less than a week remaining in the calendar, and the Mets not playing for anything, they chose not to risk further injury by bringing deGrom to pitch an inning or two before the end of the regular season.

“Everyone is fully on board,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said of the decision, according to MLB.com. “Jake is fully on board. It’s the right thing.”

“He would be fine to pitch, but there’s no sense to it.”

Injuries limited the Mets’ star to less than 100 innings

The Mets could only enjoy 92 innings of deGrom this season (in which he put a historic 1.08 ERA), thanks to several injuries that included right lat, side, back, shoulder, forearm issues, and elbow inflammation in mid-July.

The pitcher threw a successful bullpen on Monday, and could have returned in case of emergency. However, he hadn’t faced live hitters and there is really no point in bringing him back.

“He checked all the boxes for it, but we talked today — and with him too, and everyone — and at this point, there’s no point for him to pitch in a game,” Rojas said. “He’s just going to shut it down for the season and focus on his offseason routine. … He was fine to pitch after the side [session] yesterday, but at this point, it just doesn’t make any sense to have him go out there and compete.”

New York Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom, who has been out since early July and is currently on the 60-day injured list, is finally making some progress after spending weeks throwing from flat ground as he recovers from an elbow injury.

DeGrom has been on the shelf since July 7. At the time, his issue was deemed as right elbow inflammation, but Mets’ president of baseball operations Sandy Alderson recently came clean and explained that he was dealing with a partially torn UCL that resolved itself.

The pitcher himself confirmed the news last week, saying that he feels healthy and ready to ramp up. The Mets badly need his contributions on the MLB, and on Tuesday, he appears to have taken a monumental step forward.

Yesterday, deGrom threw off a mound for the first time since late July. As a reminder, he had started his throwing program that month after landing on the IL on July 7, but a setback forced him to be shut down for a few weeks.

The Mets are hoping his health “cooperates”

The Mets’ official site states the following: “As long as deGrom’s health cooperates, the Mets are committed to getting him back on the mound this season, if for no other reason than to have a baseline for where he’s at heading into the winter. The next week will go a long way toward determining if that will be possible.”

If he can advance quickly to facing live hitters and go on a short rehab assignment soon, then there may be a path for deGrom to return to the Mets in 2021. And while he still has significant hurdles to clear in order to reach his goal, it’s not out of the question that the best pitcher in MLB returns as a reliever to accelerate his timeline.

The Mets are currently 72-74, four games out of the second Wild Card spot in the National League and 5.5 behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East division.

New York Mets’ star Jacob deGrom talked to reporters on Thursday for the first time in weeks. As you can probably imagine, the health of his elbow and, specifically, his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) was a hot topic in the conversation.

DeGrom hasn’t pitched since early July with what was deemed at the time as forearm tightness. Then, it evolved to elbow inflammation, until the Mets’ president of baseball operations Sandy Alderson talked a few days ago and referred to it as a “very mild” UCL sprain that “resolved itself”.

During his brief meeting with reporters in Miami on September 9, deGrom said that his right UCL is “perfectly fine.”

“I know what we said, but my ligament is perfectly fine,” he explained, per SNY. “I’ve been throwing. I wouldn’t be throwing if I had a compromised ligament. So that’s the plan to continue to throw and build up.”

The Mets star is running out of time

DeGrom recently advanced to 120 feet in his catch progression, per Mets’ manager Luis Rojas, who added that he should be throwing off the mound soon.

While speaking about the injury, Alderson had stated that “a sprain is the lowest grade partial tear. At this point, the sprain has resolved itself. The elbow, at this point, is perfectly intact based on the MRI and the critical evaluations of our doctors. That’s just the technical term that the doctors have used.”

The pitcher is eligible to return from the injured list on September 13^th, but he won’t be ready by then. A start in late-September is the most realistic scenario at this point.

When deGrom was healthy, the Mets were first in the NL East division by multiple games. Today, New York is third with a 70-70 record, 5.0 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the top spot.

Degrom, the Mets’ ace and quite possibly the best pitcher in the world, has a 1.08 ERA in 92 innings in 2021, with a mind-blowing 0.55 WHIP. Had he stayed healthy, he probably should have won his third Cy Young award.