And another one gone...another Met bites the dust.
Starting pitcher Jacob deGrom is to have surgery to relocate his ulnar nerve away from an area in which it is being compressed. Long story short, he will likely miss the remainder of the season.
This comes less than a day after manager Terry Collins told the media that deGrom would be starting against the Twins on Sunday. There was a plan of strictly keeping him to 75 pitches. DeGrom hadn't originally been labeled with an injury. He skipped several starts following two disastrous outings against Arizona and San Francisco citing “mechanical issues.”
It’s been a recurring theme that quite frankly is starting to get old. Steven Matz, Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler and now deGrom were “on the mend” or “ready to go.’’ Then it would come down the pike that there was a season was in jeopardy. It’s unclear where the discourse or blame should fall but there is something peculiar going on with the lack of communication from the Mets. The see-saw of the position of various injuries throughout the season has been nothing less than frustrating. There’s also been infomation given by the club the rookie pitcher Robert Gsellman has a torn labrum in his non throwing arm. Mets fans can only hope Gsellman can break the cycle.
Going into this season the Mets had everything going for them. They had projections of another World Series run like the 2015 team except they had solidified a few key players that they thought would contribute offensively i.e. outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, second baseman Neil Walker and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and thought they would make up for the loss of last year’s playoff golden boy Daniel Murphy to the free agency.
The pitching staff was expected to shut down opposing clubs with a fury no one has ever seen. Four talented young arms in Noah Syndergaard, Harvey, deGrom and Matz plus veteran Bartolo Colón comprised the rotation. Wheeler, another member of the Mets youth movement started the year on the 60-day DL recovering from the Tommy John surgery he underwent in 2015.
The big talk around the Mets for the past few seasons has been this unbelievable rotation. The amazing part is the five starters― Syndergaard, Harvey, deGrom, Matz and Wheeler― have never pitched in secession.
Despite it all, the Mets are three games up in the wild-card race. They probably shouldn’t even be in this position based on the injuries.
How does a team with a world class training staff become the waiting room at an outpatient clinic? Call it good fortune that the Mets have hammered away to be contenders in the playoff conversation and for the battered Metropolitans a little more luck is what they will need to secure the wild card in two weeks.
For more by Keith Marcus visit www.nybaseballnews.com and follow @keithmarcus on twitter.