The Mets are placing Jacob deGrom on the injured list, manager Luis Rojas told reporters (including Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News) this morning. He continues to deal with forearm tightness and won’t throw until that subsides.
It’s not an unexpected development after deGrom’s throwing program was halted yesterday. Nevertheless, it’s still a tough blow to a Mets team that holds a meager 2.5 game lead in the National League East. The diagnosis of forearm tightness and seemingly uncertain recovery timeline are even more alarming, given deGrom’s status as the best pitcher in the league. (deGrom underwent a Tommy John surgery as a prospect back in 2010).
deGrom has dealt with a few health issues over the course of the season. He missed a couple weeks with side tightness earlier in the year, and he’s also been forced out of starts early with forearm and shoulder soreness. Neither of the previous arm problems required an IL stint, but his most recent injury will land him on the shelf.
When healthy, deGrom has been truly otherworldly. The two-time Cy Young award winner has worked to a 1.08 ERA across 92 innings. He has struck out an incredible 45.1% of opposing hitters, while walking just 3.4% of batters faced. A healthy second half would make him the prohibitive favorite to land a third Cy Young (and perhaps win the NL MVP award), but it’s now unclear when he’ll again take the mound.
This is a blow. I just hope this isnt long term. As a Mets fan this was kind of expected..as the implosion is always inevitable
Bartolo?
I hope he only misses 1 or 2 starts. Dude has been historic this year.
Human body isn’t meant to pitch at the level he’s pitching at for 100+ pitches at a time.
The number of pitches has nothing to do with it. It’s the repetitive velo that takes a toll on the human body.
That is literally what he just said.
Refer to Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan. Outliers for sure but I believe there’s more to it than just velocity. Perhaps it’s youth baseball or more off speed pitches. I don’t have the answer as I’m an ignorant fan but I do believe there’s more to it. Especially when you look at how some of those pitchers threw over 200 pitches a game regularly and then did it again on a four man rotation.
Tim lincicum
I’d be more inclined to say it’s a trip to the IL every time a player feels a muscle ache.
Too much weight training. All one has to do is poll retired players and ask how much time was spent working out.
There is simply not enough emphasis on stretching, being limber and staying loose. Too many injuries from routine baseball activities: running, swinging a bat and throwing a ball.
NEWSFLASH: baseball players for generations have played ball since they were kids, as much as possible. So what is different today than in the 80’s and 90’s? First it was steroids and bulking up. Then it was swing for homeruns all the time, followed by throw the ball as hard as you can for as long as you can. Now it’s draft every kid who has been coached with a speed gun and can’t go five innings in his early 20’s.
Compound this with food additives, garbage meals and and too much time spent believing getting stronger in all the wrong places on the body.
How much do you see players run before or after games? How much effort do you see being put into pregame stretching?
Bottom line is all these athletes that look like Greek god statues aren’t conditioned properly for their profession.
That’s not fair, jim stem.
Thor is a Norse god.
jim stem:
Are baseball players the only athletes that lift? Are injuries up in the sports where they do? I’d guess no to both questions.
Look at Tyler O’Neill, the most bulked player IMO. His bulk doesn’t seem to have bothered that gold glover. Times have changed since lifting ruined Ruben Sierra’s swing. Studies not show where the added muscle actually helps, not hurts.
And not sure what games you’re going to, but, I when I go to a game I’m there when the gates open, and I see players running, and stretching pregame every time.
The problem is everyone wants to make an apples to apples comparison between now and the old days. There are way too many differences in the game between now and then to make that at all realistic.
Yeah, Jim, you’re right. That John Kruk diet was nothing but lean protein and kale.
Maybe it has less to do with conditioning and more to do with something you don’t understand, but then again I’m just an accountant so I can’t say for sure what professional athletes are doing wrong to their bodies.
Dutch:
Everyone knows the names of Feller and Ryan, but the problem is we don’t know the names of all those young pitchers, that could have been great, that flamed out early, and never had much of a career.
And then people don’t think about the guys like Sandy Koufax, and Smoky Joe Wood. Both had dominant, but shortened careers due to how they were handled.
Teams didn’t invest huge amounts of money in players like they do now. Teams didn’t take the conservative approach to their health to protect their investments, like they do today.
I believe there are more really good pitchers now than there ever has been. And teams protecting their investments is what the big difference is between now and the past. not teams babying their pitchers.
By the way, Sandy was born a few years too early. Had TJ Surgery been around, according to himself, he would have been a prime candidate. If I am not mistaken Jacob had TJ Surgery. Had he been around at the time of Koufax we would never have seen him in the bigs since he blew his elbow out in the minors.
Agreed.
Peaked my interest though — looking up his game logs, he’s only reached 100 pitches once this year, and 90+ five times (inc. 100 pitch game). If anything, it’s more impressive that as a strikeout pitcher, he’s able to stay relatively efficient.
Hope this injury is something minor and he gets back out there soon!
100+ pitches was not a problem for 100+ years. Humans are still made the same, just less durable in today’s game. More injuries today than ever before, too, crazy, isn’t it?
Pitchers are throwing harder with more movement, and nearly every batter can hit the ball out of the park. The game has changed, but players are not less durable; they’re being asked to exert themselves more with every pitch and swing.
Cubs will be happy to throw in Alec Mills in the upcoming Baez or Bryant or Davies trade.
Not Hendricks?
He probably won’t be traded.
I hope he recovers quickly. He’s the best in the game.
Damn it, and now they’ll make some stupid trade for a SP, hurry up Carrasco lol.
The Twins claim that their not trading Berrios, so maybe make a trade with Texas for Gibson and Gallo as long as it doesn’t cost the Mets any major leaguer, we need them lol.
Or sign Hamels and hopefully Carrasco comes back this week to go with Walker ,Stroman and Megill
If you want Gibson and Gallo without trading any major leaguers, be prepared to pay a high price in prospects. Not sure trading away the farm would be the right move just to win the NLE.
Mets don’t need deGrom. They will still run away with the NL East and are the favorites to win the World Series for at least the next 5-10 years.
Signed Metsfan22
The White Sox have entered the chat: lolololol
Good one, kg
Of COURSE he wants to beat Gibson.
How folks around here can be oblivious to starting pitcher psychology just boggles my mind.
Great starting pitchers are like the gun fighters of late 19th century; they ALWAYS have their sights set on something or somebody, and are always gunning for something or somebody, from the time they start playing back yard baseball.
Who cares about Gibson? While that would be a nice secondary victory, it’s Dutch Leonard or bust!
It would be like rooting for someone to pass Hank Aaron in career homers but not Barry Bonds.
The Mets bubble has burst! I’m glad I didn’t spend the better part of a year hyping up this team as some kind of great contender just to watch it implode right out of the All-Star break.
It’s cut check time. The Mets went into July with an on eye on this 7 game run against the Pirates and just expected to win 5 out of 7. They have pretty much phoned in these 7 games while the Pirates try seemed more focused on being spoilers. Pittsburgh looks like the better team and as I type this, we are getting blown out yet again. Our top relievers gave up 5 in the 8th last night before giving up a walk off grand slam.
Today, Walker doesn’t get out of the 1st, allowing 8 straight to reach and can’t throw a strike.
Over and over again, this team can’t score early or with runners in scoring position and no outs. I have no idea how all this was Davis’ fault, because I see zero evidence that these new hitting coaches are having any kind of an impact.
Meanwhile, the need for these “bullpen games” is killing this pitching staff. I said it 6 weeks and will stick to my words: Mets need TWO starting pitchers regardless of any contribution from Carrasco. Get Pineda from the Twins, Duffy from the Royals or Gray from the Rockies (or another starter), sign Hamels (that costs zero prospects), John Means from the Orioles, Caleb Smith from Arizona…anyone who is healthy, throws strikes or can be a rental who is pitching for his next contract. Mets have to stop the bleeding before this lead dwindles and motivates the rest of the division.
I fully expect the Phillies to win this division as much as it pains me to say.
Unless the Braves pitchers turn on the jets and start holding everyone to 1 or 2 runs each night. But they haven’t shown that ability very much yet so not holding my breath.
Phillies are flawed as well. Horrific bullpen. Anyone can win this division. Anyone. It’s a joke.
The Brave have scored 19 runs in the three games that Acuna has missed. Hopefully D’Arnaud will be back soon. I think they’ll be alright offensively.
Braves starters been oddly solid lately, and their bullpen is still better than the phillies. If they add an outfield bat and a reliever or two, the braves will win it
I truly feel if the Mets can just play .500 ball in the second half that the division is theirs. To do that they need arms and some fire in their bellies. So far this year I’ve only seen ONE player get mad – Dom Smith.
McNeil gets irritated with himself when he misses a pitch. Stroman got hot with Nogowski this week, then looked like he was going to throw up. Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be any fire in this dugout. No Ray Knight. No Keith Hernandez. No Tom Seaver. No Bobby Valentine or Terry Collins. This team needs to find some attitude in a hurry and quit acting like the rest of the league is just going to roll over.
What? it’s not like they have a 15 game lead. They have 3 teams within 6 games. Two of the Braves, Phillies and Nats are gonna finish 1st and 2nd and the Mets will finish 3rd or 4th.
@SoCal Actually it’s a 2 game lead. Just 2. So your point is even more accurate.
@jim stem Not any more. After losing this series to the Pirates, and the Phillies going on a bit of a hotstreak, .500 ball for the Mets is not going to cut it.
Mets are cursed
Was the IL stint made retroactive? Is this why he didn’t go to the All-Star game? Stroman is looking human, and so were Lugo and Diaz yesterday. Megill is a find, but this is not good for the Mets. How close is Carrasco? Certainly not stretched out for 5 innings even, but the Mets need help sooner than later.
It would be dumb not to make his IL stint retroactive. He could be ready to go in 5 days.
IL stints by rule can’t be made retroactive by any more than 3 days.
I don’t believe in curses or jinxes but this franchise sure makes me wonder.
No curses. deGrom has been battling injury all season long, and every team has been banged up badly. Mets got hit hard. Braves got hit even harder. Even the Nats, Phillies and Marlins lost their stars for significant time, and I’m sure there’s more to come. It’s been a pretty brutal year, but the Mets depth pieces have carried them at times. You got to hope they can do it again.
As an old school Mets fan I’m always hopeful but realistically they can’t keep patching things together indefinitely. On the positive side Megeil has looked good and Carrasco is getting closer. If Conforto starts hitting and Díaz regains his command they have as good a chance as anyone else in the division.
Will Mets trade one of Mauricio, Baty or Vientos since they would all end up at 3B.
Also wonder if they will try Vientos in RF to possibly replace Conforto if he leaves.
Yea they’ll all be tried at different positions rather than traded just cuz of third base. I’d prefer we keep them all. This team isn’t good enough to take from the future in order to go all in.
I’d say TJ is only a few stops away from his train station.
RIP Mets
This is a familiar pattern: player seems off, team says nothing. Then a report that player is in pain, but ok. Then MRIs come up negative, everything is fine. Then player hits injured list…. If the team announces that he won’t be out long you can be assured that that means season ending surgery.
It’s the unnecessary game within a game teams play as they cavalierly dismiss every injury as nothing until reality becomes impossible to deny.
Bartolo Colon is 6-1 , 3.55 with Monclova in the Mexican League right now. What are they waiting for? ( Seriously not serious, just spreading rumors)
Apparently Colon is on his team’s IL after taking a line drive off his knee. At least that’s what I gather from a translation of a tweet…
He’s perfect for the NL East!
Guys I have question. Obviously Degrom is the best pitcher in baseball. But he has skipped some starts. I’m guessing he probably won’t get CY with other pitchers going way up in innings. Which is sad bc Degrom is better. But I’m I right? I think someone like guassman should win.
Depends on how long DeGrom is out.
Lots of contenders. Gausman, Wheeler…we have half a seaon left to see who stands out.
Urias, Buehler
Definitely.
IMO, DeGrom could miss a month and still win the Cy Young. He’s been that good this year.
I think you have to hit a certain innings threshold. deGrom can still hit it, but he isn’t there yet.
You mean an official innings threshold? There isn’t one. Relievers routinely get Cy Young votes. If you mean unofficial, then maybe. I think Cy Young voters typically penalize a starting pitcher if they don’t pitch enough innings to qualify for the ERA title.
That said, I agree that deGrom needs more innings. He’s only at 15 starts and 92 innings. I would think he’d need at least 8-10 more starts. Then again, his closest competition is currently Gausman, who only has 18 starts and 114 innings (Woodruff – 19 and 119; Wheeler – 18 and 119).
@rct Oh I definitely mean unofficially. I think deGrom will lose out on votes if he misses a huge chunk of the season. I mean we’re essentially half way through the year. If some guys put up real solid second halves, and deGrom misses a huge amount of time, I don’t see how you can give deGrom a Cy Young, even though his earlier numbers are scary good. Now, don’t get me wrong: I think deGrom will be back, and will be dominant. But if he misses the majority of the second half, I think it’s unfair to give it to him.
I can’t believe nobody mentions that a Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher could win. Just pick one. They have three options.
Hopefully, DeGrom will still be eligible for the ERA title at the end of the season.
He needs 1 inning per game scheduled for his team during the season, so at this point he is 74 innings short of qualifying for the ERA title. (162 innings needed, 92 IP so far)
Typical Met luck!!!!! On the verge of getting swept by the Pirates !!!! Nobody is hitting anyways. It was a matter of time when the collapse has exploded. The Crapy Corral of signs and trades , we lead that in all of Major League Baseball . Pathetic, as far the injuries Bob Gibson, Seaver and other Hall of Famers . Are saying upstairs, is analytics making the pitchers falling apart?
Hall of What Could Have Been
LOL
Can we talk about Brandon Woodruff now?
or Burnes, or Peralta. Three-headed monster,
Chris Flexen, Seattle. Anyone notice that yet another Mets castoff is having success elsewhere after our pitching coaches couldn’t figure out how to get results?
Is that something that really happens very often?
I just want to point out that a more than a month ago, I predicted that the Mets would finish no better than 3rd in the NL East.
I stand by it (sorry Mutz fans)
Great. Stroman and Walker have come back to earth,Walker imploded today and Lugo is out of gas. Can’t beat the bottom feeders. They are one more injury away from a slide that will take them out of contention I fear.
Not to defend the Mets, but the Pirates have been playing pretty good lately.
Two things. I think the ball hit the batter in foul territory, nicked his ankle guard, that maybe made it go fair. And …
The Mets won!
They are a truly amazing team this year in so many good and bad ways.
By this time in the season of 1968, Bob Gibson had 13 complete games and 6 shutouts with 171 innings pitched. Also no missed starts. DeGrom has 4 complete games and 2 shutouts his entire career. No comparison really.
And Gibby pitched in an era when guys didn’t strike out a third of the time.
You’re right in that there is no comparison because the game is completely different now. It’s apples to oranges. The there’s only one pitcher in the entire league with more than two CGs.
But if you want to compare, with one game to pitch, I would seriously consider taking 2021 deGrom over 1968 Gibson. In 1968, only one player in the entire league hit more than 36 HR. There’s two players over 30 already in 2021 and twelve-ish players on pace to hit 40+. Hitters are way better now than they were then. Not to mention that Gibson was pitching off a much taller mound (15″ to the present-day 10″). Put deGrom (or any number of pitchers) on a 15″ mound and they’d be near-unhittable.
Plus, deGrom is raking at the plate compared to Gibson.
@rct
Except for a few annoying other numbers…
Career innings pitched – Bob Gibson 3884 – Jacob De Grom 1261. De Grom is 33 – he’s only even money to pitch HALF the innings Gibson did.
Gibson won the CY Young again in 1970 – two years after the mound had been altered to alleviate pitchers dominance. He also hit .303 that season.
Career batting average .203 vs .204.
Gibson career complete games 255 including consecutive seasons of 28, 28 and 23. De Grom has – hold the fig leaf – 4..
They’re not comparable even with 50 years between their peaks.
Gibson 9 x GG.. De Grom?
Finally – no way are hitters way better than in the 1960’s. Have you seen league averages? Why do think the whole “foreign substances” business came about? Hitters are stronger, they’re not better.
Sorry I’ll take 8 innings of Gibson vs 5 of De Grom every day of the week….
every word of this ^^^^^^^^^^^^ is gold, baby.
@nuanced
It’s not meant to be disparaging to De Grom, – we’d all want a healthy De Grom in our rotation. It’s just he’s not Bob Gibson.
I think I forgot to mention 55 CG shutouts – as opposed to 2.
Everyone seems blown away now by HRs or strikeouts – but especially strikeouts – I’m sorry but efficiency is the key – do you want a pitcher taking 20+ pitches to strike out the side or do you want a strikeout and two ground balls taking 10 pitches?
De Grom will be HOF (IMO) but he’s very much on table seven next to the bathrooms, whereas Gibson is on the top table exchanging jokes with the maitre d’, enjoying the foie gras….
I wrote here a few weeks ago that batter HR and Pitcher K are HIGHLY overvalued currently.
I am VERY fortunate to be Astros fan in these times; they don’t buy in to anything that is trendy, but stupid.
Seems that very few around here understand that Connie Mack, Branch Rickey, Paul richards, Earl Weaver, et al knew ALL the stuff ages ago, and, in addition, knew the value of a bunch of things that many on this site think are “unscientific” skills that “studies” have dEBuNkEd
PS – Gerrit Cole has a LOT of Bob Gibson in his makeup
Here comes Oswalt again.
I worry that Degrom is becoming a “head case” that any feeling he has he gets scared and shuts it down. Top level athletes have to play through pain. I HATE football yet I commend brady for playing with a torn mcl last season. I’m not saying that he is a headcase, I worry that he is heading that way. If he truly is hurt and the original back issue through off his pitching mechanics which lead to other injuries, we’ll that is one thing and I truly hope he gets better soon. But if this becomes an ongoing thing with him, then he has to get over it!
On the other side, if this becomes ongoing that it’s legitimate injuries, then they have to help him change how he pitches because if rather a full season of top 5 pitcher in baseball than 2/3 season of top ever pitcher. The background effects of him missing starts are leaving early are so detrimental to the team with bullpen and pinch hitting usage.
All imaging thankfully has been clear all year. Just interesting how things keep popping up that he feels but images can’t backup.
Just get better quickly because the Mets really need you! Baseball really needs you!
another argument for the mets to go for it this year
this may be their last chance to go into the postseason with degrom capable of carrying them through a la koufax/gibson/hershiser/bumgarner. also, lesser innings might end up being an advantage in october
Instead of breaking meaningless records, maybe deGrom could try pitching for 7 innings and WINNING. It would make for a nice change from him being a 5 inning pitcher with innumerable no decisions that’s constantly got a freaking boo boo.
deGrom regularly goes seven. The not winning is lack of run support. He usually goes deep into games.
It’s very frustrating how alarmist the fan base is right now. Yeah we went 3-4 against the Pirates and Lindor and deGrom are hurt, but right before that we went 4-2 against the Yankees and Brewers, all the while with significant injuries across the board. Walker had a 2.29 ERA before yesterday’s game dating back to May 6 and was an all star: way too soon to say he’s coming back down to earth. Conforto had his biggest hit of the season yesterday to win the game: maybe he’s heating up? Davis had a 1.63 OPS this past weekend: maybe he’s heating up now that he’s healthy? Pete won the HR derby and had a .96 OPS over the weekend and walked 3 times more than he struck out, which is huge progress for him. The Mets are 4-1 when an 8th round draft pick named Tylor Megill starts (I bet all but the most die hard Met minor league fans never heard of the guy before the season). They have a lefty and righty set up tandem in Loup and Smith that is pitching to a combined 2.15 ERA, and Diaz had only blown one save all season before July 10th. The Mets have been holding their own playing next man up all season, so who’s to say it all stops here now that deGrom is hurt? LFGM baby! Ya gotta believe!