The Mets are planning to reinstate Jacob deGrom from the 60-day injured list next Tuesday, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The two-time Cy Young winner will make his season debut against the Nationals.
deGrom hasn’t pitched in a major league game in just shy of 13 months. He was on his way to one of the most dominant pitching seasons in history last year, working to an absurd 1.08 ERA with a 45.1% strikeout rate through 15 starts. deGrom had a few injury concerns along the way, however, and he landed on the IL coming out of the All-Star Break due to a forearm/ebow issue. That eventually proved to be season-ending, with the righty’s final outing of the year coming on July 7.
New York anticipated reinstalling deGrom atop the rotation alongside offseason free agent pickup Max Scherzer to form the game’s scariest 1-2 punch. Just before Opening Day, deGrom experienced some shoulder soreness during a between-starts throwing session. He was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his scapula, an issue that cost him almost the first four months of the 2022 campaign.
deGrom has been building back to game action for a while, and he began a minor league rehab assignment at the start of July. He’s made four starts, topping out at four innings and 67 pitches. deGrom’s most recent appearance at Triple-A Syracuse came on Wednesday, so he’ll get a six-day rest before joining the big league club. DiComo writes that he’ll unsurprisingly be on a strict pitch limit for his first appearance, but the Mets anticipate he’ll gradually build towards a traditional starter’s workload throughout the second half.
The Mets rotation will be more or less at full strength for the first time all year. deGrom will step into an excellent starting five alongside Scherzer, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco. Scherzer has been his typically dominant self, while Walker has somewhat quietly posted a 2.67 ERA across 17 starts. Bassitt had a rough stretch between May and June, though the typically reliable righty has bounced back with a 3.20 mark this month. Carrasco is a more than qualified fifth option, posting a 4.07 ERA with better than average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates. David Peterson is a solid sixth starter. The Mets do remain without righty Tylor Megill due to a shoulder injury. Manager Buck Showalter told reporters yesterday the club was viewing Megill as a bullpen option for the rest of this season once he makes his return, which won’t be until at least late August (via Tim Britton of the Athletic).
The Mets are a virtual lock to make the postseason in some capacity, and the organization is surely anticipating running out three or four members of that group in a playoff rotation. The more immediate concern is holding onto a three-game lead over the defending champion Braves in the NL East, with the new postseason format’s first-round bye making it particularly advantageous to finish as a top-two seed in each league. It appears the National League’s byes will wind up going to the Dodgers and the East winner.
As for deGrom, he’ll have two months (plus any postseason action) to reestablish himself as the sport’s best pitcher now that he’s healthy. In spite of his absence, the 34-year-old has maintained he plans to opt out of the final guaranteed season of his deal at the end of this year. That’d be a no-brainer decision if he demonstrates he remains at peak form for the final couple months, particularly with one of the top impending free agent starters (Joe Musgrove) now unlikely to hit the market.
Very good news.
We will see soon enough if it was a good idea to avoid surgery with deGrom. Hopefully this works out for him but it wouldn’t be the first time it doesn’t work out.
What surgery?
Avoid surgery? Are you talking about his UCL from last year? That hasn’t even been the issue.
What would he have operated on? Nothing needs to be fixed.
He’ll have 3 starts then land on the IL again?? What are the odds?
Low. He needs to pitch to get the big bucks.
It’s unlikely that he’ll immediately be at top form and will require some type of ramping up period to find himself.
Yes, that’s why: “The two-time Cy Young winner will make his season debut against the Nationals.”
He made 5 minor league rehab starts plus a sim game during the ASB. That’s the ramp-up.
He made 4 minor league rehab starts plus a sim game during the ASB. That’s the ramp-up.
It’s deGrom. Probably go 5 innings, 0 R, 8K. Also, I’ve seen deGrom make his spring training debut and be in midseason form already
It depends. We’ll see. He might be a little rusty or he might look like he’s in midseason form
You can’t base it on his rehab starts. Most of the time they’re working on things, taking it easy, making sure they don’t tweak anything that would keep them out longer
DeGrom didn’t look as good his last rehab start, but that could just be that he wasn’t really putting in maximum effort
Buck said he will be on an pitch limit once he’s activated. They’re going to ease the workload on him.
This is new terrain. But once getting acclimated and baring no setbacks, quite the boost for NYM. some folks may not appreciate or not want to digest how friggin hard to beat this guy is when in form
Mets additions after the August 2th deadline:
deGrom, May, McCann, Naquin, Vogelbach, a RH hitter and 2 RHP bullpen pieces.
No need overpays for rentals or Soto!
Not bad!!!
Let go Mets!!!
Mets additions after August 2nd deadline:
deGrom, May, McCann, Naquin, Vogelbach, RH hitter, 2 RHP.
No need to ever pay for rentals or Soto.
Let’s go Mets!!!
I think you mean “by or around” the August 2nd deadline instead of “after.” DeGrom will have to be brought onto the active roster by the 6pm deadline to be eligible to pitch at 7:05 pm on Tuesday. May and McCann will be back sometime during the week. Vogelbach and Naquin are already there. Megill, who had the start and got the win in the no-hitter against the Phillies, should be back in the next couple weeks, unless he’s involved in a trade as Holderman was. Dom Smith and JD Davis will most likely be traded or at least demoted since they both have options. I don’t think they will be DFA’d, because the Mets’ ability to trade them in the 7-day window would be cut off at the deadline. The Mets will have to decide whether to tender them after the season if they’re still on the roster.
Imagine being 25 games over .500 without the services of arguably the best pitcher in the league?
Entering last night, the Mets had
The best team ERA in July (starters + bullpen).
Plus, they have no need to overpay for bullpen arm(s). Jake’s return pushes each of Peterson, Megill and Williams into some form of relief role. Hopefully, May is at least serviceable to add even more depth.
They don’t need Soto, they already have one of the top outfields in the league. The only deal worth trading the farm for is Ohtani. Trade LAA whatever they want for him – including Alvarez. You can survive with no offense at the C position with McCann and Nido if you plug Ohtani into that lineup and rotation. Aside from that, keep the top prospects and make smaller deals. LFGM
The Mets need a bat. Trading for Soto is not gonna happen, although he would be a perfect fit. The Mets (and the Braves too) should be calling the Giants about Joc
Hope he stays healthy. Game is better when he’s pitching, although I hate it when it’s againsr my team.
I feel the same way about other top arms who aren’t on my team. There are some guys who are just good for the game.
The Mets are on their way!
Here. We. Go.
By the way, love the way this Mets team always fires back immediately after giving up a big inning. They did it against the Yankees last week and they did it to the almighty Alcantra last night. And Nimmo continues to bury the Marlins every chance he gets. Huge home run last night.
If the Mets can shoot a prospect or two for Bard and then maybe get one other solid mid-tier reliever that should be good
I’m thinking that’s not happening now. Rockies seem to value 37 year-old closers over building up their farm.
Nice addition without having to give up the #18 prospect in baseball plus more.
Jake is healthy for now. Prior to this extended struggle he was quite durable. 5 left with the fish and Nats before a pivotal 5 game set at Citi with the Braves. Say what you want about deGrom but I certainly prefer to take my chances with him rather than against him.
Who’s the #18 prospect?
Seattle gave up Noelvi Marte for Castillo. Marte was ranked #18 according to MLB.
For what it’s worth, Brett Baty is #19.
Got it, thanks
It’s ridiculous to say to don’t need to add a bullpen arm plus a Jd martinez type guy. We are looking to win this year. Having Robertson pitch the 8th I think we would all feel alot better. Having JD at dh with vogelbach we would all feel better
Mets already have JD at DH ! Lol
Not that JD lol
Mets to lose, if DeGrom is healthy.
He was also hitting .364 last year but we’ll never see that again 🙁
Regarding the bullpen I noticed in AAA last night that southpaw starter Szapucki pitched out of the pen to close out the game. Maybe they are viewing him as a late-game leffy option or showcasing to other teams he can be. He couldn’t do any worse out of the pen than he has in his disastrous MLB starts.
All of Peterson, Megill, Williams will most likely be in some sort of relief role is correct. Also if/when the Mets make the playoffs they should be throwing Carrasco in the bullpen too as only 4 starters needed.
Starters: deGrom, Sherzer, Bassett, Walker
Bullpen: Megill, Peterson (if not traded), Carrasco, May, Lugo, Diaz +
I would flip Walker to the three if he doesn’t regress but otherwise completely agree
Did you forget Ottavino.
If he’s healthy I honestly put the Mets as favorites for the World Series.