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Sam Coonrod Diagnosed With High-Grade Lat Strain

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The Mets announced to reporters, including Tim Healey of Newsday, that reliever Sam Coonrod has a high-grade strain of his right lat. The club has yet to provide a timeline but even mild lat strains usually lead to weeks-long absences.

For Coonrod, 30, it’s a concerning and frustrating development as its two years in a row now with a similar beginning. He also dealt with a shoulder strain in March of last year while with the Phillies and didn’t return to a big league mound until August. He ended up posting a 7.82 ERA in 12 appearances down the stretch and got designated for assignment in January.

The Mets decided to take a flier and grabbed Coonrod off waivers. Though his 2022 campaign was frustrating, he was solid the year before, posting a 4.04 ERA over 42 appearances. He struck out 25.9% of batters faced in that time, walked 8.1% and got grounders at a 57.1% clip. The club was surely hoping that improved health could get the right-hander back to a performance like that and he looked to be on a good trajectory this spring. He tossed five scoreless innings, striking out seven batters while allowing just a single walk and two hits.

Unfortunately, that progress will now be put on hold for what could be a significant amount of time. The club will surely provide more updates eventually, but the MLB website features a guideline on lat strains, highlighting that a Grade 1 strain usually requires an absence of a few weeks, Grade 2 at least a month and Grade 3 even longer, perhaps requiring surgery. Once more information is revealed, there will be a clearer picture of what lies ahead, but it should be a meaningful time on the shelf either way.

The Mets weren’t relying on Coonrod to be a key piece of their bullpen, but they have tried to save a few spots for optionable arms. With Edwin Díaz, Adam Ottavino, David Robertson, Brooks Raley and Drew Smith likely having five jobs spoken for, there was potentially three spots available to be used by various relievers on a rotation basis. Since Coonrod has one option year remaining, he was going to be in that mix alongside guys like John Curtiss, Elieser Hernández, Jeff Brigham and Stephen Ridings. As long as Coonrod is out, it could open up more time for those guys or a non-roster invitee like T.J. McFarland, Tommy Hunter or Jimmy Yacabonis.

Offseason In Review: New York Mets

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The Mets had a huge number of players departing via free agency, but owner Steve Cohen signed off on new heights of spending to replenish the roster. In some cases, familiar faces were brought back, but there are also some intriguing new additions. The payroll almost went even higher, as the Mets took center stage in the middle chapter of the Carlos Correa saga. Even though that mega deal ultimately fell through, the Mets still shot way past previous spending records and the highest luxury tax bracket in their aim of putting together another competitive team for 2023.

Major League Signings

2022 spending: $144.5MM
Total spending: $498.17MM

Option Decisions

Trades And Claims

Extensions

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

The Mets had a very strong season in 2022, winning 101 games, their second-highest tally in franchise history. However, it ended with a few sour notes. Though the Mets were leading the National League East for most of the year, a scorching-hot Atlanta club blasted past them in the final days of the season to capture the division title and secure a bye through the Wild Card round. That left the Mets to face off against the Padres in a three-game series that they eventually lost.

In the aftermath of that tough finish, the Mets were looking at a challenging offseason scenario, with a great number of impending departures. Brandon Nimmo was the most notable position player heading into free agency, but he was potentially going to be joined by a huge chunk of the pitching staff. Jacob deGrom opted out of his contract, while Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker each declined options. The club decided to trigger their option over Carlos Carrasco to prevent a fourth departure. In the bullpen, Edwin Díaz, Adam Ottavino, Trevor Williams, Joely Rodriguez, Mychal Givens, Seth Lugo, Trevor May and Tommy Hunter were all headed out the door. That left general manager Billy Eppler a huge to-do list, but owner Steve Cohen greenlit unprecedented spending in order to get things back in order.

First up was Díaz, who was already one of the most-feared relievers in MLB before taking his game to new heights in 2022. He posted a 1.31 ERA over 61 appearances with a ridiculous 50.2% strikeout rate. Based on that monster campaign, the Mets wasted little time in bringing him back aboard. The day after the World Series ended, the Mets and Díaz were already in agreement on a five-year, $102MM deal, a record-setting guarantee for a relief pitcher in terms of both annual value and total guarantee.

There would still be more work to do in the bullpen, but the switched to the rotation following the Díaz deal. In a span of less than two weeks in early December, deGrom signed with the Rangers, Walker with the Phillies and Bassitt with the Blue Jays. The Mets effectively replaced them by signing free agents Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga and José Quintana.

The deGrom and Verlander moves amount to a swap of aces, though they come at different point in their careers. deGrom will turn 35 in June but has been limited by injuries over the past two years. Nonetheless, he secured a five-year deal from the Rangers. Verlander, on the other hand, is now 40. He essentially missed the entire 2020-2021 seasons, making just a single start in the former season before Tommy John put him on the shelf. Incredibly, he returned to the mound in 2022 and made 28 starts with a 1.75 ERA, earning a Cy Young Award in the process. He tied Scherzer’s record-setting average annual value from the Mets, but on just a two-year guarantee.

Overall, this flutter of moves left the Mets with a strong on-paper rotation, but one with lots of risk. Senga has been an excellent starter in Japan, with a career ERA of 2.42 in NPB and a 1.94 figure last year. However, the move over the Pacific doesn’t always go according to plan, making Senga less than a sure thing. Quintana is coming off a great 2022 campaign but had a real rough showing in the two prior seasons.

There’s also the general looming risk of pitcher injuries to consider, which is present for every team but will be particularly notable with this group. Of the projected starting five, Senga is the only one who’s under 34 years old. Though Senga is just 30, he will be making the transition from Japan where pitchers usually take the ball once a week, to the five-day rotation preferred in North America. It’s virtually impossible for any five-man rotation to stay 100% healthy for an entire season, and this club’s relatively older group might need some extra focus on this department.

It looks like they might have to lean on their depth right out of the gate, as Quintana is set to undergo bone graft surgery to address a benign lesion on his rib and will be out until at least July. Fortunately, the Mets have a solid group of depth starters like David Peterson, Tylor Megill and Joey Lucchesi. They also acquired Elieser Hernández from the Marlins this winter, giving them another option.

In the midst of all that rotation shuffle, the club also took the Díaz approach to Brandon Nimmo, outbidding the field to keep him in the fold. There’s certainly risk in giving an eight-year deal to a player who has long had the injury-prone label, but he’s avoided lengthy absences in the past few years and he was easily the best center fielder available. High-risk options like Cody Bellinger and Kevin Kiermaier were the primary free-agent alternatives, and the trade market lacked options. The Mets clearly preferred to just stick with Nimmo and put down $162MM to prevent him from getting away.

There was one other outfield addition to come later, with Tommy Pham being brought in. He’s long been a strong option against left-handed pitchers and could perhaps take over that specialist role that Darin Ruf was supposed to fill last year. With left-handed hitting Daniel Vogelbach seemingly lined up to be the primary designated hitter, Pham could take the small half of a platoon there, while also occasionally giving the regular outfielders time off on occasion.

The club also decided it was time to move on from the James McCann experiment. He parlayed two good years with the White Sox, one of which was the shortened 2020 season, into a four-year deal with the Mets. But the first two years in Queens were quite dismal and it was decided to make a switch. The Mets signed Omar Narváez and traded McCann to the Orioles, eating most of his contract in the process. That’s a defensible move from a pure baseball perspective, but it’s an expensive one. The Mets will essentially have both catchers on the books and will be paying significant taxes on each, given where their payroll eventually ended up.

Circling back to the bullpen, bringing Díaz back was an impactful move, but there was still much more to do. The club would eventually re-sign Ottavino, in addition to adding David Robertson via free agency. Trades also brought aboard Brooks Raley and Jeff Brigham, while Sam Coonrod and Stephen Ridings were claimed off waivers and Zach Greene was selected in the Rule 5 (though he’s since been returned to the Yankees). There will also be a pseudo new addition in John Curtiss, who was signed a year ago but missed all of 2022 recovery from Tommy John surgery.

As mentioned, all of these moves shot the payroll up to incredible new heights, but it almost went even higher due to the unprecedented Carlos Correa free agency. Correa seemed destined to be a Giant for a time, as he and the club agreed to a 13-year, $350MM deal in December. However, the club raised concerns about something in his physical, later revealed to be his right ankle. The Mets swooped in and agreed to bring Correa aboard for $315MM over 12 years, slightly less than his first agreement. The club already had a shortstop in Francisco Lindor but was planning to install Correa at third, displacing Eduardo Escobar. Correa’s agent Scott Boras reportedly contacted Cohen directly as the latter was vacationing in Hawaii, with Cohen both greenlighting the agreement and discussing it publicly with the media. “I felt like our pitching was in good shape,” Cohen said at the time. “We needed one more hitter. This puts us over the top.”

The holiday slow-down period arrived without the deal becoming official and reports started to emerge that the Mets had similar concerns to the Giants. In a stunning twist, the Mets and Correa’s camp couldn’t get the deal over the finish line and he eventually signed with the Twins on a much smaller $200MM guarantee. The six-year deal with Minnesota is just half the length of his agreement with the Mets, though there are four vesting options that could potentially take the contract to the ten-year mark.

With that deal falling through, the Mets will go into 2023 with a position player mix that’s fairly similar to last year’s club. Pham is a new addition but Dominic Smith is out after being non-tendered. Narváez will swap in for McCann behind the plate and Danny Mendick will be in the mix for a reserve infield role.

The pitching staff has seen much more turnover, but the outlook doesn’t appear to be drastically different. With Max Scherzer still around, the club can still deploy a strong one-two punch at the top of the rotation, with Verlander slotting into deGrom’s place. Carrasco is back and hanging onto a spot, and Senga will replace one of Bassitt or Walker. A healthy Quintana could eventually offset the loss of the other, but the Mets will test their depth early in the season. Peterson and Megill are both solid options who’d likely have rotation jobs elsewhere, and either could capably hold down a spot while Quintana mends. The bullpen ended up retaining Díaz and Ottavino, while players like Robertson and Raley will try to make up for the departures of Lugo, May, Rodriguez and others.

It can be debated about whether the 2023 roster is stronger or weaker than the 2022 version, but it seems to be in roughly the same area. The Mets are still good and should be in competition with Atlanta and Philly for the division yet again — but keeping pace with those clubs wasn’t cheap. Even without Correa on the books, Roster Resource pegs the Mets for a pure payroll of $355MM and a competitive balance tax figure of $374MM. Both of those numbers are well beyond anything in baseball history.

Since the Mets paid the luxury tax in 2022, they will be a second-time payor in 2023. The new collective bargaining agreement significantly pushed the tax thresholds but also added a fourth tier, colloquially dubbed the “Steve Cohen tax,” as it has been seen by many as an attempt to rein in baseball’s richest owner. However, it doesn’t seem to have been terribly effective, given that the Mets have blown past that $293MM tier. As a second time payor, the Mets’ taxation tiers at the four different thresholds are 30%, 42%, 75% and 90%. The CBT isn’t calculated until the end of the season, so midseason moves will change the calculus, but the club is currently facing a tax bill of about $102MM on top of that $355MM payroll. They will also certainly have their top 2024 draft pick pushed back ten slots, as is the case for any clubs going over the third CBT tier.

This staggering commitment to winning is surely welcomed by segments of the fanbase, especially those who were so critical of the Wilpon family for not acting like a big market club during their tenure as owners prior to selling to Cohen. But not everyone around the majors is as enthused, with some of the league’s less-spendthrift owners recently forming an economic reform committee. The goal of this huddle seems to be some early game-planning for the next CBA, with some desiring a hard salary cap that would more adequately handcuff Cohen. That might be difficult to achieve with the MLBPA understandably having no real desire to allow such a cap to come into being, but it’s clear that Cohen’s imprint on the game is going to have reverberations. The current CBA lasts through the 2026 season, so it’s not a short-term concern, but it seems this offseason from the Mets has contributed to a future collision course.

How would you grade the Mets’ offseason? (Link to poll)

In conjunction with the Mets’ offseason review, we hosted a Mets-focused chat on March 15. You can click here to read the transcript.

José Quintana Out Until At Least July Due To Rib Surgery

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March 14: Eppler today provided reporters with more information, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Quintana will undergo bone graft surgery on his rib and isn’t expected back until July at the earliest.

March 13, 3:15 pm: General manager Billy Eppler tells reporters, including Tim Britton of The Athletic, that the report of the three-month shutdown is “premature.” They are still talking to doctors about next steps.

1:30 pm: The Mets are planning to shut down starter José Quintana for the next three months, reports Mike Puma of The New York Post. The left-hander had recently been diagnosed with a stress fracture in one of his ribs and was sent for more imaging. It seems the injury is significant enough that he will miss roughly the first half of the season. However, Andy Martino of SNY has a slightly different viewpoint, reporting that the club is still considering different scenarios and will decide what to do in the next few days, with the three-month shutdown being one of the options being considered.

Quintana, 34, has long been a steady and reliable big league starter, primarily with the two Chicago clubs. From 2012 to 2019, he tossed 1,485 innings between the Cubs and White Sox with a 3.72 ERA. Outside of his rookie season in 2012, he made at least 31 starts and reached the 170-inning mark in each of those campaigns. That was followed by a couple of frustrating seasons, with a thumb injury holding him back in 2020 and the lefty struggling to get back on track in 2021. However, he finally got back into a good groove last year, tossing 165 2/3 innings between the Pirates and Cardinals with a 2.93 ERA, 20.2% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46.4% ground ball rate.

The Mets were facing a great deal of rotation uncertainty this winter, with Jacob deGrom opting out of his contract while Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker each declined options. With all three of those hurlers reaching free agency and eventually signing elsewhere, the Mets spent aggressively to rebuild their rotation around incumbents Max Scherzer and Carlos Carrasco. They gave Justin Verlander an $86.67MM guarantee, $75MM to Kodai Senga and $26MM to Quintana, the latter on a two-year deal.

That gave the Mets a strong on-paper rotation but one with risk. Four of those five starters are over 34 years of age, while the 30-year-old Senga is going to be transitioning from a once-a-week throwing schedule in Japan to the five-day cycle of North American ball. We’re still not through spring and the Mets are already going to be turning to their depth options with Quintana set to miss significant time. Whether Quintana is ultimately shut down for three months or not, he’s likely facing an extended absence either way. Assuming Quintana is back to health in three months as planned, he will return to the mound in June. But he will then have to effectively redo his Spring Training, taking a few weeks to build back up to a starter’s workload, meaning the Mets will possibly have to look to other options until July or so.

Fortunately, the Mets have some solid depth options to turn to, such as David Peterson or Tylor Megill. The left-handed Peterson made 19 starts and nine relief appearances last year, posting a 3.83 ERA while striking out 27.8% of batters faced, walking 10.6% of them and getting grounders at a 49.4% clip. However, Puma reports that the club appears to be leaning towards Megill taking the rotation spot at this time. His 5.13 ERA from last year isn’t terribly impressive at first glance, but it’s possible that injuries played a role in that. As the Mets were dealing with injuries to start last year, they gave Megill a rotation spot and he posted a 1.93 ERA over five April starts. However, he allowed three earned runs in his next start and eight in the one after that, lasting just an inning and a third in the latter. He went on the injured list for biceps inflammation after that, came back for a couple more rough outings and went back on the IL for a shoulder strain.

Regardless of whoever ultimately gets the job, the Mets are now moving down their depth chart with this Quintana injury. It’s extremely rare for any team to get through a season without an injury like this, so the Mets surely anticipated having to call upon Peterson or Megill at some point. Still, it’s always unwelcome news when it actually comes into play. The club is set for what should be another tight divisional race this year, likely jockeying for position with Atlanta and Philadelphia for the top spot in the NL East, with the Mets already facing a significant hurdle in their path.

Mets Return Rule 5 Pick Zach Greene To Yankees

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Right-hander Zach Greene, whom the Mets selected in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft, has cleared waivers and will be returned to the Yankees organization, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (via Twitter). The Yankees are not required to add him to the 40-man roster.

Greene, 26, was the Yankees’ eighth-round pick back in 2019. As a player selected in the Rule 5 Draft, he’d have had to spend the entire season on the Mets’ roster or injured list (with at least 90 of those days coming on the active roster) in order for the Mets to be able to option him the following season. Before being offered back to his original team, a Rule 5 selection must first pass unclaimed through the entire league on outright waivers, which was the case in this instance.

Greene spent the 2022 season, his age-25 campaign, pitching with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate. He logged 68 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, notching a 3.42 ERA with a huge 33.3% strikeout rate but a bloated 11.1% walk rate. Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin of FanGraphs called him a potential three-pitch middle reliever when profiling last year’s Rule 5 class, noting that Greene’s delivery generated tremendous carry on his heater, which helps to offset the pitch’s below-average velocity.

With five relievers who can’t be optioned — Edwin Diaz, David Robertson, Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley and Stephen Nogosek —  the Mets were always going to have a hard time carrying a Rule 5 pick. That’s especially true considering one of the few optionable arms they do have was also one of their most effective relievers in 2022: right-hander Drew Smith. Carrying Greene would’ve likely left Smith and righty John Curtiss as the team’s only two optionable relievers, creating minimal flexibility to shuffle the staff when the bullpen needs an extra arm or the rotation needs a spot starter.

Mets’ Bryce Montes de Oca Suffers Stress Reaction In Elbow

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MARCH 13: Montes de Oca was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his elbow, reports Russell Dorsey of Bally Sports (Twitter link). Fortunately, examination didn’t reveal any ligament damage. He’ll be reevaluated in a week, and while it still seems as if he could start the season on the injured list, the issue doesn’t appear to be as concerning from a longer-term perspective as it seemed over the weekend.

MARCH 12: Mets right-hander Bryce Montes de Oca left today’s Spring Training outing due to a forearm strain, manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including The Athletic’s Tim Britton).  Montes de Oca will undergo tests and imaging to determine the extent of the injury, and there is certainly plenty of extra concern considering de Oca’s history of arm troubles.  The 26-year-old underwent a Tommy John surgery back in 2013 when he was a high school pitcher, and he had another elbow procedure while pitching at the University of Missouri.

A ninth-round pick for the Mets in the 2018 draft, de Oca was further sidelined by knee, back, and shoulder-related surgeries.  Between those injuries and the canceled 2020 minor league season, de Oca didn’t make his pro debut until 2021.  Since then, he has a 3.80 ERA over 85 1/3 career minor league innings (almost all as a relief pitcher), and he made his MLB debut in the form of three appearance and 3 1/3 innings last season.

Despite all of the injuries and de Oca’s relatively advanced age (he turns 27 in April) for a prospect, MLB Pipeline ranks him 22nd on their list of the Mets’ top 30 prospects.  The upside is obvious, as de Oca’s 75-grade fastball often hits or surpasses the 100mph threshold, and he also has a cutter and slider that rank as plus pitches.  De Oca has a hefty 10.5% walk rate during his minor league career, but he has also missed bats to the tune of a 31.6% strikeout rate.  In addition, de Oca has also been excellent at keeping the ball in the park — he has allowed only a single home run in his 85 1/3 frames in the minors.

With all of this potential, it would be devastating to see de Oca’s career set back yet again by another major arm injury.  The best-case scenario is a low-level strain that could be healed within a couple of weeks, but naturally the Mets will be quite cautious with a pitcher with such a lengthy injury history.

Jordan Yamamoto Announces Retirement

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Right-hander Jordan Yamamoto took to Twitter today to announce his retirement. “I have decided to walk away from the game I love,” his post reads. “It’s definitely bittersweet. As I sit on my flight back home, there are so many emotions I’m feeling but none is regret. This has been an amazing journey and nothing short of unbelievable. A little kid from Hawaii with a dream. A dream to play in the MLB. If you would have told me at 10 years old that I would go on to be a big league pitcher and hold a franchise record, I would have never believed you. It is crazy and only right that I end my career the same way it started. On a back field game in Arizona. It’s poetry if you ask me.” He then goes on to thank all of the many people who have been a part of his journey, including his family, agents, teammates, coaches, staff members and fans.

Yamamoto, who turns 27 in May, was a 12th round draft pick of the Brewers in 2014. Despite that modest draft stock, he impressed in his first professional seasons, including a 2017 season where he posted a 2.51 ERA in 111 innings at Class-A Advanced. That performance was strong enough to get the attention of the Marlins, as Yamamoto was one of four players they acquired in the trade that sent Christian Yelich to Milwaukee.

Things continued to go well for Yamamoto in 2018, despite a few trips to the injured list. He made 13 starts with a 1.83 ERA at three different levels, finishing the year in Double-A. He then made another six starts in the Arizona Fall League with a 2.08 ERA in that time. The Marlins added him to their 40-man roster in November to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft and Baseball America ranked him as the club’s #18 prospect going into 2019.

He was able to make his major league debut in 2019, making 15 starts with a 4.46 ERA, as well as 12 more Double-A starts with a 3.58 ERA. He seemed to be part of a wave of young rotation talent in Miami, alongside guys like Sandy Alcantara, Pablo López and others. Unfortunately, things wouldn’t continue on that trajectory in the seasons to come, largely due to injury. Yamamoto landed on the injured list late in 2019 and had diminished velocity in 2020, getting tattooed for an ERA of 18.26 in 11 1/3 innings that year.

Prior to the 2021 campaign, the Marlins designated him for assignment and then flipped him to the Mets. That would go on to be another frustrating season for Yamamoto, as he spent the beginning of the year being shuttled between Triple-A and the majors before a shoulder injury sent him to the IL from May until September. He was designated for assignment in April of 2022 and cleared waivers, sticking with the Mets but without a roster spot. He made 24 appearances in the minors last year with an ERA of 6.00. He reached free agency at season’s end and signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in January but was recently reassigned to minor league camp.

Yamamoto has now decided it’s time to hang up his cleats and start the next phase of his life. He appeared in 21 major league games, tossing 96 2/3 innings in that time with a 6.05 ERA. He struck out 98 batters and earned five wins. The franchise record that he referenced in his statement was that he started his career with 14 scoreless frames for the Marlins. We at MLB Trade Rumors salute Yamamoto on achieving his dream of making it to the majors and wish him the best in his post-playing endeavors.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Mets Place Zach Greene On Outright Waivers

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The Mets have placed right-hander Zach Greene on outright waivers, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports (Twitter link).  Greene was selected away from the Yankees in December’s Rule 5 Draft, and unless another team claims Greene on waivers, the Mets will have to offer him back to the Yankees for $50K.  If another team make a claim, they will assume Greene’s Rule 5 status, and will have to keep the hurler on their active roster for the entire season in order to fully obtain his rights.

Greene was an eighth-round pick for the Yankees in the 2019 draft, and he made a pretty quick rise through their farm system ranks even with the canceled 2020 minor league season interrupting development.  He spent the entire 2022 season at Triple-A, and posted a 3.42 ERA and a strong 33.3% strikeout rate over 68 1/3 innings (almost all in relief except for four “starts” as an opener).  An 11.1% walk rate was a weak point, and Greene has had pretty average control throughout his brief pro career.

With the Yankees filling their 40-man roster holes with other prospects, the 26-year-old Greene was left available for selection in the Rule 5 Draft.  It was always going to be difficult for a win-now team like the Mets to try and carry a Rule 5 player on their roster all season, and after Greene’s struggles in Spring Training, the Mets have opted to part ways with the righty.  Through 4 2/3 innings of Grapefruit League action, Greene posted a 13.50 ERA with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five).

Despite these uninspiring numbers, it’s not out of the question that another team (perhaps a non-contender) might take a chance on Greene to see if he can stick in their bullpen.  The strikeout potential and overall profile is intriguing, and since Greene already has a full Triple-A season under his belt, he is more of a big league-ready player than a project, unlike many other Rule 5 picks.

Injury Notes: Marte, Guzman, Guerrero, O’Hearn, Hall

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Starling Marte will undergo further tests on Monday after being hit in the head by an Elvin Rodriguez pitch in today’s game.  Marte was able to walk off the field by himself and initial concussion tests were negative, yet the Mets will naturally be very careful in monitoring any sort of head-related injury.

It was only Marte’s second game of Spring Training, as he didn’t take the field until last Friday due to the Mets’ desire to slowly bring Marte back up to speed following groin surgery in November.  The club expected the outfielder to be ready for Opening Day, and that should still be the case, if Marte has indeed escaped injury after today’s scary incident.

More injury updates from around baseball…

  • Ronald Guzman left today’s Cactus League game in obvious pain after throwing a pitch, and Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Evan Webeck of the Bay Area News Group) that Guzman was undergoing tests for discomfort in his forearm.  It’s an ominous turn of events for Guzman, who has been one of Spring Training’s more interesting stories as he pursues a new chapter in his career as a two-way player.  The former Rangers/Yankees first baseman inked a minor league deal with the Giants, in large part because San Francisco was the only team willing to give Guzman a chance to pitch.
  • Knee inflammation kept Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from participating in the World Baseball Classic, and the Blue Jays slugger hasn’t played in any spring games since last Friday.  However, Guerrero has been facing live pitching and taking part in fielding drills, and manager John Schneider told reporters (including MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson) that Guerrero reported no issues after running the bases.  If all goes well after another base-running session tomorrow, the Jays will have a better idea of when Guerrero can get back to game action.  With over two weeks to go until Opening Day, it doesn’t yet appear as though Guerrero is in danger of missing any of the regular season, but more will be known once the first baseman is fully ramped up.
  • Orioles outfielder/first baseman Ryan O’Hearn is day to day with a sore knee.  The injury is a minor setback in what has been a red-hot Spring Training for O’Hearn, as he tries to win a job on Baltimore’s bench.  In other Orioles news, manager Brandon Hyde told MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski and other media that DL Hall threw “extremely well” during a live batting practice session, and is slated for another live BP on Tuesday.  Hall’s progress in camp has been slowed by lower-back problems and he has yet to pitch in a game, so the southpaw’s only chance of making the Opening Day roster is as a reliever.

Kodai Senga, Brooks Raley Facing Injury Concerns

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8:02PM: Senga is day-to-day with tendinitis at the base of his index finger, the Mets announced.

5:41PM: Kodai Senga was supposed to make a Spring Training start for the Mets today, but Senga was scratched due to discomfort at the base of his right index finger.  Senga unfortunately isn’t the only Mets pitcher dealing with injury, as “a low-grade hamstring strain” has forced reliever Brooks Raley to be removed from the Team USA roster at the World Baseball Classic.  (Aaron Loup will take Raley’s place in the tournament.)

Mets manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including Newsday’s Tim Healey and MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) that both Senga and Raley should still be able to be part of New York’s roster on Opening Day.  In regards to Senga, Showalter said the scratch was precautionary, and that “probably during the season, [Senga] would have pitched.”

As a reliever, Raley doesn’t need to rebuild as much arm strength in order to get back to full readiness.  Assuming his hamstring problem doesn’t linger, the left-hander might not require much ramp-up time to prepare for game action in the Mets’ remaining Grapefruit League schedule, or for the start of the regular sesason.

The Mets acquired Raley in a trade with the Rays back in December.  With Joely Rodriguez and Chasen Shreve departing in free agency, Raley was projected to be the top left-hander in the Mets bullpen, and perhaps even the only left-hander depending on how the club settles on its roster.  While the Amazins were comfortable with carrying only one southpaw (Rodriguez) in the pen for large portions of the 2022 season, having an all-righty relief corps probably isn’t preferable.  Since Joey Lucchesi is being stretched out as a starter, Raley’s injury might create an opportunity for minor league signing T.J. McFarland to break camp if Raley does indeed end up need more time to recover.

Senga will undergo imaging and tests on his hand, as the Mets will certainly take every precaution even if it seems as though Senga might have nothing more than a day-to-day setback.  Until the imaging results are known, however, the situation adds some level of concern over Senga’s highly-anticipated debut season in Major League Baseball.

Senga signed a five-year, $75MM contract with New York in December, as the 30-year-old’s strong track record in Nippon Professional Baseball generated plenty of interest in his services amongst MLB teams.  The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported last month that the Mets did have some health-related questions about Senga prior to the agreement, though the exact nature of those concerns (and whether or not there’s any relation to Senga’s current finger problem) isn’t known.

Jose Quintana has already been sidelined with a stress fracture in his rib, so between Quintana’s injury and now this uncertainty over Senga, the Mets could potentially have two holes to fill in their rotation behind Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Carlos Carrasco.  David Peterson had a scare of his own after he was hit in the foot by a comebacker earlier this spring, but Peterson suffered only a contusion and threw a live batting practice session on Thursday, so the southpaw should still be in line to take Quintana’s place.  If Senga also has to miss time, Tylor Megill is likely the next choice up on the rotation depth chart.

One possible obstacle to Senga’s readiness could be his lack of spring action to date, as he has pitched in only one game thus far.  The Mets were slowly bringing Senga into game action in order to better acclimate the right-hander to his new league, as Senga continues to adjust to the larger baseballs and steeper mounds used in MLB, as opposed to what Senga was used to in Japan.

Meanwhile, Quintana’s recovery timeline is yet to be determined, with Showalter telling Healey and other reporters that “they got a couple other people to look at some things and try to decide the best mode of operation which to go, as soon as we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

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