Mets righty Zack Wheeler is set for a visit to orthopedist Dr. James Andrews after experiencing discomfort in his surgically-repaired right elbow, Mike Puma of the New York Post was among those to tweet. It seems that the flare-up occurred after his most recent rehab outing.
Though it’s still far from clear whether Wheeler has a new injury with which to contend, the news makes it tough to imagine that he’ll return to New York this season. The prized 26-year-old had seemed primed to make a late-season return from Tommy John surgery, potentially giving the Mets a boost down the stretch.
At this point, the greater concern lies in the long run. Wheeler last pitched in the majors in 2014, when he wrapped up a stellar campaign for the Mets. He had been brought back slowly from his UCL replacement procedure, but attempts to ramp things up toward a major league return have not gone according to plan. Now, a dreaded trip to the famed Dr. Andrews may help to ascertain whether there’s a new problem to contend with.
The expectation has long been that Wheeler would constitute a major part of a loaded Mets pitching staff full of frontline starters. But while Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom have continued to thrive, though the former has pitched through a bone spur, but some cracks have formed elsewhere. Though Steven Matz has been productive in his first full MLB campaign, he has dealt with some inconsistency while battling his own elbow bone spur. And Matt Harvey has undergone a shocking downfall, struggling badly before undergoing season-ending surgery.
Wheeler certainly deserves mention in that company. Over his first 285 1/3 innings at the big league level, from 2013-14, Wheeler owns a 3.50 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9. Returning to that form may once have seemed a foregone conclusion, given the prevalence of Tommy John surgery, but the fact is that the surgery isn’t always successful. Indeed, as MLBTR contributor Bradley Woodrum has explained, a prior TJ procedure “strongly predicts a second surgery.”
Mets aren’t going anywhere this year, SHUT HIM DOWN! Save him for 2017. And fire TC while you’re at it.
Yes. Shut him down.
yes definitely fire collins, he’s always been an ok manager at best and was saved by last years team
He’s not bad I don’t see any better out there fired or bench coach except maybe Rentalia of the Sox who was wronged by Theo
Shocking
I’m shocked….SHOCKED…well not that shocked.
“…is visiting Dr. James Andrews…” has to be one of the most chilling sentences any ballplayer or team can hear.
It’s got to be close to hearing your grandmother has a wellness check with Dr. Kevorkian.
Yeah, really. “He’s perfectly fine!” – words never said by Dr. Andrews…
Yup
The Mets don’t have a good history with young pitchers and their elbow. Harvey, DeGrom, Matz, Wheeler……maybe their training staff or team doctor should be looked at.
You have that right, they ruin pitchers. Yet nobody talks about the trainers, definitely a pattern
Pitchers break. Period.
These issues date back to the trio of Paul Wilson, Bill Pulsipher, and Jason Isringhausen.
1999 through 2014 (sorry I just haven’t updated TJS by team) the most TJS…Atl with 23, Stl w/19, SD w/18, NYM w/16 and the Nats w/16.
It’s Ok. Gonzalez Germen is available.
I don’t understand why teams love Wheeler so much and wanted to trade for him. The guy was ok to average in his short time in the majors and he’s always hurt.
Over his first 285 1/3 innings at the big league level, from 2013-14, Wheeler owns a 3.50 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9.
Did you miss this portion of the post. You’re ridiculous “OK to average”
In 2011, who would have thought that Beltran’s career might end up lasting longer than Wheeler’s?
Huh? Beltran had already played 12-13 years in the bigs by the time of the trade. Regardless of how good you are, that’s a helluva benchmark in and of itself.
He means from 2011 through the rest of their careers
Thank you.
CoolCoolCoolCoolCool
Woodhead should be banned from this site for politically calling for the firing of that very nice man Terry Collins. Woodhead aren’t you the idiot who says the NETS are making the playoffs? You also believe that Hillary never lies? Let’s fire Woodhead and take up a collection to get him a lobotomy. Woodhead the. Nets won’t win a game before Xmas.
umm, ok? I don’t think I’ve ever commented about any NBA team actually. Don’t think I’ve ever talked about my feelings on Hilary Clinton either. TC does suck though, I stand by that firmly.
Mets built their team around young pitching, and then over used them last year. First Harvey goes down , then Thor an Matts have bone chips. Now we hear this about Wheeler. This team needs to get a bunch of position to be able to have a good team long term, but I don’t think they can get them with their budget restrictions.
Their emphasis has been on power arms and that is at the root of the problem.
As Dr. Jobe said “Throwing is good. Throwing really hard can be bad. Doing some kind of throwing can definitely help build arm strength. We didn’t know this before Tommy — when he’d throw, he could toss OK, but once he got to 75 percent effort, that’s when stress transfers from the muscle to the ligament. Throw a lot, just not in a game.”
The “power era” basically began in the 90’s. Emphasis on power bats and pitchers. Prior to 1996 the largest # of surgeries done was 2 then it jumped as follows….MLB only #’s 1996 – (10 TJS)…97 (7)…98 (0)….99 (22)…. 2000 (26)….2001 (25)…. 2002 (38)….2003 (29)….2004 (33)…. 2005 (13)…. 2006 (10)…. 2007 (7)….2008 (8)…. 2009 (8)….2010 (11)….2011 (30)….2012 (46)….2013 (25)….2014 (29)…. 2015 (30)…thru May of this year (I haven’t updated since and there have been quite a few….12). Despite popular belief there have been a great many flame-throwers in history (the documentary “Fastball” shows that Ryan’s famous 100.9 pitch was actually 108.5 if measured as they do today, Feller threw at 107.6 in the 1940’s) , they just didn’t throw as hard as they could every time…they pitched.
I can only hope that John Smoltz was right. Around draft time 2015 he was on MLB network and said that he had talked to several GM’s who were tiring of the power era. Tired of pitchers burning out, of the emphasis on throwing and not pitching, the emphasis on power hitters who K more than hit. Several want to get back to pitchers who pitch and hitters who make contact instead of a breeze. I hope they do, but I doubt it.
Cmon Woodhead your nose is growing like Hillary’s. Stick to hockey!
What’s your beef, bruh? This is a baseball forum; leave politics out of it