Steven Matz’s season is over, as Newsday’s Marc Carig reports that the excellent Mets left-hander will undergo surgery to remove the bone spur in his left elbow that has been plaguing him for the majority of the summer (Twitter link). Carig does tweet that Matz won’t require surgery to address the shoulder issue that has also been bothering him for the past couple of months, though that’s a small silver lining for Mets fans who were hoping that Matz could potentially return to the club in some capacity during the postseason.
While Matz, 25, announced his presence in the Majors last summer with an excellent debut, he didn’t pitch enough innings for his rookie status to expire. The 2016 campaign has technically been his rookie year, and it’ll come to a close with a 3.40 earned run average and a 129-to-31 K/BB ratio that was compiled over the life of 132 1/3 innings out of the New York rotation. Matz becomes the third Mets starer to require season-ending surgery, joining rotation-mates Matt Harvey (thoracic outlet syndrome) and Jacob deGrom (ulnar nerve in right elbow) in that category. Meanwhile, right-hander Zack Wheeler was never able to return to a Major League mound this season after suffering setbacks in his recovery from Tommy John surgery last spring.
If the Mets are able to hang onto the Wild Card spot they currently possess, they’ll likely turn to Noah Syndergaard in said Wild Card matchup and, if they make it past that point, entrust Bartolo Colon and one of their young right-handers — Seth Lugo or Robert Gsellman — to fill out the rotation in the National League Division Series.
Mets top brass has to take the blame for this one, they treated all their young pitchers badly and now they are paying dearly. Harvey, Matz,, de Grom, and Syndergaard all were miss used last year.so this comes as no surprise.
How were they ALL misused last year? If anything, the only one that was misused was Harvey. Maybe the strength and conditioning should take the blame- not the front office who “pushed” these starters to get to the World Series.
You’re clueless.
Mets need one victory to claim at least a wild card tie with the Cardinals. That could happen today if the Reds best pitcher beats the Cardinals today.
That game (if needed to figure out the # 2 wild card) would be at St. Louis because the Cardinals have the tie breaker over the Mets. Although the season series was tied at 3 – 3. The second tie breaker is winning percentage in your own division. The cards have it and it cannot change.
In the meantime. Sunday remains relevant for the Mets even if they lose the first two in Philly and the Cards win their next three.. The Mets would be tied with the Cards if that happens. The Giants could only be a game ahead of the Mets on Sunday also if the Mets lost the first two in Philly and the Giants win their next three.
To secure the wild card over the Cards the Mets just have to win one and Cards lose won.
Verse the Giants, the Mets own the tie breaker and therefore would host the Giants if the Mets win two games, win one and Giants lose one or Giants lose two games.
If the Mets wind up in a three way tie, the Cardinals are the A designated team. The cardinals can choose to host the Mets on Monday but if they lose that game, they are eliminated. If they win, they host the Giants Mets winner of Tuesday’s game in San Francisco. This would be bad for the Mets as they would need Lugo on Monday . If they lose then they need a spot starter in San Fran on Tuesday and Colon on Wednesday.
This can all be avoided with one Mets win and a Cardinals loss.
To avoid traveling at all, the Mets need to win two games in Philly.
If the Mets can win Friday and Saturday, the Mets can save Syndergaard for the Wednesday home game. No matter how you slice it, the Mets magic number to be the # 1 Wild Card is “2.”
Mets have lost 4 guys that would be a #1 or #2 on almost every other team in baseball. Devastating losses and they are still in the playoff hunt. What an amazing job both Collins and the FO have done.
Not to mention having traded Fulmer (who was amazing for DET except for a 4 week tough run), Cessa (spent half the year with NYY) and Gant (who they faced in ATL last week)…
Wow. Imagine the embarrassment of riches if they still had healthy versions of Thor, deGrom, Harvey, Matz, Wheeler, and Fulmer, with Lugo and Gsellman also on hand and showing promise. Those are 6 #1-2 starters with a pair of others with sub 3.00 ERAs thus far. Just goes to show you truly never can have too much pitching. Thank god for Big Sexy.
Harvey when he’s healthy. And matz would be a 3 on good teams
I’m not sure if I’m ready to call Matz or Wheeler a #1 -2 starter considering..