Mets left-hander Steven Matz underwent successful surgery to repair a “massive” bone spur in his elbow on Tuesday, Adam Rubin of ESPN.com was among those to report. Matz, who hasn’t pitched since Aug. 14, also received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his left shoulder. The 25-year-old should be at full health by spring training, according to the club. Despite dealing with injuries, Matz logged a 3.40 ERA, 8.77 K/9, 2.11 BB/9 and 51.1 percent ground-ball rate in 132 1/3 innings as a rookie.
More regarding New York and two other National League clubs:
- Cubs president Theo Epstein revisited the team’s late-February re-signing of center fielder Dexter Fowler, telling Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, “It wasn’t like we swooped in at the last minute and stole him from Baltimore.” It appeared that way at first, as Fowler reportedly had a three-year, $33MM agreement in place with the Orioles. But Fowler told Sullivan, “I actually didn’t know where the report came from. That thing is still a mystery to me. But the right people knew what the deal was.” The Cubs actually kept in contact with Fowler all along, and Epstein even offered to call other teams to vouch for Fowler during his unemployed stint. “I wanted the best for Dexter,” said Epstein. “I kept getting updates, and then when we got into spring training, I told (agent Casey Close) ’No promises, but look, if it ends up he’s looking at any one-year scenario, stay in touch because we might be able to make a trade or do some things that would put him back in play for us.” After Fowler’s deal with the Orioles didn’t materialize, Epstein cleared $4.8MM in salary by trading fellow outfielder Chris Coghlan to the A’s (the Cubs re-acquired Coghlan in June). Epstein then brought back Fowler on a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2017. At $8MM ($13MM if either side declines the option), Fowler was a bargain for the Cubs during the regular season – he hit .276/.393/.447 with 13 homers and 13 steals and accounted for 4.8 fWAR in 551 plate appearances – and will now attempt to help the NL Central champions to their first World Series title since 1908.
- Former Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez is a candidate to return to the team as its third base coach, tweets Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. Gonzalez was previously the Marlins’ third base coach from 1999-2000, and he took over as their manager in 2007. The Marlins went 276-279 before Gonzalez’s ouster in June 2010 and finished over .500 in two of his three full seasons. Gonzalez then worked as the Braves’ manager from 2011 until his firing this past May. Atlanta compiled a 434-413 record under Gonzalez and made two playoff trips.
- In further Mets injury news, first-round draft pick Anthony Kay underwent Tommy John surgery Tuesday, per MetsBlog. The left-hander from the University of Connecticut went 31st overall in this year’s draft and joined the Mets for a below-slot deal amid elbow concerns. The 21-year-old southpaw will now miss all of next season and could lose some of the 2018 campaign, too.
Does any young pitcher in baseball not have TJ surgery? Yeesh.
The Cubs should re-sign for 3 years 45M and move him to left. Almora play CF. Heyward and Soler in right. Schwarber and Contreras catch. Ease Schwarber back into things . That would be an excellent defensive outfield.
Schwarber playing anywhere on a baseball field other than in a batters box is a massive liability.
His bat is ridiculous though.
That’s right Contraras and Schwaber must be are two catchers and see Tim in LF if not catching . Montero must be traded this winter.
They better be willing to eat a good-sized portion of that $14 million he’s owed next year. He’s not the same catcher he was five years ago..
Or they could hold 3 catchers like how baseball used to be. Offensive-defensive-backup catcher.
if Fredi returns to the Marlins it is because he needs the money, can’t see how he will work again under Loria
Organization has injuries everywhere and then they draft a pitcher who has TJS.
Meet the Mets…
So the kid has the surgery now. Then works his way back and hopefully has no future problems. I. Eli eve this is the course Matz followed.
There is no guarantee he will make it just because he is drafted high. It is all a crapshoot. Draft high based on potential and pay low because of need for surgery vs. draft high, pay high develop and then restart because there is a need for surgery