Mets Place Noah Syndergaard On DL With Strained Finger Ligament

1:16pm: It seems the injury is not viewed as a serious one. James Wagner of the New York Times tweets that Syndergaard could potentially return after the minimum absence. (The placement was backdated to May 26th.) He’ll wear a splint for the time being but could try throwing again this weekend to gauge his progress.

12:32pm: The Mets announced that righty Noah Syndergaard has been placed on the 10-day DL. He was diagnosed with a strained ligament in his right index finger, per the announcement.

At present, it’s not clear how long the Mets will go without their co-ace. But any absence is most unwelcome given the tightly packed group of contenders in the NL East.

The real question here, of course, is whether this injury holds any potential for long-term concern. That’s simply not apparent based upon what is known publicly at this point. Prior to the team’s announcement, after all, there was no indication that Syndergaard was dealing with a problem at all.

There are also more immediate needs to be dealt with. The New York organization is going to have to scramble to account for Syndergaard’s scheduled start tomorrow. That could mean that Jason Vargas takes the ball on short rest, per Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link), and/or that the club tries to find a fresh arm from its minor-league ranks.

Thus far in 2018, Syndergaard has been in fine form after missing much of the prior season with a lat injury. He owns a 3.06 ERA with 10.6 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 through 64 2/3 innings, with a typically sturdy 47.7% groundball rate. He is throwing his fastballs in the upper-nineties range we’ve come to expect and carries a personal-high 15.0% swinging-strike rate.