Jacob deGrom went for a follow-up MRI on his injured shoulder yesterday, and the team provided reporters (including Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News and Anthony DiComo of MLB.com) with an update late last night. According to the club, imaging showed “considerable healing of the stress reaction on his scapula.” Doctors have cleared deGrom to start “loading and strengthening” his shoulder, but he will not begin throwing. The team is likely to send deGrom for further imaging in around three weeks.
Certainly, it’s a positive to hear of “considerable healing.” deGrom told reporters just before Opening Day his shoulder had held up structurally, adding “once the bone heals, then we’ll be ready to go and build up from there and hopefully be healthy for the rest of the year.” That the bone has progressed in the three and a half weeks since then is a welcome development for his long-term prognosis.
That said, the announcement deGrom won’t yet start a throwing program seems to suggest he’s not especially close to returning. Both Thosar and DiComo indicate it’s unclear whether the team is ruling deGrom out from beginning a throwing program until his next imaging three weeks from now. If that proves to be the case, there’d be virtually no chance of the two-time Cy Young award winner returning at the start of June as had been hoped.
deGrom hasn’t pitched in a regular season game since July 7 of last year. He spent the second half of the season on the injured list recovering from an elbow issue. That brought an unfortunate early end to what looked as if it might be one of the most dominant performances by a pitcher in league history. deGrom returned this spring and made two starts in Grapefruit League play before feeling some shoulder soreness during a between-outings long toss session. The team sent him for an MRI, which revealed the stress reaction that has shut him down thus far.
In deGrom’s absence, the Mets opened the season with a rotation of Max Scherzer, Chris Bassitt, Tylor Megill, Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker. That’s an impressive top five even sans arguably baseball’s best arm. The top four pitchers have been excellent, with each member of that group posting an ERA and SIERA of 3.00 or lower through their first few starts.
Walker landed on the IL just two innings into his season debut because of shoulder bursitis, but he’s expected to return this weekend. Lefty David Peterson has stepped into his place and pitched very well himself. Only the Dodgers (2.09) have a better rotation ERA than the Mets’ 2.29 in the early going, a big reason New York has raced to a 13-5 start.
$10 bucks says the acoring dries up once he comes back
*scoring
*acorning
Jeff McNeil’s nickname is the Squirrel, after all.
Show me a starting pitcher in the last 30 years that has thrown as hard as deGrom does and didn’t either get hurt or become a reliever. A 32-33 year-old’s body can’t hold up throwing 100mph as often as he would in a starting pitcher role. All of his injuries started when he “perfected” his mechanics and got the most out of his body.
Nolan Ryan retired in 1993.
Randy Johnson? Roger Clemens?
They have to at least be in the conversation.
But they had PEDs to help them. Well, Clemens for sure and Big Unit most likely.
I mean… he got hurt? But pitched through a torn UCL so? Does he count?
Clemens never averaged near 100mph with his fastball, and steroids were a big factor in his career.
Randy Johnson and Justin Verlander are the only two I can think of, and Johnson was 6’10.
Verlander just came back from Tommy John.
Young Clemens threw upper 90s. Older Clemens was low 90s with a dirty split. Regardless of what you think about his PED use he adapted when his stuff got worse.
“Johnson was 6’10.” and people have to remember that Johnson did not throw over the top, a motion which is stressful on the body. The human body is “designed” to throw underhand or sidearm
How many starting pitchers have averaged 100+ in the last 30 years?
How many starting pitchers who throw/threw any speed have never been injured or converted to relief?
Since 2017, only one qualifying starting pitcher has averaged a 100mph fastball and it’s not degrom.
I feel like you’re insinuating half a point.
He adapted by starting a PED regiment.
I think you severely overestimate the impact PEDs have on players
Smoltz still is, I believe, the only Tommy John-survivor to make it into the HOF. He pitched for 9 addt seasons after having TJ at 34 (!!!). Back in the day his split-finger FB topped out at 98 mph, an incredible 1-2 to his wipeout slider.
Really? That sounds implausible but I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head.
I know, but that was the case in his 2015 class and I don’t think anyone elected since has had it. When he was elected it was framed as somewhat of a watershed moment for players considering how TJ has unfortunately become such a part of today’s game. Even Tommy John himself isn’t in the HoF, though you could argue that because of his surgery on top of his career, he should get another look.
Well, TJS has only been around like 40 years so
@RunDMC BUT, that’s a small sample size with additional bias. Almost by definition a HOF pitcher gets off to an early start and has no major arm woes, meaning HOF-caliber pitchers rarely require TJ, which itself is a fairly recent phenomenon in the history of HOF voting.
The Express Nolan Ryan. If a pitcher doesn’t have a natural ability to throw 100mph and it’s produced through mechanical changes, I think that a pitcher who throws harder because of mechanical changes is a recipe for future breakdown
Ever hear of Randy Johnson?
Scherzer is right up there too. He doesn’t top out at 100 like Degrom but he’s a very hard thrower. Degrom also doesn’t avg 100, but he can dial it up when he needs to
Scherzer’s highest average fastball velocity in a season was 94.7mph.. last year DeGrom was at 99.3
A lot of that is also due to the fact that most pitchers that can throw 100 MPH can’t throw it for a strike and so they try to turn them into relievers. deGrom can throw hard and has great control, that is what separates him apart from others who can throw as hard.
*ROCHESTER RABBITS
At least there’s some healing going on.
The Mets bullpen is awful. Sean Ried-Foley, Drew Smith, Trevor May, Trevor Williams, and even Seth Lugo can’t get anyone out. The Mets would have about 1, maybe 2 losses all season. They need to go out and get 2 reliable relievers through trades and sign Trevor Rosenthal
The Mets will be right where they belong at the 100-game mark with a 49-51 record.
I wonder if the trade deadline won’t be all that exciting because everyone feels like they can sneak in with the extra playoff team.
I think bullpen help is big for every team, at any time of the season and probably doesn’t matter how many playoff slots there are.
@Bill M Right, but will teams be less willing to part with it if they feel they can make it?
LFGMets (Metsin7)
The Mets would have about 1, maybe 2 losses all season.
===================================
So they would be either 3-2 or 4-1 in the games where they scored 2 runs, and 13-0 in all the other games?
I guess you are right about Drew Smith.
7 innings
8 Ks
.86 WHIP
0.00 ERA
Have you watched him pitch?
He’s a bum get him outta here!
/s
Stats are deceiving with Drew Smith. They hit shots off him. He normally comes in, walks a batter, gives up a bullet single that hits the wall but was hit so hard the guy on first couldnt advance to third. Then he gives up another bullet hit that was hit right to an outfielder. Then he gets a double play. Thats just about how all his outings have been, not even including the inherited runners he let score
In other words, basically, how the Mets season has gone so far – this time finally coming from their fan.
I would be surprised if JD Davis does not get dealt for a bullpen arm.
Dumbest thing I’ve read all day, bunch of what ifs.
If its still a dumpster fire at the deadline Cohen will do whatever he has to in order to patch up the pen.
Guess that’s why they are 3-10 and the pen has blow 8 saves, right? You need to learn how the game works.
He’ll be 34 in under two months.
Maybe just take him out back, tell the kids he went to stay at Cohen’s aunt up states house and you know, Old Yeller him.
And they let Thor go!!!!!
They didn’t let Thor go. He turned down their qualifying offer and then got out bid by the Angels so they got Schrezer instead.
Great news for Jake! Glad to hear the recovery is going well. As stated in the write-up, the Mets rotation is enviable. When Jake is back, it will be untouchable. LFGM
Max is going to be untouchable all season. It’s what he does. Bassitt is also really really good. I question whether the rest of the rotation will be able to maintain its success all year. I think the bats will catch up to the likes of Carrasco and Megill, but time will tell. There’s not a lot wrong with this Mets team.
I’m cautiously optimistic. Last night shocked me. Those are the types of ganes they lose especially when playing the Cardinals (and in St. Louis to boot). Granted it was Cardinal mistakes more than Mets hitting that spurred the comeback but they hung in there and took advantage of those St. Louis mistakes. Also credit Canha in his at-bat.
Those kinds of wins are funny because technically the Mets should have been retired twice. So really how much did they control? The Nimmo homer was huge though.
I’m glad to hear it, but I thought it was too optimistic to put him on the 10-day IL when they could have used the roster spot if he were on the 60-day. If it’s clear he’s not going to start throwing until after his next imaging in a few weeks, they should put him on it now. A fully healthy deGrom together with Scherzer and Bassitt would be a formidable rotation for any team to face in the postseason regardless of what Mr. Rochester Rabbits who was cut out of Steve Cohen’s will thinks.
Briefly. Carrasco won’t hold up. Walker either. Megill is promising but isn’t going to pitch 150 innings. Once you get into July, the pitching and the OF are likely to be gruesome.
In English, a sentence never begins with a lower-case letter (or a numeral). At least that’s what I learned, and as far as I know, the rule hasn’t changed.
It’s a style choice in the case of a lowercase proper noun.
The Chicago manual of style generally would defer to the subject. deGrom might prefer his name to be written as such, and so it is. And there it is again!
But I’ve seen it both ways depending on where you look.
This was a fun question though. I’d never thought of it.
The proper spelling of his name might be deGrom, but if you are placing it at the beginning of a sentence the first letter should still be capitalized, in the same way any other normally lower-cased word is capitalized at the beginning of a sentence. I don’t think the rule changes because it’s a name. As someone else suggested, I would simply avoid putting the name in this position, and not create a visually strange, non-standard sentence.
Chicago Manual of Style (17th Ed.) says that the first letter of a sentence or note is always capitalized even if it is a name that starts with a capital letter. I don’t know what style rules MLBTR uses. They vary.
I so much hate Chicago Manuel that flames shoot out my head
You’re thinking of Jerry Manuel
It makes exceptions for some proper nouns like iPhone. And deGrom.
Either way, not a big deal 🙂
are you discriminating against small case letters??? lol
that’s why i speak in American.
I don’t know if the rule has changed or not, but it is certainly relaxed in recent years, especially with things like iPhone and eBay being so prominent.
Personally, I would just structure my sentence to not have these proper nouns and names at the beginning of the sentence and avoid the whole debate. But it doesn’t look out of place, imo.
(incidentally, a few years back, the Mets had deGrom, d’Arnaud, and Matthew den Dekker, so you’d see it a lot.)
I don’t know if the rules were relaxed so much as style manuals are out of fashion, and copy editing is pretty much a thing of the past. I now also regularly see sentences beginning with numerals, and I’m pretty sure that rule was never relaxed. With those trademark names, I agree with your solution.
If deGrom comes back July 1, the Mets will have a rested SP for the final three months and playoffs. It will be must see TV when Max and deGrom go back to back in meaningful games down the stretch.
MLB’s “best” pitcher won’t have pitched in a year when he (hopefully) returns. Can’t be the best if you can’t take the mound.
I really hope that I am wrong. But, I am thinking that Jacob deGrom is on the same career path as Mark The Bird Fidrych and David Clyde. Great pitchers when healthy. They just couldn’t stay healthy, always injured.
David Clyde was never a great MLB pitcher, and Fidrych had one great year before injuries took over.
DeGrom was the definition of a healthy pitcher until last year. If he ends up being injury prone going forward thats a fair complaint but the narrative that he couldn’t stay healthy up to this point is nonsense. I mean to be honest he was still pumping 97-100 heat into the 7th inning last year, how would he not expect to start becoming fragile? You’d think they’d tell him to not throw 210% on every pitch late into the game.
Agreed @sfes.
He won the Cy Young (twice) sitting 95-97 and touching 98. Last year he was sitting 98-100 and touching 101. It was unnecessary despite yielding incredible results that we haven’t seen before. Heck, Jake is better than 95% of MLB starters throwing 91-94.
I would rather have him closing games then bouncing back and forth from the DL.
You might be the only person in the world who would want that
Thinking Jake doesn’t start throwing seriously til mid July…..if all is well will pitch some in August , and pump up to form come September …By the playoffs , he will be ready to take on a full schedule …This has been the idea all along…..The Staff is going well…Always have Petersen if someone gets injured……The whole Idea is to win the Championship,, which with staff , there is a very good chance , the Mets may do….So be patient Met fans !!
LGM