The Mets have been without Jacob deGrom all season, although the club has maintained he’s progressing well in his recovery from a Spring Training stress reaction in his scapula. deGrom has been throwing off flat ground for a couple weeks, and Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News tweeted yesterday that he’s lengthened out to throwing from 95-100 feet.
More encouragingly, Thosar suggests the star right-hander could progress to throwing a bullpen session by this weekend. That’d mark a notable step in his recovery, although he’ll presumably need multiple mound sessions before he progresses to facing live hitters. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com wrote last week that deGrom is also expected to require three-to-five rehab starts in the minor leagues before returning to the majors.
There are still significant hurdles before deGrom will be back in a game at Citi Field, but he continues to make incremental strides. Jon Heyman of the New York Post said on yesterday’s The Show podcast with colleague Joel Sherman that he’d heard a “late June” potential timetable for deGrom’s return to the big leagues from a team source (Mets’ talk around 34:00 mark). Even if his rehab lingers a bit beyond then, the organization is surely hopeful the two-time Cy Young winner will be healthy for the second half of the season.
The Mets are also down Max Scherzer and Tylor Megill, leaving them to rely on their rotation depth. Scherzer isn’t likely to be back before the All-Star Break, while Megill has been out since May 15 because of biceps inflammation. Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner suggested Megill’s further along in his recovery than deGrom (Thosar link), but he’s not yet thrown a bullpen session and certainly won’t be ready to return when first eligible on Friday.
While the rotation has taken some key hits, the position player group has been healthy aside from catcher James McCann (out through late June because of a hand fracture). Second baseman/left fielder Jeff McNeil is now day-to-day after crashing into the wall chasing a fly ball this afternoon. Mike Puma of the Post was among those to relay (on Twitter) that he’s been diagnosed with a left knee contusion.
The subject of some trade speculation over the winter, the lefty-hitting McNeil is rewarding the organization’s decision to keep him in Flushing. Across 170 plate appearances, he’s hitting .323/.376/.458 with a minuscule 10% strikeout rate. McNeil only has two home runs, but he’s among the top 25 qualified hitters in both batting average and on-base percentage.
LGM! ⚾️
I firmly believe coasting all season is detrimental to playoff success. Late May and June is going to be a very difficult task for the Mets, but I think if they just stay around .500 during this stretch, they’ll be fine all year. Not off to a good start against the Giants, but I still think this team is deep enough to go far.
I agree. If they can play .500 in June, I’ll be ecstatic. They have a brutal west coast trip coming up (four against the Dodgers, three against the Padres, and three against the Angels) as well as four against Houston. Going to be tough.
Von, who is coasting all season?
The Mets pretty much have been winning every series except 2 so far. I don’t mean coasting in the lazy sense. I mean they haven’t really been challenged. So in a way, these injuries are the first real obstacle for the Mets, and I think they’ll be better for it, assuming people come back healthy of course.
I agree… adversity can help galvanize a team and determine how they’ll work through challenges… in 2006 the Mets cruises and I think it hurt them
I’m actually amazed they almost took two of three so far in SF… to blow them out game one and then come back like they did game two when only a Diaz collapse stopped them. Yesterday throwing szapucki was idiotic, he hasn’t shown anything since his injury a couple years ago… basically handed SF a win
I agree. I know you’re a Phillies fan as am I, but a big difference between these two teams is the teams have a winning mentality. They look for ways to win, while the Phillies look for ways to lose.
The Phillies just don’t mesh. Girardi doesn’t get the best out of his players. These guys are studs on other teams and underperform in Philly. Something is wrong at the leadership level.
That’s the thing–the Mets aren’t deep at all as of late May 2022:
Including Bassitt, who has his own very real durability issues, the Mets are looking at
Bassitt
Carrasco
Walker
Peterson
Trevor Williams
There’s no one behind them and that’s not a league average rotation for the next two months, even without the inevitable injuries or complete ineffectiveness looming in Cookie and Walker’s futures after the 80-90 inning mark.
The drop-off after Nimmo, Marte, and Canha is steep, and while McCann was no great loss the decline from him to Mazeika and the increased playing time going to Nido’s 35 OPS+ is likely to be significant. The pen can hardly stand any injuries, either.
The bench is currently Dom, JD, Guillorme, Jankowski, Mazeika. That’s *very* thin. After that it’s sub-replacement level turtles all the way down.
Hard to see this team playing better than .450 ball until at least two of Jake, Max, and TM return. It’s going to be another rough season—but at least there’s upside this time around.
The best part of the trade for Canó and Diaz was keeping Jeff McNeil. He would’ve been the way for the Mets to get Seattle to eat most of Canó’s contract. Instead the Mariners took Gerson Bautista and paid a lot less of Canó’s contract.
Szapucki might not be ready
That does seem to be a possibility.
Or Szapucki may not be a good pitcher. Hmmmm probably not that.
@Cosmo2 Let’s hope we don’t need to see him pitch again in an important situation. He’s going to need some heat on his neck, after having to keep turning around to see how far the Giant’s bombs were traveling.
We’ve had a lot of unplanned doubleheaders and are without Jake, Max and now Tylor. Just need to bide some time and stay afloat.
Batting practice pitcher.. Giants fans are thankful
Szapuki stinks. Then and now. Mets will need another starter soon. Then hope 1 or 2 of the 3 make it back effectively.
Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, David Peterson and Trevor Williams still make up a better rotation than most teams have.
I think the Mets defense goes a long way too. They’re stacked.
Wow Szapucki’s start yesterday went as horrible as I expected it to go. I expected Longoria’s 2 HRs and Joc Pederson HR ( I like Joc ) and it was as bad as I have ever seen in MLB. Long ago I was high on Szap who was hyped as the next big thing in Metsland. But injuries TJS hit and he is no longer effective which was evident last year when he pitched to the Braves. He has nada. Stick a fork in him. Buck why did you leave him in so long or bring him back for the 2nd inning or even start him?
As I posted elsewhere look for the Mets June swoon to kick in now that their pitchers are dropping like flies.
( I expect Von Purple Hayes will chime in to disagree. )
You “expected Longoria’s two homers”? Based on his TJS surgery and recent struggles? That is pretty good. Very specific. We’re gonna need you moving forward.
Cosmo,
I have watched so much MLB Baseball since the 60’s so I have developed the ability a while ago to watch games and in game the flow of the Game to be able to predict HRs in Game.
Szapucki retired the 1st Batter but then Flores doubled, then a walk, so Longo HR I could read along with the Pederson HR. Buck should not have brought him back for the 2nd Inning after giving up 5 Runs in the 1st inning only to give up another 4 runs to start the 2nd. Surprised that the Mets called him up to start and have him on the 40 Man Roster actually.
I’m not surprised at all. And I actually think it was the right move. He’s been highly touted & pretty effective in AAA. The Mets were in desperate need of a starter so why not give him a shot? Sometimes you throw something at the wall & see if it sticks. In this case, it was a miserable failure. The wrong move was to not yank him sooner. Full disclosure: I have been watching baseball for 55 years and I still can’t predict anything that’s about to happen. Thank god for that – it makes the game more enjoyable.
baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=sza…
He has pitched a Total of 213.2 IP in 7 years 2015 – 2022.
This year in Syracuse AAA he has pitched 22 IP in 7 GS.
No future as a SP he is 26yo.
It was startling to see Szapucki left in to give up 9 ER.
Given his AAA usage this was a bullpen game, where the hope was that ZPuck would give them 2-3 useful innings. SO, if he wasn’t going 6 innings anyway, or even 4 innings on his best day, why not pull him before the game was completely out of reach?
Buck bunged this one, a bit.
Jack Strawb,
It was batting practice pitching after he struck out the 1st Batter.
Really the blame goes to the FO for bringing him up from AAA to start and for wasting a 40 Man Roster on him. After giving up the 5 Runs in the 1st Inning which he survived due to a runner being picked off of 1B on a steal attempt it was malpractice to send him out for the 2nd Inning. Szapucki is done. He has two pitches a curveball that he can’t locate and a straight fastball with low 90s velo. His best pitch yesterday was his changeup. Not a MLB SP.