The Mets informed reporters, including Tim Healey of Newsday, that left-hander José Quintana has a “small stress fracture” in his fifth rib on his left side. He left his spring outing yesterday with side tightness and later announced that he was withdrawing from the World Baseball Classic. He is leaving camp and headed to New York for further imaging. The club does not have a timeline on his recovery yet.
Quintana, 34, was pencilled in to be a key piece of the Mets’ rotation this year after signing a two-year, $26MM deal in the offseason. He had a rough couple of seasons in 2020 and 2021 but bounced back nicely last year with the Pirates and Cardinals. He tossed 165 2/3 innings between the two clubs with a 2.93 ERA, 20.2% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46.4% ground ball rate. The Mets signed him to that two-year pact and hoped to have him in their rotation alongside Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga and Carlos Carrasco.
At this point, it’s still unclear what the next steps will be, but it seems like Quintana will at least be delayed. There’s just over three weeks until Opening Day at this point. Even if he’s able to return to the mound in short order, he would still need some time to build up his pitch count.
It was around this time last year that Red Sox lefty Chris Sale was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his rib, which prevented him from making his season debut until July. That’s not to say Quintana is facing the same absence, as all injuries are unique and players respond to them differently. However, it does illustrate that the diagnosis has the chance to be significant.
We don’t know what kind of absence Quintana ultimately will require, but the Mets have depth options on their roster if Quintana does eventually need to miss some of the regular season. Joey Lucchesi was recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2022 and missed all of the MLB season. He began a rehab assignment in August of last year and pitched 12 2/3 minor league innings before the winter arrived. Back in 2019, he made 30 starts for the Padres and posted a 4.18 ERA. Tylor Megill made nine starts and six relief appearances for the club last year, posting a combined 5.13 ERA. David Peterson had a 3.83 ERA across 19 starts and nine relief appearances last year and would perhaps be the first one called up to take a rotation job. He recently had his own injury scare when a comebacker hit him in the foot, though it seems he escaped with just a contusion and is day-to-day. All three of Lucchesi, Megill and Peterson have options, allowing them to be stretched out in the minors whenever their services are not required by the big league club.
And it begins
The Mets are the undisputed world champions of breaking pitchers.
Yes, the hate brigade begins chiming in with their loathing of one of, if not THE most promising clubs in the MLB. Their jealousy and disdain has brought them beyond the brink of a level of disgust for the Mets they’ve never felt before. If only their own minimal effort, flatline team could be like the Mets… where every day is like Christmas and filled with happiness and contentment. Oh well…
Damn, you’ve obviously got the good drugs.
This team is forever Final Destination. Tylor Megill, sleep soundly tonight.
Like no other team gets injuries?
Even by Mets standards, this is nothing. I’d consider a single mid-rotation medium-term injury to be a successful spring if that’s where the puck stops
Exactly. We now have no reason to fret about things like this, because we’ve already prepared for it. I see this and simply shrug my shoulders. Moving on…
Sure, but how much have they spent last 2 offseasons and still have back-of-rotation issues? Now, with 2 of the most accomplished, but oldest SP in MLB, you’d think the back-of-rotation needs to be more fortified, especially when considering Senga pitching stateside (with more frequent GS than he’s used to). It’s low-hanging fruit, but I don’t think anyone would be surprised to see them have serious rotation issues much of the year, if most doesn’t go according to plan.
They don’t have back-of-rotation issues. Most teams don’t have a Peterson, Megill and Lucchesi (not to mention Hernandez) waiting in the wings.
Nick Marge-vicious just got released from the Mariners. There ya go Mets. Plug N Play. When life hands you lemons, make Margevicious lemonade.
Outstanding
Trevor Bauer, come on down.
Anybody who has cracked a rib or two knows how badly it sucks.
I cracked a couple in sparring years ago. Every cough, sneeze, roll over in bed….they all sucked.
Yeah, and imagine to throw a 95 mph fastball.
I think Quintana would have to imagine throwing 95 mph too.
I blame the New York media, it’s somehow their fault.
I blame Trump.
Pretty much committed to stupidity at this point eh??
No sense of humor, eh?
Now, you sound like a journalist! Lol
It’s obviously on Obama
Of all things, it was flag football. Tying my shoelaces was a challenging endeavor.
@Halo
Wow. Shoelaces probably weren’t fun either.
I just remember getting a fairly routine cold and feeling like I was getting stabbed when I coughed.
Like an idiot I went against the same guy a month or so later when my ribs were better and he beat me again.
Had a fraternity brother get a cracked rib playing in a flag football game. He went out that night and drank while hopped up on painkillers. Needless to say the painkillers and alcohol didn’t mix and he ended up dry heaving that night. I will never forget that day as I watched and heard him in pain, had bruised ribs before and was in constant pain, I could only imagine the pain he was going through. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
Are we not men? The only thing that’s sure to teach us a lesson, is losing twice.
Get this guy some spare ribs…
For real this sucks almost as much as my terrible joke.
Joke was a little dry. Sauce it up next time.
He will likely need a ribcage-ectomy.
Cue Moonlight Grahamcracker’s player eval on why this injury occured, since he once worked in an MLB front office….LOL.
Jose might be too thick around the middle for Moonlight’s reasoning.
Ouch. After seeing what happened with Sale, hopefully he can get back by the All Star break.
Q and Sale with matching stress fractures. Hmmm. What do they have in common? I blame Drake Laroche. And his creepy dad.
I knew their rotation would break down just not this quickly ^.^ Go Dodgers!
Celebrating injuries, very classy
Nah I just have disdain for NY media, their fans and business moves. Mets and even the Yankees spend money on guys like Lindor batting .270 and invest on old injury prone pitchers and their fans eat it up like a bunch of fools.
NYM SP depth called into service earlier than expected. Peterson and Megill solid #5 options.
I have no idea why the Mets even hired this guy. Cohen may spend a lot of money but he does not spend it wisely. A lot of money for a #5 starter.
He has the luxury of not needing to spend wisely.. The McCann contract was horrific and it didn’t hurt them at all. I didn’t love the Quintana signing because he seemed like a pitcher who really benefited from the shift last year, and also I wouldn’t be shocked if 2020-2021 is the norm for Quintana while 2022 was a bit of an aberration. All that being said, Quintana is a solid depth option on a rotation that’s already pretty stacked and has tons of upside. So this injury sucks, but the Mets are deep.
@VonPurpleHayes I have to disagree, compadre. The Mets got Tommy Pham instead of Jurickson Profar. They waited until all the stars were off the board before deciding, ‘oops! We need a real 3Bman!!’
There’s clearly some kind of limit Cohen bumps up against, else why not go for the star he thought they needed earlier on, when spending enough money would have made getting that star a certainty? Or why not make a real move for Rodon, given what they lack is a front of the rotation pitcher likely to be healthy AND effective in October, and instead have only guys except for Q who can no longer handle a 5-man rotation without breaking down?
This is the team you’d design if your aim was, oddly, to run out of gas, as in 2022.
They also rather desperately need more bullpen depth—particularly with the age of that rotation—and were willing to pay Correa $315 million, but couldn’t figure out they need someone like Andrew Chafin? Whatever else is going on, they’re not behaving like a team with a competent front office.
The Mets aren’t actually deep, given none of Peterson, Megill, and Lucchesi have any real track record of sustained, even merely average performance. Their best option, Peterson, has only one season with a FIP under 4.50 and even then he couldn’t manage 5 innings a start. They’re in some trouble despite the record payroll. What they’ve assembled isn’t the result of sound planning, but rather ad hoc behavior, and they’re likely to pay a price for it just as they did last season.
101 wins last season. I don’t think they paid the price for anything.
I’m a known Mets hater, but I disagree, the market on SP was insane this year. Also quintana seemed to figure something out last year.
Quint is somewhat underrated, though not without reason. ERA+ from 2018-2021? 92. That’s bad.
I hope you’re right, but from his peripherals what he seemed primarily to figure out is, “Getting lucky on flyballs is a very good idea.”
Normalize his HR rate, even generously, and he’s merely pretty good in 2022. That’s better than he’d been for four years, but it’s not too impressive for a guy on the oldest rotation in baseball, last I checked, who may have to step up in October.
Like i said before, waste of money. Sign Bauer, get rid of Carasco, and have Peterson in the rotation
Bauer is a total dbag, and was widely despised even before he was in the headlines. There’s a reason that nobody has picked him up.
LoL if only there were down voting on here.
Never understood why players have to travel back to the home city for “further testing” during spring training. They have alot of doctors in Florida. I used to live there so I know.
It’s usually because that’s where the specialist works.
I guess that’s correct but I’m pretty sure they could find one close by.
Definitely. But I guess if it’s not an emergency, you fly to your team’s specialist.
True, but seeing the same doctor who has all your records in hand, knows your history, has studied you in detail (we can hope) has real value.
Ouch, man…just ouch. That pain lingers.
LOLMets
Hate to see this. He pitched very well for the Cardinals last year.
Wonder if the Cardinals knew something that nobody else knew. He would been great to come back, but the injury bug got him.
What are you talking about? The injury happened while he was pitching in ST. No indication that this has anything to do with his time with the Cardinals. You’re just making stuff up.
Really looking forward to seeing how the top 4 starters of that rotation fare. They look good on paper and in a SSS in Spring Training starts. Let’s see if they can stay healthy.