March 30: During the surgery mentioned below, doctors discovered that Montes De Oca actually required Tommy John surgery, which they then performed, per Michael Mayer of Metsmerized and Russell Dorsey of Bally Sports. He will miss the entire 2023 season while recovering and perhaps some of 2024 as well.
March 28: Mets reliever Bryce Montes de Oca is going to undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips from his throwing elbow, reports Russell Dorsey of Bally Sports (Twitter link). He’s expected to miss around four months.
Montes de Oca was already known to be starting the season on the injured list after being diagnosed with a stress reaction a few weeks ago. Still, there was some hope he wouldn’t lose too much time after imaging revealed he’d avoided any ligament damage. While that fortunately remains the case, the bone fragments will cost him the bulk of the 2023 season.
A Missouri product, Montes de Oca made his major league debut at the tail end of last season. He got into three games, allowing four runs in 3 1/3 innings. The big righty averaged just shy of 100 MPH on his sinker and sat in the mid-90s with his cutter during that limited look. That power arsenal had resulted in a huge 36.4% strikeout rate over 34 innings with Triple-A Syracuse. Even with significant control concerns, Montes de Oca posted a solid 3.44 ERA at the top minor league level.
While he certainly wasn’t assured of a season-opening bullpen spot, Montes de Oca could have factored in as middle relief depth throughout the year. If that’ll now be the case, it’ll have to be at the tail end of the season. The Mets can place him on the 60-day injured list whenever the need for a 40-man roster spot comes up.
I’m guessing Britton Or Giles are either asking for guarantees or haven’t shown anything worthy in their showcases. Have to imagine they’d both be signed by now
@MorriesWigs
I’m wondering if a pitching machine might be move effective than those 2. Sure, a lousy move to first, but it can go multiple innings.
Most likely
Who?
They could place him on the 60-day when they want to bring up Bundy, but they still will need to demote someone with an option.
Great arm, always injured. Sadly the case with so many guys these days.
Not one to put stock on the idea that bad throwing motions cause injuries so everyone should throw cookie cutter instead of what works for them but Montes clearly has major mechanical problems that is destroying his arm. That’s why he can throw like he does but still.
He is 27 yo not a spring chicken lol
This is rather unfortunate. I was looking forward to seeing him pitch this year. Hope he can get healthy.
An announcer once said -“ this guy is going to be selling used cars soon with that delivery”. It applies here too.
I was amazed Chris Sale lasted as long as he did. He is another of these with a severe delivery.
Very tough break for this flamethrower. NYM have wild card BP arms like Curtiss & Nogosek. And Hunter has been reliable when he’s healthy
@10centBeerNight We are in trouble if Nogosek is on this team for more than a month. Hes the worst reliever I’ve seen thats gotten consistent playing time in the past 3 seasons. He belongs in the Mexican League, not Major League Baseball. His ERA should have been about 2 runs higher last year if not for a 5 run inning he had during garbage time agaisnt the Padres getting reversed as unearned to benifit him
Hope this kid heals up well and can contribute big things to this Mets club this season.
Hes terrible, basically a worse version of Miguel Castro, and thats saying something. Throws hard but has no control of his pitches. He was already 27 anyway, not gonna learn how to throw correctly at this stage in his career. He prioritized throwing hard for his lack of control and in the end, he got injured, which should have been expected. There are guys who throw 92-93 mph and still have success. Throwing over 100mph every pitch is never a good idea, though pitchers who have low baseball iqs overrely on their talent instead of improving their mental ability
Won’t be the last. Going to be a war of attrition.
Talk about a series of unfortunate events. Went from stress reaction to elbow cleanup surgery to full blown TJ.