Two Mets pitchers are facing significant long-term injuries, as The Athletic’s Tim Britton reports that Tommy John surgery has been recommended for both Tylor Megill and Reed Garrett. Both right-handers are considering their options before committing to the TJ procedure, plus Garrett already has another surgery awaiting in the form of a planned procedure to move a nerve in his right arm.
The 30-year-old Megill last pitched on June 14, as he was sidelined by an elbow sprain that (according to the pitcher) didn’t come with any structural damage at the time. However, Megill’s rehab assignment was shut down due to some renewed elbow discomfort during a Triple-A start on September 7, and the latest set of tests has apparently delivered the unwelcome news of UCL damage.
Garrett has been battling elbow issues for over a month, as he missed two weeks (spanning the end of August and start of September) due to elbow inflammation. That minimal IL stint didn’t seem like cause for concern until yesterday, when Garrett was returned to the 15-day IL with a sprain in his throwing elbow.
Britton writes that Garrett could opt for a PRP injection and then see if that is enough to heal his elbow, yet the nerve surgery and the attached four-month recovery period are additional obstacles. If Garrett got a Tommy John surgery relatively soon, he would very likely be ready to go by Opening Day 2027. If he goes the PRP route, he wouldn’t be able to get the shot until after he is fully recovered from the nerve procedure, so there’s a risk that Garrett would end up wasting a lot of recovery time if he ended up needing a TJ surgery anyway. Garrett turns 33 in January, adding to the ticking-clock nature of what an extended absence means for his career as a whole.
At the very least, the 2025 season at a minimum is over for both pitchers. That already somewhat seemed like the case anyway given Megill’s setback after a lengthy absence and Garrett’s late-season elbow sprain, yet now even the faint hope of a return in the event of a deep Mets playoff run has been squashed. It leaves the pitching-needy Mets with even more questions to address about their arms depth if New York even makes it into the postseason, but the bigger-picture issue is clearly the unfortunate possibility that Megill and Garrett will both miss the entire 2026 campaign.
Megill has primarily pitched as a starter over his five MLB seasons (all with the Mets), but he has been deployed more as a back-end rotation arm or even a fill-in rather than a truly stable member of the rotation. Megill has generally done well when given the opportunity, and he took a step forward in 2025 by posting a 3.95 ERA over 14 starts and 68 1/3 innings. His 10.8% walk rate is on the high side, but Megill’s 29.2% strikeout rate was a career best, and he also had very strong whiff and barrel rates.
2025 is also Garrett’s fifth Major League season, though he also spent the 2020-21 seasons pitching in Japan. Garrett joined the Mets on a waiver claim from the Orioles in 2023, and then finally carved out a foothold for himself in the majors as a workhorse member of New York’s bullpen. Since Opening Day 2024, Garrett has a 3.83 ERA in 111 appearances and 112 2/3 innings for the Amazins, with a 30.3% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate. Apart from the control issues, Garrett has been a pretty stable member of a Mets bullpen that has seemed to be in constant flux.
Megill is in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and is playing on a $1.975MM salary in 2025. Garrett is only arb-eligible for the first time this coming offseason, and as a non-closing relief pitcher, would have been in line for a pretty modest guaranteed salary in 2026. Between these low salaries and the good numbers the duo have posted in their time in Queens, the Mets will probably still tender both pitchers contracts even in the event that they undergo TJ surgeries, since the team will still have control when both are (presumably) healthy in 2027.
Poor guys.
Garrett is getting a double whammy of bad news. He’s got the nerve issue and now a UCL issue. Hopefully they both come back strong, however they end up treating their ailments.
They ran the wheels off of Garrett and now there’s a chance he doesn’t pitch again with how bad his elbow looks right now
If they didn’t overuse garrett this wouldn’t have happened and he would’ve had better stats
I don’t really buy that Garrett is overused. He’s thrown about 55-60 innings every year since he became a reliever in 2017, whether it’s in the minors, Japan, or for the Mets. He hasn’t thrown more than 29 pitches in an inning this year. Only 9 of his outings this year have been back-to-back, and he’s averaged only 13 pitches in the first games of those.
He throws hard with a lot of movement on his pitches. TJ is really common these days and I don’t really think it’s because of overuse in Garrett’s case.
As a casual fan I had thought the same given he was one of the few stable arms in the Mets pen this season, felt like he was in every game.
Helpful to see those stats rct.
Feel bad for the guy , he kind of came out of nowhere late in career to be a very good bullpen arm and now he’s losing a season of momentum to make good money.
sad tormented: I seriously doubt you have the medical knowledge and athletic training experience to say that with any credibility, whether or not you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, lol.
This sucks. I was hopping on MLBTR for an old trade deadline post, and found this bombshell instead. Wonder how much the injury affected Garrett this season. He definitely wasn’t as good as last year.
Damn That’s terrible. Hoping for a speedy recovery
Is it just me, or did it seem like Mendoza may have run Garrett into the ground due to overuse,?? Also seemed to be in there for multiple innings. I know it’s easy to call on a guy a ton, especially when they’re resilient strike throwers.
Rough timing for Megill from a financial perspective. He’ll go into arbitration this offseason knowing he’ll miss 2026, then into arbitration the next offseason having missed an entire season. Then in his walk year of 2027, he’ll be recovering from TJ and working through that. This injury will cost him a bit of money.
So if you’ve made a few million, you deserve zero sympathy? This will cost him a lot of money as he’ll be 32 by the time he’s back. Troll.
His contract this year is for $1.98 million, his largest yet.
Having a nerve removed. Anyone here know what that’s about? I’m too lazy to research it.
A nerve moved not removed
Yes, thank you. It’s so apparent how I flunked outta med school. Details.
Isn’t that TOS (nerve type, not venous)?
He getting nerve moved.
Addition by subtraction, these guys were the worst
And the biggest anti-Mets troll is in the house.
I was lead to believe this would be reported under Darragh McDonald’s daily ‘The Struggling Mets’ column.
See, you know what I’m talking about.
As a lifelong phillies’ fan AND mets’ hater, this still doesn’t sit well with me.
Injuries, while a major part of all sports, should never be smiled upon. These guys only get so long to earn their money….
Speedy recovery to these 2 gents and then get ripped by the phillies.
You sound more concerned about their rivalry then their own health makes me wonder how would you react if a Mets fan said something like that towards Wheeler and Turner getting hurt
cpdpoet: You mean like how they were ripped by the Phillies in last year’s NLDS? Some rip job. 🤣
I would release McGill and keep Reed. McGill will only have 1 year left before free agency after 1 year recovery. No guarantee he would be right in 2027 also. Mets got to stop throwing money chasing hope and get under salary line to reset penalties.Reed would have 2 years with low 2026 wasted salary.
In principal, I agree that the Mets should be looking to trim payroll. But Megill makes less than $2 million. That won’t make a dent in their threshold overage. If that is your goal, the the guy to cut is Montas. He makes $17 million, has given nothing to this org, and will be a free agent before he pitches another game.
The bigger issue is the roster spaces these pitchers will occupy in the offseason. Montas, Nunez, Megill, and Garrett all out for next season. Plus Danny Young probably out till August, if not longer. That is five spaces for players who won’t even play for you next season. That is just not tenable if you want to add Rule 5 eligible players for protection, and go after free agents.
I agree about space needed is also a reason. Mcgill is going to make about 4 million next year if they tender him a contract because he did have a decent showing for arbitration when he was healthy.
The fact that he is out for the season will put a drag on his salary. The pattern for the Mets in recent year with these situations is that they offer the player the same salary and he accepts it. Because he knows that if he does not, they can non-tender him and he’ll be screwed for the year. Plus, staying with the team gives him the on-going rehab and physical therapy that he needs to get back to the game.
Dicky Lovelady is Baaack!
“Megill has generally done well when given the opportunity…”
Bah. MLBTR bleats this nonsense unless a guy’s ERA is over 6. Megill has generally been both ineffective and infrequently healthy, and his misuse and abuse by the Mets is legendary.
He was cooking through April 27, when Mendoza decided to ‘challenge’ Megill to go deep and left him out for 105 pitches when the Mets were up 7-1, accomplishing two things:
1) Giving Megll a dead arm that left him hopelessly ineffective from that point out (a 5.79 ERA including putting 62 men on base in 37.1 IP), , until Mendoza did it again, another 105 pitch outing, on June 3 (this would be like leaving Edwin Diaz to throw 50 pitches in a game) that effectively ended his season on June 14th
2) Losing the game 8-7 when Megill began getting rocked and Butto came in, had nothing, and Mendoza left him in too long.
—Megill CANNOT ‘go deep’ in games. He has only averaged 4-2/3 innings per start for his career for a reason. He’s a MIRP who’s completely miscast as a starter, but the Mets continue to misuse him and as a result knocked out a multi-inning reliever with options, something they desperately needed but no longer had after mid-June.