New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom is in his third week of a four-week shut down after suffering a stress reaction in his right shoulder toward the latter parts of spring training and there appears to be some clarity on his return timetable on the horizon.
Manager Buck Showalter said on Sunday that deGrom underwent a CT scan on Friday and will have an MRI Monday to make sure the area looks clean to begin working his way back to the mound.
The results of the CT scan are unknown, as Showalter said that the team still hasn’t read the results yet and “there isn’t much urgency” (h/t Tim Healey, Newsday).
Should the results of deGrom’s test show that he s made the necessary progress, he can begin throwing as soon as this week.
The 33-year-old is supposed to be headlining one of the most dynamic 1-2 starting-pitching punches in Major League Baseball after the Mets acquired three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer during the offseason.
However, injury issues continue to throw a wrench in the right-hander’s Hall-of-Fame trajectory.
Last season saw deGrom’s historic 2021 season (7-2, 1.08 ERA, 146 strikeouts in 92.0 innings) was shut down prematurely in July due to an elbow issue. This latest shoulder injury turned out to be his 11th injury in the past 21 months.
The Mets have performed well despite not having their No. 1 man on the bump with Tylor Megill stepping in admirably — going 2-0 with a 2.20 ERA over his first three starts of the season entering Sunday evening’s appearance against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
New York has the No. 4 team ERA in all of baseball with a 2.83 mark through its first 16 games of the season.
Despite missing significant time this season, deGrom will still opt out of his contract following the 2022 campaign, making him a free agent. However, his comments last month indicated that it’s to work out a larger contract with owner Steve Cohen.
“For me, I don’t want it to be any distraction [during the season],” deGrom said of why he won’t negotiate. “I love being a Met. I think it’d be really cool to be one for my entire career but the plan is to exercise that option and be in constant contact with the Mets and Steve Cohen.”
