There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Justin Verlander‘s highly-anticipated New York Mets debut — and rightfully so. This was after the former league MVP signed a massive $86.7 million, two-year deal with the Mets in the offseason. Verlander was all set to make his debut on Saturday against the Miami Marlins, but as it turns out, New York fans will have to wait.
In an unfortunate turn of events, the Mets had no other choice but to place their new star pitcher on the injured list after being diagnosed with a low-grade strain in his armpit area. Verlander has now spoken out about the injury, and the 40-year-old admits that this is not an ideal situation at all:
“It’s not the way I wanted my Mets tenure to start, that is for sure,” Verlander said, via Mike Puma of the New York Times. “I put in a ton of work to not have things like this happen. We are athletes and unfortunately when you are working at a high level of intensity, stuff like this does come along.
“I’m just very thankful it’s as minor as it is, but it still doesn’t subtract from how I feel.”
There's some silver lining for New York here, though. The injury does not seem very serious, and it isn't expected to sideline Justin Verlander for an extended period. Even the nine-time All-Star has acknowledged that he should be back in the mic sooner rather than later:
“It’s not a best-case scenario – best case is there is nothing there and you are just sore,” Verlander said. “But I would think this is probably the second-best case. Very minimal and for me personally not having it be the lat, that is what I was most concerned about.”
Verlander is looking at the bright side here. He's just glad that the injury happened now when it's still very early in the season as opposed to during the playoffs:
“Maybe we are getting it all out of the way now,” Verlander said.
Follow Us
Subscribe