Wednesday marked the third time this year that New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom had to leave a start early due to some sort of injury related issue. This time around, the flame-throwing righty was removed for what was described as right shoulder soreness. It was just the start before against the San Diego Padres when deGrom breezed his way through six innings before having to leave with right elbow soreness.
The Mets have said the injuries aren't related, nor is the one back in May when he left a start against the Arizona Diamondbacks with right side tightness. At some point though, New York needs to take a step back and look at the grand scheme of things with their two-time Cy Young award winner. It would be best for the Mets to sit deGrom down for a couple of starts and let him rest and reload before the dog days of summer are here.
While the MRI results appear to reveal good news, it's still the best pitcher in baseball having to leave two consecutive starts prematurely because of discomfort in two different areas on the throwing side of his body.
Despite this, Mets manager Luis Rojas remains optimistic, via this piece on ESPN.com
“We had an MRI taken on him and ran it through two doctors just to have a second opinion, as well, and both doctors had the same prognosis from the imaging: It just shows as a normal shoulder a pitcher would have and there's no concern,” Luis Rojas said, adding that deGrom played catch Thursday.
That's all fine and well and thankful the MRI didn't show any structural damage, but this is too much of a recurring issue this year to not sit deGrom for at least a week. The problem, and where this gets foggy, is that because no damage was shown sitting the Mets staff leader for a week might not do any good. But one thing is for certain, it wouldn't hurt.
It's entirely possible that deGrom is just feeling a bit fatigued even though it's only June and just needs a brief break. The dude has been throwing absolute gas this year to the extent that nobody comes close to matching.
On June 5th, deGrom threw 33 pitches that touched 100 mph or more, the most ever in a game in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008). He threw 27 that went 100 mph or more back on May 31, the fifth most all-time in a game. His slider touches 93 mph. To put that in perspective, a lot of dudes would be perfectly fine with their fastball hovering around the mid 90's. His slider does that. While all sorts of theories can be tossed around as to what's caused the discomfort for deGrom in his shoulder, elbow and side, maybe it's as simple as the Mets ace throws so hard every single start that it's caught up to his body for just a bit from a fatigue standpoint.
Believe it or not, the Mets are in a spot of luxury right now. They lead their division by 4.5 games in what has been an underwhelming year to this point in the NL East. New York has capitalized on this and even their bullpen has put up solid numbers. There is some flexibility for the Mets in choosing to sit deGrom for a couple of starts if they so choose to go that route. Rojas has made it clear however, that he doesn't believe a trip to the IL would do much.
“I don't see how it would change today, doing an IL stint,” Rojas said. “It's going to be a normal shoulder in 10 days. I'm less concerned (because) he's playing catch today.” – Rojas via ESPN.
How about we don't call it an IL trip and just rest him for a week then? Everyone cool with that? Missing two starts won't be the end of the world for deGrom or the Mets. Him potentially coming out and leaving early for a third straight start would cause Mets fans to inch even closer to a panic button.
There's no easy solution to this but the obvious approach would be to turn this “day-to-day approach” into letting this historical season of deGrom's breathe a little by letting him recharge the batteries for a week. The Mets are in first place and if it wasn't back-to-back early exits for the righty, maybe New York would be more inclined to let him start his next scheduled game. They may do so anyways from the sounds of it. But this isn't some back-end of the rotation starter or a journeyman who's bounced around the league for a decade. Everyone wants to believe each case no matter who it is would be treated the same but the reality paints a different picture. The Mets need to take a cautious approach and not jeopardize the season for deGrom and the season for their team. Because even though he starts once every five days, this train moves as deGrom does for New York.
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