QUEENS — Justin Verlander feels the leash loosening around the restrictions of his recovery from a low-grade shoulder strain that has kept him on the shelf for the very start of his debut season with the New York Mets.
“I’m progressing well. I feel like I really turned a corner a couple days ago,” Verlander said prior to the Mets’ home opener on Friday against the Miami Marlins. “The kind of general soreness that I was having, it’s just really dissipating quickly. All positive signs, so I’m just waiting for that to really continue to go away to step on the gas.”
The 40-year-old right-hander added that he’s been throwing at around 75% of his normal intensity over the last week after an MRI revealed a low-grade strain of the teres major muscle of the right shoulder. Since that MRI, the inflammation in his shoulder has gone down.
“I’m really close to being able to take the leash off and start getting after it and build up,” he added.
An exact timetable for his first start with the Mets remains unclear — though Verlander himself said a return at the very end of the month would be a “worst-case scenario.”
He and manager Buck Showalter also were unable to confirm whether or not he needed another MRI before getting the green light to return.
“I think I can probably go off feel,” Verlander speculated. “We haven’t really discussed that so I don’t know if they’re going to want another one just to be 100% sure. But it seems like the MRIs are very much lining up with what I’m feeling.”
