The New York Mets announced on Monday that their ace, Jacob deGrom, was placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive May 10, despite an MRI coming back clean on a nagging side injury.
The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner left his start on Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks while warming up to start the top of the sixth inning, complaining of discomfort near the same right-side area that forced the Mets to scratch the veteran right-hander from his previously scheduled start last week against the St. Louis Cardinals.
“It’s different. It’s the right side, but now it’s more in the lower back area rather than a little higher than he was with the tightness,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said Sunday. “No pain, just the tightness. That’s what he told our trainer. We’ll see.”
It had been 11 days since deGrom last pitched before going five innings on Sunday, allowing just one run on one hit while striking out six and uncharacteristically walking three.
The lack of command provided the first inkling of evidence that deGrom was dealing with some sort of ailment, as he described how his mechanics were somewhat impacted when initially dealing with the lat tightness that forced him to sit last week.
“I was a little bit more sore after my last start but I didn’t think too much of it,” he said last week. “I noticed my mechanics were off, looked at some of the video, got some of the numbers, and my arm was down a little bit.”
With the Mets on a season-high five-game win streak and upcoming series against two of the bottom teams in the AL East, the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays, it’s as ideal a time as ever to give deGrom the rest to ensure he’s good to go for a six-game NL East road trip against the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins.
deGrom leads Major League Baseball with a 0.68 ERA, 567 ERA+, 0.600 WHIP, 1.03 FIP, 14.6 strikeouts per nine innings, and 3.8 hits per nine innings. He’s just the second pitcher in MLB history since 1893 to with at least 60 strikeouts (65) with a sub-1.00 ERA through his first six starts of the season.
