Jacob deGrom’s two-week shutdown has become a four-week shutdown.
The Mets ace underwent a follow-up MRI exam this week that did not show as much progress in his inflamed elbow as the club had hoped, manager Luis Rojas said Friday. DeGrom will now not throw for another two weeks — putting his season in serious jeopardy.
Rojas said deGrom’s MRI showed “slight improvement,” but not enough to allow him to begin throwing again, as had initially been the hope. Whether or not he pitches again this season will largely depend on his next MRI in two weeks. Even if he is cleared then, he would still need a ramp-up period that could take him well into September.
Each case is different, but generally the amount of time a pitcher is shut down is the same time it takes him to build back up to full strength. In deGrom’s scenario, that could keep him out until around the last week of September, with the regular season ending on Oct. 3.
“He’s frustrated. He wants to pitch,” Rojas said Friday before the Mets played host to the Dodgers in the opener of a huge series at Citi Field. “He wants to help the team. There’s nothing he can do. We just have to commit to these two weeks again now and just follow the experts’ indications and the treatment so he keeps improving there. There is some improvement, but they would like to see more, probably. That’s why the two weeks.”
DeGrom, who last pitched on July 7, is not dealing with any ligament damage, according to Rojas. But the two-time Cy Young winner went to Los Angeles on Thursday to get another opinion on his elbow from Dr. Neal ElAttrache, one of the top orthopedic surgeons in sports.
“It’s strictly inflammation,” Rojas said. “That’s what it showed the first time. It’s less of that now. That’s what I’ve been told.”
Coming out of the All-Star break, the Mets pushed back deGrom’s scheduled start because of forearm tightness before placing him on the injured list on July 15. Two weeks later, he threw his second light bullpen session, but the next day was shut down for two weeks after an MRI revealed further inflammation.
While posting a 1.08 ERA through 15 starts of a dominant season, deGrom had mostly pitched through the multiple injuries that plagued him earlier this season — lat tightness, side tightness and shoulder soreness, all of which he said were all due to swinging the bat. But there has still been no indication of what led to deGrom’s current elbow inflammation.
“Right now we’re listening to our experts, our performance staff, working with Jake,” Rojas said. “Guys that have known Jake for years and guys that have been seeing Jake’s images for years, even since he had the [Tommy John] surgery with the team [in 2010]. We’re trusting that. Right now we’re staying with the next two weeks. That’s what we want to see improve. After that, we can talk about what’s going to happen.”
In the immediate future, the Mets will have to continue their playoff push without the game’s best pitcher. They already knew they were going to be without him for the daunting 13-game stretch against the Dodgers and Giants that began Friday.
But now that the hope of an early-September return is no longer realistic, the Mets’ road ahead got even more challenging as they entered Friday a half-game back of the Phillies for first place in the NL East.
“We’ve had a lot of guys go down, right? Significant guys,” Rojas said. “Jacob deGrom is the best pitcher in the game and he hasn’t pitched for us now well over a month. We miss his presence right on the field.
“After hearing this news and Jake telling everyone in the clubhouse what he heard from the doctors, I don’t think that’s going to put the guys’ heads down. These guys are going to move forward the same way they have in the past. We’re just going to get ready. We have this very important series that starts tonight against the Dodgers and I think the guys are not thinking about any other thing other than that right now.”