The New York Mets made an announcement on Friday that surely had baseball fans in Queens screaming and running around in circles.
The team’s golden goose Jacob deGrom, the National League’s reigning Cy Young winner, was scratched from his scheduled start on Saturday against the Cardinals in St. Louis. Manager Mickey Callaway then stated his ace would placed on the 10-day disabled list and undergo an MRI on his right elbow after it was reportedly “barking” after a Friday bullpen session.
However, the Mets have apparently backed down from DEFCON 1, as deGrom threw today in the outfield at New Busch Stadium and told the media afterwards that he felt okay.
“It’s just a little sore,” he said to ESPN. deGrom has been experiencing illness and recent weeks and went on to attribute that to the discomfort in his arm, stating he decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
“I had been sick since Atlanta and kinda had a whole-body soreness. For me when I don’t throw, it seems that things pop up and I wasn’t on a normal routine. I was trying to just get enough in to be able to make my start and I felt a little soreness in my elbow. I decided to say something and talked it over with Mickey and [Mets pitching coach] Dave [Eiland].
Fans across baseball knew exactly what the Mets were getting at when the news broke. When coupled together, “T” and “J” are the two most infamous letters in the game, and it looked like the notorious operation was stalking its most high-profile victim in years.
deGrom has already undergone Tommy John surgery in once before, but that was back in 2010 when he was in the rookie class Appalachian League. Nine years later he’s the best pitcher in baseball, and it would be a horrible shame to see his meteoric momentum halted so abruptly.
It remains to be seen if deGrom will miss a prolonged period of time, or if there is actual damage to his elbow, but Mets fans can let out a sigh of relief and breathe easy, at least for the time being.
